Question to Rafa fans: Which is Nadal's most heartbreaking loss?

Which is Nadal's most heartbreaking loss?

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    92
I hear he never got over losing to #73 ranked Zeballos in the final of 2013 Vina del Mar, a claycourt event!!! :(
 
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Mustard said:
I too was on record after the 2015 French Open as saying that I didn't think Nadal would win another major. I dared to hope slightly during the 2016 clay season, only for it to end in disappointment. Indeed, during the 2017 Australian Open final between Nadal vs. Federer, the feeling amongst almost everyone at the time was like a last great big match between them, as they never expected such a final to be possible again. 2016 had been nearly all Djokovic and Murray, and then 2017 was nearly all Nadal and Federer. When Federer won the 2017 Australian Open final, so many called him "GOAT", as if the match decided it, but then they won all the 2017 majors between them.
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I felt Federer not gettig Ye1 in 2017 hurt him as he never seemed as good again. I think he thought after w2017 he had seen Nadal off as GOAt threat but the Uso win in 2017 of Nadal i feel made Federer think Nadal would catch him at some point due to age gap.
This year i thought was going to be a disaster. Had Djokovic won either Tokyo or NY he would have been ahead of Rafa and Roger, the CYGS wpuld have ended all debate and i thought after RG that it was nailed on Djokovic was going to get the Golden CYGS. To end 2021 with Nadal still joint leader of slam race and the only one of them with Singles Gold and probably now favourite to win the slam race is just unreal. Cannot overestimate how big a deal it is for Nadal as ill bet his trainig regime will be intense now he knows winnig slam race is in his hands. Makes for a relaxing close of season now.
 
Mustard said:
Yeah, that was a bit of a sickener. Was never really the same afterwards, despite winning the 2014 French Open. When Nadal did get back to form in 2017, he played with a bit of a different style to years earlier, more aggressive and less grinding. Since then, Nadal has stopped "owning" Federer, and no longer beats his biggest rivals on the biggest stages with the regularity that he did up to 2014.
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I wasn’t at all surprised with the outcome to be honest. Remember watching the match against Federer and thinking that he was walking with a wide based gait and kyphotic posture between some of the points. It seemed obvious that he was having or would have back problems. His slide really started after the U.S. Open in 2013, not in 2014. Basically his 2013 resurgence took the last of his prime legs. Later, he was never able to play the physical grinding high speed style that troubled Federer and Djokovic off of clay
 
The AO 2014 because he just couldn't compete; he was hampered from the start. He was poised to be the first player to win all slams twice and he had bad luck with injury in 2010 and 2011. Lost by the smallest margin in 2012 and didn't play in 2013. Since then he's had nothing but bad luck at the AO.
 
The Blond Blur said:
For me personally it has to be the 2012 AO F. He missed an absolute sitter of a BH. Had he made that BH he goes on to win that match against Peakovic at his pet schlem.

As for RAFA himself, he’s said for a while now that the 2014 AO F was the one match that hurt the most and he’d like a do over.
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I agree with Rafa about 2014 AO F because I thought it was such a gimme back then, although Stan would have been a tough nut even in top condition

2012 AO F I was happy to see him almost beat Djokovic in his turf after 2011, I had no high expectations. Similar thing with 2007 wimby.

2009 RG was the tail end of his sweetest run so it was easier to take

As for the postprime ones, 2017 and 2018 are much more painful than 2021 imo

2014 > 2018 > 2017 > 2009 > 2021 > 2012 > 2007 to me
 
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welcome2petrkordaland said:
Nadal chokes BH Pass at 4-2 30-15
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So what happens for the rest of the set afterwards? 30-30 instead of 40-15? Wasn't even a break point. To this day i still don't understand everyone harping on about Nadal's backhand pass & if he had made that shot it would have crowned him as AO champ.

Those 'simple' mistakes happen when it's a really tough match. What was the match time going into that backhand pass? 5+ hours? Isolating such points & comparing a backhand pass d.t.l in that moment & comparing it to any other backhand pass d.t.l in ANY SITUATION is a really silly way to look @ things. Physical & mental fatigue most likely the cause here. Or simply put HE JUST MISSED.

As for Djoker fading away, yeah i don't think 1 point in isolation is going to make Djoker crumble mentally. from that point on (2-4 down) he ended up taking the set (& the AO Crown) 7-5. So a 5-games-to-1 disparity which i doubt any 1 point in isolation would have reversed such a 1-sided ending to the match. But i suppose it's each to his own here ...
 
Mrtony, not sure if you saw match, but it was blatantly obvious for those who did that Djokovic was mentally about to call it quits. That Rafa bh choke, while it clearly wasn’t game pt., visibly changed the momentum of the match. To Djokovic’s credit 10%, he managed to get it back together and go on to break back and ultimately pull out the set and the title. Brilliant late change in momentum in one of the All Time Great major finals in history!

This bh pass miss by Rafa was absolutely not some run-of-the-mill passing shot during the match. This was clear and convincing. And no, Rafa was not remotely injured. He just lost, mind you, after a herculean effort to turn the tide despite being down and out, only to get overtaken by an ATG.
 
welcome2petrkordaland said:
Mrtony, not sure if you saw match, but it was blatantly obvious for those who did that Djokovic was mentally about to call it quits. That Rafa bh choke, while it clearly wasn’t game pt., visibly changed the momentum of the match. To Djokovic’s credit 10%, he managed to get it back together and go on to break back and ultimately pull out the set and the title. Brilliant late change in momentum in one of the All Time Great major finals in history!

This bh pass miss by Rafa was absolutely not some run-of-the-mill passing shot during the match. This was clear and convincing. And no, Rafa was not remotely injured. He just lost, mind you, after a herculean effort to turn the tide despite being down and out, only to get overtaken by an ATG.
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I still don't buy it. Rafa missed, so he missed.

& yes, i watched the whole match. Finished @ around 10:30pm local time @ my friends apartment. I kept them up :p

Fed missing out on an ace on either CC up 40-15, Championship Points. I could get behind that. But still you need to convert that last point, if you can't well you aren't good enough. This coming from a Freddy fan.

1 point will never win or end a set for you. & let's say it's true & it does (for some illogical reason) then again it's Rafa's fault for making one miss make him lose that final set. Either way you look @ it. Rafa wasn't good enough no matter which end of this stick you find yourself on.

welcome2petrkordaland said:
This was clear and convincing
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After 5+ hours of top level ATG slam final grade tennis against an ATG rival in the middle of a 5th set shoot-out ...

Nothing is "clear & convincing"

welcome2petrkordaland said:
To Djokovic’s credit 10%, he managed to get it back together and go on to break back and ultimately pull out the set and the title
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Djoker get's 10% credit for breaking Rafa's serve twice & holding his serve 3 times to go 5-1 games won after that BH dtl pass attempt by Rafa?? Whoa!! Don't give Djoker too much credit for any of that ...

Sheesh :S

p.s @ which point does a specific point not matter as much? If we change that bh d.t.l miss in terms of the scoreline & say it happened @ ...

1-1 40-0 would it matter?

5-4 serving for the match up 40-0 would it matter?

4-5 break point up @ 30-40 would it matter?

Why @ 4-2? & what about all those other points like the two break points?

This saying of 1 point costing a player a match is one of those things that sounds cool & that can never be proven.

Fed making that cross-court pass winner @ 7-7 in the 5th. Had he missed that & Djoker went on to win 9-7 would you have said "If Fed had only made that pass he would have served out for the Championship" Well he made that pass & he still lost, i suppose the momentum of him breaking or lack thereof made him get broken right back. I could go on & on with other examples but i have made my point quite clear ...

On the flipside it's funny to see even the athletes themselves believe this type of nonsense. Much like Djoker in '06 after losing to Rafa @ The French citing that the match was on his racquet. He said something along the lines of "Nobody is unbeatable, the match was on my raquet & my back was a little sore so my serving wasn't good" Yeah sure thing buddy ...
 
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Mainad said:
I hear he never got over losing to #73 ranked Zeballos in the final of 2013 Vina del Mar, a claycourt event!!! :(
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Hardly. That was his very first event after being out for 7 months with injury in 2012. He did very well to even make the final because he was so rusty. After that he won Sao Paulo then won Acapulco without dropping a set, even bagling Ferrer in the final.
 
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clayqueen said:
Hardly. That was his very first event after being out for 7 months with injury in 2012. He did very well to even make the final because he was so rusty. After that he Sao Paulo then won Acapulco without dropping a set, even bagling Ferrer in the final.
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Nadal was lethal that day.
 
clayqueen said:
Hardly. That was his very first event after being out for 7 months with injury in 2012. He did very well to even make the final because he was so rusty. After that he won Sao Paulo then won Acapulco without dropping a set, even bagling Ferrer in the final.
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For someone who talks about sense of humor, this joke by @Mainad clearly went over your head. :rolleyes:;)

I guess auto-pilot defend Rafa, just kicks in, right? :)8-B
 
SonnyT said:
Was Nadal injured when he jumped on Djokovic for a 5-0 lead at '21 RG? Absolutely not!

Djokovic exhausted him. Nadal's team admitted he wasn't injured, right after the match?????????????????????.
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Not true. Or is your comment a joke?


Nadal had a foot injury in Roland-Garros semi-final against Djokovic, reveals Forget

Tournament director Guy Forget said on Sunday that Nadal had “a little pain in his foot” during his semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic on Friday

www.tennismajors.com

Nadal had a foot injury in Roland-Garros semi-final against Djokovic, reveals Forget

Tournament director Guy Forget said on Sunday that Nadal had “a little pain in his foot” during his semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic
www.tennismajors.com www.tennismajors.com
 
Great list. I really can't split AO2012, WI2018 and RG2021. At the moment RG2021 feels the worst but I'm sure there is some recency bias there.

At the time, RG2009 felt devastating because it was a mixture of intersecting events for Rafa (his parents' divorce etc etc) and also there was the fear that his dominance at RG might not continue.

Thankfully he ended up getting revenge against Soderling the following year and his dominance at RG continued almost unabated. So in the fullness of time I now think of Soderling's 2009 RG performance as a spectacular "lightning in a bottle" moment rather than the gloomy harbinger of things to come that I considered it at the time.
 
clayqueen said:
Yes, really. Please.
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Your entire reply to him was the whole point of the joke, he already knew all of that.

It's like me saying that the most heartbreaking loss of Djokovic was Vienna 2020, when I know Djokovic only went there to pick up a few points which he did, that gave him the record 6th year ending number one. In other words, these loses are not instrumental loses that potentially changed the trajectory of their career accomplishments in any significant way.
 
Hitman said:
Your entire reply to him was the whole point of the joke, he already knew all of that.

It's like me saying that the most heartbreaking loss of Djokovic was Vienna 2020, when I know Djokovic only went there to pick up a few points which he did, ...... What?????? that gave him the record 6th year ending number one. In other words, these loses are not instrumental loses that potentially changed the trajectory of their career accomplishments in any significant way.
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Of all the excuses I've heard from Nolefans, this one takes the cake.
 
The most devastating loss for Nadal was '12 AO. The 2nd most was '17 AO to Federer. Because up to that point, Nadal dominated Federer, and had never lost to him at a Slam outside of Wimbledon. And it'd have given him a double GS.

The 2 most devastating losses for Djokovic, interestingly both occurred at RG semis: '14 to Nadal, and '11 to Federer.
 
MeatTornado said:
Very frustrating but not one I look back on with much frustration. I wasn't shocked with the loss at the time since he struggled so much with Monfils in that late night marathon the round before. Fed coming out flat after that seemed about right. Also Cilic was simply zoning. Would've taken Roger's best performance to win that and obviously he wasn't even close to that.
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Off-topic, but that epic night match against Federer was a late career sliding doors moment for Monfils. Maybe his best ever chance to win a major.

If he had figured out a way to get past Federer, he would have played Cilic, who he has a 4-0 record against.

From there he had a shot against Nishikori in the final. Nishikori was goating but Monfils would have liked his chances. Quite funny to look at their head to head since that 2014 US Open. GOATkori has won all of their matches but every single time they have played (with the exception of one retirement) the match has been decided with a deciding set tie-breaker! Its a very interesting matchup.
 
Hitman said:
Your entire reply to him was the whole point of the joke, he already knew all of that.

It's like me saying that the most heartbreaking loss of Djokovic was Vienna 2020, when I know Djokovic only went there to pick up a few points which he did, that gave him the record 6th year ending number one. In other words, these loses are not instrumental loses that potentially changed the trajectory of their career accomplishments in any significant way.
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Why did Mainard end with a sad emoticon? Don't speak for him let him speak for himself.
 
Although i am not Nadal fan i definitely think it is one of 2012 or 2017 AO finals.2007 WB final was like 1980 Mcenroe he loose to return back stronger and win the next year.You could even say it was blessing in disguise.I also don t think this year RG loss so painfull because he had won the tournaments 13 times already and it wasn t in final.On the other hand 2012 and 2017 were crucial and the things could ve been very different if he had won one of this two.
 
  • Loss to Federer Wimbledon F 2007
It was sad, for sure. Still a massive step forward from the year before, and I have a hard time thinking of any loss when one is so young as heartbreaking. That feeling only grows with the gift of hindsight.
  • Loss to Söderling RG R4 2009
Shocker, yes. I don't know that heartbreaking is the way to describe it.
  • Loss to Djokovic AO F 2012
After all of the beatings he had taken from him over the past year, while it was certainly frustrating that he lost the fifth from the position he was in, to me it was just sort of encouraging that he got that close.
  • Loss to Wawrinka AO F 2014
This one hurt a LOT, and it would be the closest runner up on the list, but again... Not heartbreaking because he was never really in the match. One to be filed under... The Comic Tragedy Of The Universe Laughing In The Face Of Your Hope.
  • Loss to Federer AO F 2017
Nah. This is similar to the 2012 final here. After the previous two years he had it was just great to see him back on the stage.
  • Loss to Djokovic Wimbledon F 2018
Yes. This is it. Imagine having seen the view from the top of Everest, and then having to spend years afterwards barely able to make it out of base camp, and then just when you are closing in on the summit after so long away, when you can see it, smell it, taste it right there... Some dude trip you up, and pushes you back down the mountain.
  • Loss to Djokovic RG SF 2021
To find this heartbreaking would be the height of greed:-D


Others I might add to the list... I think his 2018 losses in Australia and New York were pretty sad, the former because of how well he'd done the year before, and the latter because of all the epics he'd gone through there, and even previously at Wimbledon.

The 2016 US Open was a really sad one too where he fought so hard, was up against an opponent who was not in the zone (neither of these things apply to the 2015 loss, for example), and just couldn't get it done. Really thought it was over then.

Could throw the 2005 Miami match on there, but again... His youth, and the fact that he did so well even to be in that position override all frustrations at letting the lead slip.
 
this thread starts to feel like a candy shop... :giggle:

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