Nadal's fitness... best on tour?

F

firstblud

Professional
I'm pretty sure his level of fitness and endurance is the best on tour after seeing how he broke Monfils down tonight. Midway through the 2nd set, Monfils just got tired and his footwork went down the hole.

i don't even see roger being able to compete with nadal if it gets to a 5th set if it comes to that in the finals...

on second thought, maybe roger would be able to hang because the points would generally be shorter. Monfils thought he could hang consistently in a long rally... bad move.
 
I agree he is the fittest player on tour. Regarding Roger though I dont think he has ever had a problem with fitness in his matches vs Nadal. He is also one of the fittest players on tour and generally does less running than Nadal in their matches anyway. He wasnt tired at all in the 5th set of their Rome, 2 Wimbledon finals, Australian Open final, and Miami final a long way back. The person who played better and was mentally tougher usually won each time.

Monfils of course plays like a retriever just as much as Nadal so it essentialy becomes an endurance test which he was never going to win. He also is far from one of the fittest players on tour like Nadal or Federer, despite being one of the best athletes. He isnt one of the hardest workers on tour off the court so it wouldnt make sense for him to be one of the fittest.
 
When Nadal loses he is always tired and injured and a delicate flower.El martir like I call him :mrgreen:
 
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dude, you are underestimating Fed. I have never seen him lose because he was tired....never. Not a Fed lover here, but his fitness for his game is the best there is. It won him 2 slams this year. I have got to take my hat off to him. His fitness did not cost him the Australian. Nadal did. The guy has fitness dialed in to a T for how he plays and what he needs to do to win 5 set matches. Unbelievable.

Nadal goes without saying. that is a big reason why they are now 1 and 2.
 
All I can say after watching the match tonight is that Nadal is back.........and it will be a fun Final to watch if it will be Fed-Nadal again.......it should be another classic....
 
I agree Hewitt is incredibly fit but is he as fit as 2005. I know you like Hewitt but lets face it, he is below what he would have been even as recently as 2005 in every respect. No shame in that, it is the natural with the aging process especialy when you have a few injuries as well.
 
Gugafan said:
Federer plays a less physically taxing game compared to players like Nadal and Hewitt. They have to rely on their legs alot more to win points.
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Agreed. Federer wins a lot of cheap points on his serve. If these guys have better serves...WOW:shock:
 
Gugafan said:
Federer plays a less physically taxing game compared to players like Nadal and Hewitt. They have to rely on their legs alot more to win points.
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Federer relies on his serve more NOW.His serve wasnt as great a weapon as it is today till 2006 and he needed to use his legs a lot too.Unlike Nadal though,his movement has always been fluid,he has more options and dosent play a safe game.
 
Fedace said:
NOt as good as Luke Jensen's Orangewomen's tennis team.
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hahahahahahahhahaaha i was loving every minute of luke talk about making them run five miles every day! he gets way to excited over things its funny and annoying. the other dude doesnt know when to shut up. hes fine in between points but shut up during points.
 
Fed is the fittest player I've seen.
Fed plays 5 setters but I have never seen him tired or winded.

There were years when Fed had a pretty full schedule, there was no complaints about playing "too much" tennis and not being 100% like you here from some other players.

So it's Fed for me.
 
Monfils will always get winded playing like that. Standing well behind the baseline running side to side for 2 hours. He only pulls the trigger when desperate. He doesn't have a medium rally shot to keep himself inside the baseline. He just runs and looks for a winner out of nowhere. At least Nadal is trying to dictate rallies.
 
So, in just a few days Nadal turned from a badly injured player to the best fit player on tour? How that can happen? Is he the next Chuck Norris?
Drakulie was right that something is fishy about Nadal's injury.
 
Gugafan said:
It's tough to say, but the five set matches he has played this year, still show he has alot left in the tank. In the Wimbledon QF against Roddick he looked very strong over 5 sets, having already comeback from 2 sets to love down against Stephanek in the previous round. There are very few players that have comeback strongly, after hip surgery (Kuerten, Norman etc). Hewitt movement has looked sharp at the Wimbledon and US. I think it would be a great achievement getting back inside the top 20 after undergoing a major operation at his age.
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All good points. His fitness is getting back up there and his form overall is good. Hewitt did give Federer a good match here. Even though he was playing well lately I never expected as tough a 4 setter (I know we kind of argued about that before the match). At Wimbledon he was amazing. Unlucky to be injured vs Roddick in a 5 setter he nearly won and then Roddick nearly won the title. It will be interesting to see what he can do this fall and next year if he stays healthy without these little injuries keep popping back up. Also if the draw gods start being a bit kinder to him. They often havent been kind to him since his ranking dropped.
 
firstblud said:
I'm pretty sure his level of fitness and endurance is the best on tour after seeing how he broke Monfils down tonight. Midway through the 2nd set, Monfils just got tired and his footwork went down the hole.

i don't even see roger being able to compete with nadal if it gets to a 5th set if it comes to that in the finals...

on second thought, maybe roger would be able to hang because the points would generally be shorter. Monfils thought he could hang consistently in a long rally... bad move.
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I agree.

If this healthy and seemingly unemcumbered Rafa continues showing up for his next couple matches, I can see him playing for the title.
 
Well Rafa is a very fit player in the sense that he is naturally resistant to long matches but his playing style has made him injury prone. But when he has no major health problems the guy is a beast.

Also I don't think it is fair to compare his fitness today with that of Monfils's. Nadal has been nursing his knees and he took a 2 month break. Meanwhile Monfils was playing,even having problems in WB.

To people saying that his running around is proof that he wasn't injured,all I can say is that you are haters,nothing more,nothing less. His knees are ok because he is lunging after balls once more but his game level is up and down. Wanna know why? Because he rested his knees for 2 MONTHS!!! While other guys were playing,Nadal was resting,at where Queens and Wimbledon are concerned. So it's only natural that Rafa looks fresher now. Believe what you will but seriously,if it was up to you guys Nadal should be clutching his knee on every single point just to prove that he still has problems when in fact his knee is much,much better. Rest will do that to you.
 
I think Fed is even fitter than Nadal... but I'm not actually sure. I'd like to see Nadal having to play 2 or 3 five setters in a GS and then another 1 or 2 4 setters before the finals. Then we'll see how fit he really is.
 
Doesn't fitness also include staying injury-free?

Otherwise, I think I've never seen either Federer OR Nadal getting torn apart because they were tired. I think as far as we can see there's no difference between them. Rafa might be fitter, but not at a level that matters.They're both so fit they'll never have to bother about their fitness in the match and will always be fitter than most of their opponents
 
firstblud said:
I'm pretty sure his level of fitness and endurance is the best on tour after seeing how he broke Monfils down tonight. Midway through the 2nd set, Monfils just got tired and his footwork went down the hole.

i don't even see roger being able to compete with nadal if it gets to a 5th set if it comes to that in the finals...

on second thought, maybe roger would be able to hang because the points would generally be shorter. Monfils thought he could hang consistently in a long rally... bad move.
Click to expand...

Roger proved at the FO 09 and Wimbly 09 he's the fittest player on tour. That's hardly his problem against Nadal.
 
firstblud said:
I'm pretty sure his level of fitness and endurance is the best on tour after seeing how he broke Monfils down tonight. Midway through the 2nd set, Monfils just got tired and his footwork went down the hole.

i don't even see roger being able to compete with nadal if it gets to a 5th set if it comes to that in the finals...

on second thought, maybe roger would be able to hang because the points would generally be shorter. Monfils thought he could hang consistently in a long rally... bad move.
Click to expand...

Did you NOT see the Australian Open this year? I think that alone should answer any questions or doubts about Nadal's fitness.
 
Morrissey said:
Did you NOT see the Australian Open this year? I think that alone should answer any questions or doubts about Nadal's fitness.
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There is no doubt about Nadal's fitness I think. Only doubts casted by Nadal himself atm. He's as fit as anybody out there. Whether he is fitter than the fittest guys on tour I wouldn't know. He's up there.
 
I think Federer is slightly ahead. He has never had a major injury. Even when he had his back problems, he could play at a high level. You can't do that without great fitness and training. But Nadal is definitely faster. Federer's great footwork and precise shotmaking allows him to keep up with the faster players.
 
I say Federer is the fittest, especially when you factor in resistance to injury. I think he can play his style of game without tiring longer than anyone else on tour.
 
Gugafan said:
You guys are forgetting Hewitt. He trains in the most intense humdity in Adelaide and is an absolute beast over 5 sets. Check out his run at the AO in 05, where he won 3 consecutive 5 set matches to the make the final.
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Well...Roger trains in Dubai where an average day is by far a LOT worse than Adelaide is on it's hottest days of the year (discounting extremes).
Where everyone else trains is pretty much a cake-walk compared to what Roger trains in, although, I do understand that they train mostly at the end of the calendar year. Still pretty nasty weather.
 
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