Rafael Nadal: "I want to be 100 percent by Monte Carlo through Roland Garros."

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What's chilling about what he said? He said the same thing at the end of 2011 about 2012.

Besides, we all know Nadal is a dirtballer who only wins on clay(maybe not even there anymore)so if he does only play on clay from now on it should surprise no one.
 
Clarky21 said:
What's chilling about what he said? He said the same thing at the end of 2011 about 2012.

Besides, we all know Nadal is a dirtballer who only wins on clay(maybe not even there anymore)so if he does only play on clay from now on it should surprise no one.
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If it helps protect his knees, the more power to him.
 
It's incredible just how much defense Nadal was playing in those matches in Rome and Roland Garros against Djokovic. Nadal was basically on a string for much of those points, running his butt off from side to side just trying to spin the ball in the court while Djokovic was hammering it. It's obvious why Nadal loves clay so much. :lol: He can slide to the balls and defend. Much harder to pull that off on hardcourts which is why he complains so much about the damage being done to his knees.
 
I really hope Djokovic 2.0 shows up in clay season so we can see the epic RG final. Djokovic was well below his best during clay season this year.
 
Mike Sams said:
I really hope Djokovic 2.0 shows up in clay season so we can see the epic RG final. Djokovic was well below his best during clay season this year.
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Djokovic won't just be preventing Nadal from having another Roland Garros title, he will be preventing Nadal from staying in the top ten.
 
Mike Shamalamadingdong fails to realize that Nadal was FAR below his best all of last year when Cvac was beating up on him everywhere. Otherwise, Cvac does not beat Nadal in the Wimby final, and struggles a whole lot more than he did in both of those clay finals to beat him as well.
 
Sabratha said:
"I want to be 100 percent by Monte Carlo through Roland Garros."

Looks like Nadal is a clay man from now on.
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That is not what it means at all. He has been saying that his whole career. Clay has always come first for him but it does not mean he only wants to win clay tournaments.
 
Clarky21 said:
Mike Shamalamadingdong fails to realize that Nadal was FAR below his best all of last year when Cvac was beating up on him everywhere. Otherwise, Cvac does not beat Nadal in the Wimby final, and struggles a whole lot more than he did in both of those clay finals to beat him as well.
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Even more unlikely that he beats him in those clay matches I think.

About the OT, Nadal said the same thing last year. It is where he has always looked to peak, it would seem. He's simply saying that he doesn't put pressure on himself on results now especially since he will be just coming back, implying with this he does put pressure on himself for the clay season.
 
Clarky21 said:
Mike Shamalamadingdong fails to realize that Nadal was FAR below his best all of last year when Cvac was beating up on him everywhere. Otherwise, Cvac does not beat Nadal in the Wimby final, and struggles a whole lot more than he did in both of those clay finals to beat him as well.
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Shut up. Nadal was at his very best. He had ZERO answers for Djokovic 2.0. Just like the rest of the tour. The Djokovic of the Wimbledon final was the best grass court match Djokovic has EVER played. Maybe Djokovic was lucky that he saved his best for last but he was a demon in that final. He was retrieving shots which he basically had no business returning. Almost like he won points by accident. You could see Nadal was extremely frustrated with Djokovic's form because it was so ridiculous. Simply put, Nadal had no answers for Djokovic 2.0.
Only when Djokovic's form decreased did Nadal finally manage to get a few wins..on clay of all places.
 
It's funny how Clarky thinks Nadal's normal level is superhuman which Djokovic can't touch. :lol: Stupid *******s are so delusional. Did you ever see some of those matches where Nadal's getting crushed by the likes of Nalbandian, Davydenko, Federer, Del Potro, etc on hardcourts? Nadal doesn't scare the pants off anybody off clay.
 
MichaelNadal said:
I think so too. He genuinely seems to be content with only the clay sweep.
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Reality has finally hit him just like it did to Federer. Nobody is going to beat 2 of the top 3 guys back to back in a hardcourt Slam. Nadal's grass game isn't what it was back in 2008 when he still had a dream to chase. Now he's trying to hold onto his clay crown. If the organizers decide to speed up the court and lower the bounce at RG in 2013, Nadal might have some big problems. Nobody can deny that Nadal was getting thrashed when he couldn't get the high bounce to Djokovic's backhand at RG. High bouncing conditions suit him a lot better.
 
He could just as easily said MC to Wimbledon as its only three more weeks, so he's either not confident of Wimbledon or not revealing his intent.
 
Bartelby said:
He could just as easily said MC to Wimbledon as its only three more weeks, so he's either not confident of Wimbledon or not revealing his intent.
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you can't make guarantees at wimbledon. Too risky considering the potential for early upsets as Nadal was a witness to in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012.
 
Sabratha said:
Yes, because Nadal will get enough points at all the other tournaments. :roll:
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Just wait and see what happens. Every week you make statements which contradict the statements you made the previous week. You are all over the place. Let's just see what happens at the AO and see if Nadal ends up playing and if he does, let's see how far he makes it there. Then, after that let's see how he does in the clay season and at Wimbledon.
 
cc0509 said:
Just wait and see what happens. Every week you make statements which contradict the statements you made the previous week. You are all over the place. Let's just see what happens at the AO and see if Nadal ends up playing and if he does, let's see how far he makes it there. Then, after that let's see how he does in the clay season and at Wimbledon.
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I take back my statement regarding Nadal being in "good form" due to practice. It seems he's put it off too late to get into good form for the Australian Open and may lose early if he even plays, but like you said, we have to wait and see what happens.
 
I really hope Nadal does focus on something other than just the clay season - even if it's just the extra few weeks of the grass season including Wimbledon.

He should realise that he could rack up 10 FOs but many will not place him ahead of Sampras and Borg if his record is so skewed towards clay...
 
Phoenix1983 said:
I really hope Nadal does focus on something other than just the clay season - even if it's just the extra few weeks of the grass season including Wimbledon.

He should realise that he could rack up 10 FOs but many will not place him ahead of Sampras and Borg if his record is so skewed towards clay...
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He will probably concentrate on the slams. If he is back to form he can still win the US Open. Anyway he probably doesn't care if the fan on TT don't rank him ahead of Sampras because of his skewed achievments...
 
You can bet your money on Nadal being out again soon after this come back, injuries come much faster later in a tennis player's career, especially with a style like Nadal has.
 
Flash O'Groove said:
He will probably concentrate on the slams. If he is back to form he can still win the US Open. Anyway he probably doesn't care if the fan on TT don't rank him ahead of Sampras because of his skewed achievments...
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I'm not talking about random fans on here but his accepted place in tennis history in the real world.
 
Crisstti said:
Rafa has the career slam. So his achievements aren't more skewed than Sampras'.
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Well that depends how you look at it.

Say Rafa got to 14 slams - same as Sampras - by winning another 3 FOs and nothing else.

Then we would have,

Rafa: 14 (10 FO, 2 W, 1 AO, 1 US)
Sampras: 14 (7 W, 5 US, 2 AO)

That would be more than 70% of Rafa's total at a single venue. Yes Rafa would have won all the slams at least once but he would only have dominated on one surface - whereas Sampras won 7 slams on two different surfaces.

For me it certainly wouldn't be cut and dry that Rafa would be greater in such a scenario.
 
Then he needs to win 15 ;)

Really, I think we also should consider that Nadal has another final on each hc slam. Sampras didn't even make a final in RG.

I don't think we should conclude anyway from what Rafa has said that he's just going to play the clay season nor anything, not even f he skips the AO next year.

It does seem somewhat worrying though that he clearly isn't quite fine yet, after such a long time...
 
I don't blame him really that goal is realistic but also has added value for building confidence.

MC would be 9 years in a row putting him in the position of 2014 winning one tournament for a straight decade (that is a huge stat)

and of course a #8 FO would be awesome because NO one has dominated one slam beyond 7 wins and of course moving is overall slam count.

but what I think really is happening is he is saying he want to be good for the clay season (expected)...so far no mention of wimbledon....which deep down you know he's going to want to come back and blast some people off the court and lift that trophy again.

I really think that's is inner most wish goal right now no matter if he states it or not.

after that I see him doing just enough to get a few points in the hard court season but not pushing near as hard as he use too.
 
Clarky21 said:
Mike Shamalamadingdong fails to realize that Nadal was FAR below his best all of last year when Cvac was beating up on him everywhere. Otherwise, Cvac does not beat Nadal in the Wimby final, and struggles a whole lot more than he did in both of those clay finals to beat him as well.
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Crisstti said:
Even more unlikely that he beats him in those clay matches I think.
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this made me think about this post from another thread:
merlinpinpin said:
Of course, but you'll never get them to agree to that. As far as they're concerned, Nadal's career statistics are 583 wins/122 losses due to injury. They can't conceive he can lose a match unless he's at death door and playing on half a knee only.

The Söderling and Rosol matches were very similar in that respect: both times, he was blown off the court without showing any sign of injury and while fighting to the very end, and both times, a couple of weeks later, he mysteriously "acquired" a retroactive knee injury explaining the loss.

Of course, there is at least one other posible explanation (which also takes the timing and circumstances of these losses into account), but I'm not sure the VB will want to go there, so I guess the "always injured warrior fighting through endless waves of blinding pain to win his matches" is a safer place for them.
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oh and by the way, sampras >>>>> the nadal
 
Nadal certainly want to win Wimbledon again. But he is also a man who address one thing at a time. He is unsure of is ability to play well right now, so he set the clay season as his goal to return to his level of play. He knows that if he doesn't, their is no sense to talk about winning Wimbledon. He needs to be at his best at the end of the clay season to have his chance at Wimby. If he do sweep the clay season, he will try hard at Wimby too.

PS: Do I make any sense in english?
 
Crisstti said:
Then he needs to win 15 ;)

Really, I think we also should consider that Nadal has another final on each hc slam. Sampras didn't even make a final in RG.

I don't think we should conclude anyway from what Rafa has said that he's just going to play the clay season nor anything, not even f he skips the AO next year.

It does seem somewhat worrying though that he clearly isn't quite fine yet, after such a long time...
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I think he will win at least 2 non clay slams,although it's still a long shot but I won't count Rafa out.There's something which I learnt watching Rafa is that NEVER count him out.Plus he is only 26 years old which is pretty young IMO,no matter how many times you have been injured previously you still have a chance to recuperate and come back.

This is what I think rest time will tell.:)
 
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I don't mind if Nadal focuses on clay + grass + the 2 HC majors and he skips all the HC masters. But ONLY clay? Really does he need to prove anything more on that surface. Right now another MC does nothing to his resume IMO.

It would make sense for Nadal to use his clay season as a confidence builder to then focus on the Wimby. If Nadal can bag another Wimby plus make a couple of finals at Wimby/AO/USO, it would add much more to his brand value (which he can cash in on later) than him winning another 3 FOs.
 
Yeah he has done enough on clay. The thing he needs most is another 2010 USO run for him to regain his confidence on hardcourts. Of course, it's a tall order for him.
 
I don't understand why he puts so much emphasis on clay, yeah he loves the surface and says it's better for his knees... He's got nothing left to prove on clay, much more on hard/fast court. I also don't like the fact that he always asks for more clay court tournaments because of his injuries. Guess he's not smart enough to realize that what is killing his knees is his grinding/defensive play style more than anything else.
 
I don't think Rafa is saying he's only going to play on clay from now on. For that matter, he's been asked and said he won't.

Flash O'Groove said:
Nadal certainly want to win Wimbledon again. But he is also a man who address one thing at a time. He is unsure of is ability to play well right now, so he set the clay season as his goal to return to his level of play. He knows that if he doesn't, their is no sense to talk about winning Wimbledon. He needs to be at his best at the end of the clay season to have his chance at Wimby. If he do sweep the clay season, he will try hard at Wimby too.

PS: Do I make any sense in english?
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You make perfect sense, and very good points.

Roddick85 said:
I don't understand why he puts so much emphasis on clay, yeah he loves the surface and says it's better for his knees... He's got nothing left to prove on clay, much more on hard/fast court. I also don't like the fact that he always asks for more clay court tournaments because of his injuries. Guess he's not smart enough to realize that what is killing his knees is his grinding/defensive play style more than anything else.
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He could win another RG, and that would arguably mean more than winning any of the other slams, and he's more likely to manage that.

You just dismiss that clay is better for his knees... :confused:

It isn't simply his style of play. His tendinitis problems are related also to his foot problem.
 
lol, so pete can win most of his titles at wimbledon and US open....but Nadal is not greater then him if he wins ALL 4, but has 10 french opens?? laughable!! still love pete but nadal has had better results on more surfaces then pete....thats a fact
 
cmb said:
lol, so pete can win most of his titles at wimbledon and US open....but Nadal is not greater then him if he wins ALL 4, but has 10 french opens?? laughable!! still love pete but nadal has had better results on more surfaces then pete....thats a fact
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You can't win 10/14 at a single slam and be said to be definitively greater than a guy who was a multiple champion at 3 of the 4 slams, dominating three surfaces in hard, grass and indoor carpet (not to mention, has also won 5 YECs to the first guy's 0, and held the No 1 ranking for much longer, and won more tournaments).

So no, I will not consider Nadal greater than Sampras if he reaches 14 and it includes 10 FOs.
 
Phoenix1983 said:
You can't win 10/14 at a single slam and be said to be definitively greater than a guy who was a multiple champion at 3 of the 4 slams, dominating three surfaces in hard, grass and indoor carpet (not to mention, has also won 5 YECs to the first guy's 0, and held the No 1 ranking for much longer, and won more tournaments).

So no, I will not consider Nadal greater than Sampras if he reaches 14 and it includes 10 FOs.
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Sampras didn't even make a RG final.
 
Crisstti said:
Sampras didn't even make a RG final.
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I know but he was dominant everywhere else (grass, hard, carpet).

Nadal has only dominated on clay. Yes he has won every slam at least once but his achievements are still disproportionately stacked towards that one surface.

I simply think it would be too facile to conclude that Nadal with 14 slams (10 of which were at the FO) would be greater than Sampras, just because he had won all four at least once.
 
I don't know, I think lacking so much on a surface is a bigger "problem" than Nadal not dominating grass and hc. Nadal has been capable of beating anyone on those surfaces as well.
 
Phoenix1983 said:
You can't win 10/14 at a single slam and be said to be definitively greater than a guy who was a multiple champion at 3 of the 4 slams, dominating three surfaces in hard, grass and indoor carpet (not to mention, has also won 5 YECs to the first guy's 0, and held the No 1 ranking for much longer, and won more tournaments).

So no, I will not consider Nadal greater than Sampras if he reaches 14 and it includes 10 FOs.
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Has Sampras got Olympic gold?
 
Sabratha said:
Has Sampras got Olympic gold?
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Does anyone care that he hasn't? It wasn't a big deal when Sampras played the game and quite frankly it's overhyped now. Nadal's OG is essentially a prestigious hardcourt title, Sampras has 7 hardcourt grand slams.
 
NatF said:
Does anyone care that he hasn't? It wasn't a big deal when Sampras played the game and quite frankly it's overhyped now. Nadal's OG is essentially a prestigious hardcourt title, Sampras has 7 hardcourt grand slams.
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If he had a gold at skiing or something completely different to tennis I would be impressed, but a gold at tennis is just a bauble.
 
PrinceMoron said:
If he had a gold at skiing or something completely different to tennis I would be impressed, but a gold at tennis is just a bauble.
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I just can't get behind the gold medal being some amazing achievement in tennis, it's no different to the masters tournaments of 6 years ago, just 6 matches with the final being best of 5.
 
Olympics should be 256 man draw, with best of 7 matches.

Then it would be as important as *******s make it out to be.
 
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