Your expectations from Rafa Nadal in 2022?

[aldeayeah]

Expectations? None, wait and see

Wishes? That he plays every clay tournament under the sun between AO and USO, 2005-style, all four slams, and little else - maybe wtf or some of the summer hc events

 

[STRONG-ERA]

No expectations because his health remains a huge question mark.

However, if he is healthy, he will win RG. He would have won it this year if the SF had been scheduled for a day session.

 

[James P]

Not sure. If he's healthy, I expect a RG title, a Rome and/or MC title, maybe a hardcourt masters title (Miami or Canada?), perhaps an Acapulco title. There's a chance he has another season like last year where he wins a couple titles, but is otherwise a non-factor.

 

[Milanez82]

Rafa is a beast and his drive can take him to any win.
If he feels healthy only a healthy Djokovic can stop him from achieving more greatness.
Think thats a given and proven over years.

 

[mike danny]

Rafa is a beast and his drive can take him to any win.
If he feels healthy only a healthy Djokovic can stop him from achieving more greatness.
Think thats a given and proven over years.

 

[GabeT]

retirement

@vive le beau jeu !

Could happen

 

[beard]

A younger Rafa would have crushed Novak at RG21.

I still think Novak played an extremely good tactical match.

Novak 2021 wasn't his best either... Why you people tend to put some prime/peak Rafa against Novak in their match up all the time... Novak is far past his prime/peak too... That match was past prime Nadal against past prime Novak... And yeah, peak Nadal would destroy any player at clay, nobody doubt that, but peak Nadal can't last forever, that's unnatural...

 

[sportsfan1]

It's all down to what kind of form Djokovic is in. If Djokovic plays at the level similar to his 2021 winning multiple slams, then nadals and everyone else's chances are greatly reduced at slams. Djokovic has of course long figured out how to stay calm in the big moments, and his game seemingly has a natural matchup advantage over Nadal. He looked too comfortable against nadal at rg in their sf, and we may yet see that become the final tipping point in their rivalry.

 

[beard]

It's all down to what kind of form Djokovic is in. If Djokovic plays at the level similar to his 2021 winning multiple slams, then nadals and everyone else's chances are greatly reduced at slams. Djokovic has of course long figured out how to stay calm in the big moments, and his game seemingly has a natural matchup advantage over Nadal. He looked too comfortable against nadal at rg in their sf, and we may yet see that become the final tipping point in their rivalry.

I agree... I can easy see Nadal repeating Federer's 2017/18... If he returns to good form (we already saw that happening when we almost retired him), and he has some lucky draws, mainly not facing Novak, but some young guys who are becoming great especially on hard courts, he can win one or two...
FO is on the first place , W is imo his second best chance, USO third, and AO fourth...

 

[augustobt]

I think he'll be in FO final unless he faces Djokovic along the way again. And if they both met IN THE FINAL, I think Rafa could prevail.

 

[Azure]

Novak 2021 wasn't his best either... Why you people tend to put some prime/peak Rafa against Novak in their match up all the time... Novak is far past his prime/peak too... That match was past prime Nadal against past prime Novak... And yeah, peak Nadal would destroy any player at clay, nobody doubt that, but peak Nadal can't last forever, that's unnatural...

Agree.

 

[fishpiefriday]

Right, that's what I said if healthy.

You also said no threats, which I don't think is true.

 

[Nadal_King]

Nice to dive into how people expected

 

[weakera]

 

[aldeayeah]

Pretty good year all things considered. Seems Rafa expects to play a bit more towards the end of the year, we'll see.

 

[MichaelNadal]

 

[King_ Zeglan12]

My expectations from Rafa in 2022 are

A SET OF TWINS

Another top prediction from this guy, ( except for the twins part)

Rafa is gonna be a dad soon !

 

[Nadal_King]

It’s been a far better year than one expected at start of year. I guess majority expected 0 and rest 1 slam but he got 2 and a double career grand slam
Also he will be a dad which makes it like a calendar grand slam year

 

[Underdog]

Why not wait and see if he wins the 250 he's entered as a tune up for the AO? There's no way of predicting anything until we see what his current form is like. He'll be 36 in June, players that old only win slams if they're Rosewall or Fed. That's an extremely tiny group.

A tiny group of three

 

[SeeItHitIt]

Perfect time to retire, no?