The Rafa Nadal Interview by Andy Roddick
- Thread starter Hitman
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DSH
Talk Tennis Guru
Incognito
Legend
I love listening to Roddick, he is very insightful and when Rafa retired, he was really trying to hold back his tears. I didn’t know he had that kind of admiration for Rafa.
I love this interview and damn…I miss Rafa on court.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
I thought English was Rafa's 3rd language after Catalan and Spanish?
Daniel Andrade
Hall of Fame
How many languages do you speak out of curiosity
octobrina10
Talk Tennis Guru
Incognito
Legend
His foot that isAlso interesting is the post interview recap where Andy talks about how Rafa took off his shoes and Andy saw how badly damaged it was.
Winner Sinner
Hall of Fame
Legend!!!!
I could listen to this for hours.
And well done Andy for bringing the discussion to so many interesting issues.
I could listen to this for hours.
And well done Andy for bringing the discussion to so many interesting issues.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
I bet it is!Also interesting is the post interview recap where Andy talks about how Rafa took off his shoes and Andy saw how badly damaged it was.
JustMy2Cents
Hall of Fame
Also interesting is the post interview recap where Andy talks about how Rafa took off his shoes and Andy saw how badly damaged it was.
here's a pic of Rafa's foot at the davis cup
...lovely words from Altmaier btw
Rafa4LifeEver
G.O.A.T.
I literally said Rafa was better at articulating & expressing himself than Roddick in a language which is his 4th & Andy's first language.
Rafa4LifeEver
G.O.A.T.
His 3rd language is Italian, which is very close to Catalan & Spanish.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
Too late. Trump's gone and made English official.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
What a legendhere's a pic of Rafa's foot at the davis cup
gave it ALL
RaulRamirez
Legend
I wish your sentence had ended (truthfully) at "Trump's gone".
Airspun
Hall of Fame
No bueno espanol es numero uno
this is every interview. he talks more than his guests
Winner Sinner
Hall of Fame
One of the most interesting parts, precisely because it is his rival par excellence who says it, is when he talks about Federer's 2017 unreadable serve.
Federer's serve risks going from being the most overrated in history to being the most underrated, due to his unmatched ability to constantly vary it without giving the slightest reference to his opponent.
While I understood less the part where he explains the reason why his rivalry with Federer was so idolized by fans.
The fact that unlike his rivalry with Djokovic there was always a pre-established script in the matchup, namely Nadal hammering Federer on the left diagonal trying to gain an advantage, made that matchup quite monotonous from a tactical point of view, and monotonous for long stretches it was also in terms of pathos due to the outcome of the result.
Federer's serve risks going from being the most overrated in history to being the most underrated, due to his unmatched ability to constantly vary it without giving the slightest reference to his opponent.
While I understood less the part where he explains the reason why his rivalry with Federer was so idolized by fans.
The fact that unlike his rivalry with Djokovic there was always a pre-established script in the matchup, namely Nadal hammering Federer on the left diagonal trying to gain an advantage, made that matchup quite monotonous from a tactical point of view, and monotonous for long stretches it was also in terms of pathos due to the outcome of the result.
DSH
Talk Tennis Guru
I always got the impression that Nadal had a hard time generating break points against Federer in the later years of their rivalry.
Martin J
Rookie
Some nice and insightful responses from Ned in this interview, he's finally in a position to talk more open about the tactics he employed against players, especially his main rivals and the overall problems/challenges he's faced.
I particularly liked the parts where he talks about his mindset, he said something like "even if I play bad (on clay), the opponents know they have to play a long and exhausting match to beat me regardless", so the fact that he considers that to be his advantage (a grueling match) speaks a lot about his willingness to compete and fitness.
It's also funny how he talks about unintentionally hitting (some) winners, while we spectators have a quite different perspective. This goes for all players of course.
Wished he talked more about the strategical changes he and his team made after 2004, he started playing a different brand of tennis (from an offensive baseliner and aggressive returner to a more conservative approach) and what was the main reason for that. He just mentioned once that he was young and inexperienced and used to return while standing on/near the baseline. I always thought his offensive potential was kinda squandered or at least not used enough and that he would be able win more titles outside of clay and to save his body more by playing more efficient (physically-wise) game. Luckily for him, Moya recognized that encouraged him to abandon his old style.
I particularly liked the parts where he talks about his mindset, he said something like "even if I play bad (on clay), the opponents know they have to play a long and exhausting match to beat me regardless", so the fact that he considers that to be his advantage (a grueling match) speaks a lot about his willingness to compete and fitness.
It's also funny how he talks about unintentionally hitting (some) winners, while we spectators have a quite different perspective. This goes for all players of course.
Wished he talked more about the strategical changes he and his team made after 2004, he started playing a different brand of tennis (from an offensive baseliner and aggressive returner to a more conservative approach) and what was the main reason for that. He just mentioned once that he was young and inexperienced and used to return while standing on/near the baseline. I always thought his offensive potential was kinda squandered or at least not used enough and that he would be able win more titles outside of clay and to save his body more by playing more efficient (physically-wise) game. Luckily for him, Moya recognized that encouraged him to abandon his old style.
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The_Order
G.O.A.T.
He'd def lose motivation, but he's still winning a lot more before 2010.
I do agree that as a player, he wouldn't be as good but I also think that the level of comp that he was facing - it didn't really matter much.
Fed has always stated that he loves winning, but yeah no Nadal and he's not playing on tour till age 40.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
Toni Nadal is obviously big in Rafa's 2005-2016 style. It had big positives and some negatives.
It was only in 2006 that Rafa started going slow between points. In 2005, Rafa was usually a 15-20 second man between points.
Martin J
Rookie
Yes, but Toni was with him since the beginning and he still let him play the offensive tennis prior to 2005. Anyway, he probably won't talk about it unless someone asks him explicitly.
MeatTornado
Talk Tennis Guru
That was surprising to hear but I kind of get it.
Definitely interesting to hear him say that was more of a chess match when to us on the outside it looked more like checkers. But apparently from the inside it was way more complicated in terms of how they were able to reach the pattern of play they wanted when the other guy already already what they wanted to do.
The Djokovic rivalry with all its long points seems like more a chess match to fans, but I guess not. Rafa made it sound like it was actually simpler to not have predicable patterns and was just about who hit the ball better that day.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
Nadal played excellent attacking tennis at the 2005 Canadian Open, with no Toni there, only dropping serve twice in the whole tournament. At the 2005 US Open, Nadal looked ordinary against 3 American wildcards.
Martin J
Rookie
Was Toni with him when he won Beijing and Madrid?
marc45
G.O.A.T.
he interviewed Fed a number of years ago, but I forgot it was this short
I bet he'll get a longer one, maybe when Roger comes to Newport to get inducted into the Hall of Fame next year
marc45
G.O.A.T.
nice to hear Roddick let loose that there's going to be a big ceremony for Rafa at RG this year....that send-off at DC, even in Spain, was not good....but Rafa was delaying or even hurting these things with his holding off on official retirement announcement, as they talked about...still won't forgive Tennis Channel for not having a Spanish speaker handy during Rafa's speech after his last match at DC
Mustard
Bionic Poster
I believe so. Toni was certainly with him in Madrid, when Nadal was returning after a few weeks out with an ankle injury, later diagnosed as Mueller-Weiss syndrome.
I remember Jimmy Arias on commentary being highly critical of Juan Carlos Ferrero's tactics against Nadal in the 2005 Beijing semi final, and for not changing things up. Pretty funny stuff.
Martin J
Rookie
In this very interview, he said that he got injured/started to feeling discomfort in the Madrid final if I recall? Anyway, he was quite good on HC during that period, won Toronto, Beijing and Madrid, losing to Blake (who was a tough match-up for him on HC) at the USO. He regressed on the surface in 2006 I think.
octobrina10
Talk Tennis Guru
It’s not a secret that the French Open organizers are planning to honour Rafa with a special retirement tribute during the 2025 FO. The president of the French Tennis Federation, Gilles Moretton, said this on a French TV or radio. Amélie Mauresmo wanted to hold the farewell ceremony at the 2024 FO, but Rafa asked to postpone it.
Post #407:
https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/nadal-news-3-0.778266/page-9#post-18615194
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The Guru
Legend
Fun interview. Love to hear these two champions talk shop.
Love to hear Rafa articulating his theory of how to play high level tennis. I especially love it because it's exactly what I've been saying here for years. Don't try to hit winners winners come naturally. It's all about putting your opponents under pressure without taking on risk.
Love to hear Rafa articulating his theory of how to play high level tennis. I especially love it because it's exactly what I've been saying here for years. Don't try to hit winners winners come naturally. It's all about putting your opponents under pressure without taking on risk.
sportsfan1
Legend
Federer was already very successful before nadal and would have been more successful without him(5 french opens etc). But the two did become friends so that's good and perhaps valued more in the long run.
RaulRamirez
Legend
I may have to rewatch that part, and was also just a little surprised.
(This is not a shot at Roger) Seemed like Rafa was implying that he felt like he had a winning game plan - something exploitable - against Roger and perhaps, vice versa, so he felt it was a chess match as to who could carry that out.
With Novak, he didn't sense any real exploitable weakness, and it was just a matter of who was playing better that day. Something like that?
In 2017 (non-clay, anyway), it seemed like Roger made adjustments (that we've all talked about) which took that away from him.
For all the insight in this interview, that part of the interview seemed a bit simplistic to me.
Ray Mercer
Hall of Fame
Good interview. I loved the part where Nadal basically said that Federer should have adopted those 2017 strategies earlier in his career against him. Had he flattened out the backhand returns, abandoned the slice and took flatter cuts with his backhand he would have had much more success in the earlier matches. It took Federer too long to switch rackets and play more aggressive with his backhand.
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Fedforever
Hall of Fame
It would have to be very long - both of them have a habit of using twice as many words as they need to express something.
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FlyingSaucer
Professional
Truth.
This honestly drives me mad where Fed is concerned, but my memory of his Trevor Noah interview is that he wasn't that bad on that occasion.Fedforever
Hall of Fame
I honestly can't see him saying anything enlightening even if he does do something with Roddick.Truth.
He does interviews to promote his brand and his business interests - he has nothing to gain by saying anything "interesting" which will only see him getting slammed by one aggrieved fan group or another.
We can have arguments, opinions, but we watched it from the side or behind the court, or even from far away on the TV. we never felt their spins, the slices, the serves, but they had.
What we feel like just 'a ball' coming when it was seen from TV, is far different than when you are the one who receiving it. at least someone who play a decent level of sport, any sport, can understand this.
Like what Andy said before, Rafa's topspin balls were causing delays when you hitting it, but when we saw it on TV, it looked like unforced errors from Andy.
The stamina and physical may deteriorate at later age ,but it will be compensated by better ball placements, better tactical changes, better anticipations. You did much lesser in physical, but the outcomes more or less the same compared to when they're younger.
So when the pros said it, especially legend like him, I stick to what he said.
What we feel like just 'a ball' coming when it was seen from TV, is far different than when you are the one who receiving it. at least someone who play a decent level of sport, any sport, can understand this.
Like what Andy said before, Rafa's topspin balls were causing delays when you hitting it, but when we saw it on TV, it looked like unforced errors from Andy.
The stamina and physical may deteriorate at later age ,but it will be compensated by better ball placements, better tactical changes, better anticipations. You did much lesser in physical, but the outcomes more or less the same compared to when they're younger.
So when the pros said it, especially legend like him, I stick to what he said.
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FlyingSaucer
Professional
Trevor Noah one was just fine, I thought. Very loose and not the same hardcore blandness he often offers. The only deep insight we're ever gonna get is a warts an' all Big 3 podcast episode once Djo is retired.
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
Parts many care about
Airspun
Hall of Fame
This interview was so good even @vive le beau jeu ! Is now a Nadal fan?!?
Fedforever
Hall of Fame
Every time I see him in the media he looks happy and focussed on the future. And I like that, it reminds me that if he's happy with what he achieved then we should be too.
I guess I just don't want to see some big interview where things he says get pulled apart and selectively misquoted. And the only way to avoid that is to keep it all pretty bland.
DSH
Talk Tennis Guru
It would be fun to see Nadal present the trophy to this year's champion a year after his retirement.
