Rafael Nadal

A page and forum to discuss all things Rafael Nadal.

Nadal 5

Current ranking: 14

Last result: Australian Open second round (lost to Mackenzie McDonald)

Next tournament: Roland Garros

49 Comments on Rafael Nadal

  2. vamosrafa@December 4, 2013 at 8:02 pm
    —this is NOT good ! playing 21 tournaments—

    4 GS tournaments (mandatory)
    9 Masters 1000 (8 are mandatory, Monte Carlo is counted as ATP-500)
    3 ATP-500 (Rio, Barcelona, one after USO; it’s mandatory to play 4 ATP-500 events)
    3 ATP-250 (Doha, Buenos Aires, Halle – he has a contract; 2 are counted towards rankings)
    1 WTF, if he will qualify (mandatory)
    _______________________
    Total: 20
    Which tournament is the 21st? Basel?

    Which tournaments do you suggest to skip?

    Reply

    • haha… ‘mandatory’…all the top guys happily skip these ‘mandatory’ events whenever they want to skip them ! just like rafa missed WTF three times in his career..just like rafa skipped miami last year…just like fed has missed so many tournaments in the past …its a joke to say that a player has to play 20+ tournaments just because they are mandatory and he has contracts with them….

      I am not sure which will be the 21st tournament…just read 21 in that marca article 🙂

      Reply

      • —‘mandatory’…all the top guys happily skip these ‘mandatory’ events whenever they want to skip them—
        Do you think players are happy about getting ranking point (zero-point) penalties for not playing mandatory tournaments?? Do you remember that a zero-point-penalty lasts 12 weeks?
        By the way, Rafa has got a lot of penalties during his career. His last two penalties expired in October.

        —just like rafa skipped miami last year—-
        Actually, according to the ATP rules, Rafa was allowed to skip one mandatory Masters last year and will be allowed to skip 2 of them in 2014 because he :
        ¤ has played more than 600 matches during his career (had already by 2013),
        ¤ has 12 years of service (had 11 years by 2013).

        —like fed has missed so many tournaments in the past—
        Yeah, Fed has been ill soooo many times! So what ?!

        Reply

    • Augusta,thanks for your response…. I respect your opinion and thanks for reminding us that rafa can skip two masters next year ! so here you go, he CAN miss them ….i hope the need does not arrive but he definitely should if there is any risks…gotta save those precious knees… remember how hard it was for us to pass those 7 months ! haha

      and the worth of avoiding zero penalties is far less than avoiding fatal injuries ! For now, lets be hopeful 🙂

      Reply

  3. and the scary thing is that there are good chances rafa will be playing davis cup matches… is not this over playing? I hope I am wrong and rafa wins every event he enters…but the long term impact could be bad

    Reply

    • vamosrafa,

      I am in complete agreement with you. Rafa has skipped mandatory tournaments in the past. Players do it all the time. I don’t know how he’s going to play DC with all the other tournaments.

      I also hope that my concerns turn out to be nothing in the end. But I would not be staying true to myself if I did not voice them.

      Reply

      • thanks for voicing out your concerns NNY 🙂 yes, we have discussed this before too..its not that both of us don’t want rafa to play more and more ! we were few of the rafans here who were of the viewpoint he shud play cincinnati last year!

        THis is a diff scenario however…rafa has matured though and he can always pull out of events if he feels need to….I sooo hope he wins OZ 2014..that would remove so much pressure going ahead

        Reply

  4. http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2013/world-number-one-tennis-player-rafa-nada-144093.html#.UqBqGC9Unzc.facebook

    “World number one tennis player Rafa Nadal revealed today that he will take on Brazilian footballing legend Ronaldo at a live charity poker tournament taking place on December 12, 2013 as part of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague poker festival.

    The tournament, which was announced in November, will be Nadal’s first experience of live poker, and is something that he has been working towards since taking up the game in June 2012. Other players who will be competing for the €100,000 charity prize pool include former Ukrainian footballer Andriy Shevchenko, Italian skier Alberto Tomba, Dutch Olympic field hockey gold medallist Fatima Moreira de Melo, and world number one poker player Daniel Negreanu.”

    Wasn’t aware so many sports legends were involved with PokerStars……….

    Reply

    • …….in the meantime, the Federazzi are trying to sell the world the lemon that Rafa is of questionable morals with his association with PokerStars! As if chocolate (especially that of the Lindt kind) is completely wholesome.

      #ChocolateMakesYouFat

      Reply

    • vamosrafa,

      Yes, you and I did want Rafa to play at Cincy!. I felt very strongly about it, because Rafa was off for about seven weeks after crashing out at Wimbledon. Once I saw how well he was playing, I sensed that he came back determined to make some noise after the disappointment at Wimbledon. This was the time to play.

      We turned out to be right. I agree that Rafa winning the AO would take a lot of pressure off, given that he will gain 2000 points! Also, he will have reached a milestone in winning the career slam twice! 🙂

      Regarding the issue of DC on hard court after the AO, I really do hope that Moya will be mindful of Rafa’s health and maybe not call on him. He has done so much already in DC.

      Reply

  5. Re: Davis Cup

    The first round DC on indoor hard court would not be good news for Rafa coming so close on the heels of the AO 🙁

    However, Rafa’s great friend Moya is now captain and my guess is he will probably not call upon Rafa to play in the 1st round against Germany knowing that a) it is Rafa’s least good surface and b) mindful that Rafa needs to pace himself for a jam-packed year ahead. IMO Spain has a strong enough team to face Germany without pressing Rafa into action.

    Reply

  8. ritb,

    Pre-raphaelite rug! Too funny!

    Thank goodness it’s an older picture. I am loving Rafa’s side part look right now.

    Reply

  10. John McEnroe makes controversial call for doubles tennis to be ditched from the major tournaments

    Four-time Wimbledon doubles champion says the standard of players in team format is poor and the money would be better spent on struggling singles players

    John McEnroe attempts to return the ball during a charity tennis match in Tokyo

    Feisty form: John McEnroe was speaking in London ahead of the Statoil Masters Photo: AP PHOTO

    By Simon Briggs

    10:30PM GMT 05 Dec 2013
    Doubles tennis must be in a bad way if John McEnroe, whose alliance with Peter Fleming brought him four Wimbledon titles, is calling for it to be scrapped from major tournaments.

    Having flown into London this week for the Statoil Masters – an annual veterans’ event staged at the Royal Albert Hall – McEnroe was in feisty form on Thursday as he questioned what the team format is bringing to professional tennis.

    “Why we are even playing doubles at this point is a mystery to me,” said McEnroe. “I love doubles but I don’t even recognise what this is. If there was a volleying contest from the service line, most of these guys couldn’t . . .” He stopped and sighed. “They play an inch from the net. It is like wham, bam, thank you ma’am.

    “If you cut out doubles and gave that money to singles players ranked between 200 and 1,000, maybe that would do something for the game. Then some other guy who never really had the chance to play ends up becoming No 100 in the world instead of quitting when he’s No 400.

    “Most doubles players, I hate to say, are the slow guys who were not quick enough to play singles.” The most successful male Americans of the moment – financially at any rate – are the Floridian twins Bob and Mike Bryan, whose 344 consecutive weeks at the top of the rankings is a record for any pairing.

    Yet when McEnroe was asked whether the Bryans could have made it as singles players, he did not dissemble. “No,” he replied. “What do you think they are playing doubles for? I like them and single-handledly they’ve tried to keep doubles going. There is something cool to watch these twins.

    “But sometimes I hear people saying they are the greatest doubles players of all time. I’m like ‘Excuse me?’ If you put Federer and Nadal together, I am taking them.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/10498835/John-McEnroe-makes-controversial-call-for-doubles-tennis-to-be-ditched-from-the-major-tournaments.html

    Reply

  11. Rafa’s Grandpa also receives awards.
    [Google Translate]
    ¤¤ Grandfather of Rafa Nadal receives a tribute.
    December 6, 2013.
    The musician Rafa Nadal, Grandpa of the famous tennis player, received a fitting tribute in Mallorca together with fellow musician Serafí Guiscafre. Don Rafael Nadal received from the President of the Counsil of Mallorca, Maria Salom, a plaque commemorating the 30th anniversary of formation of the choir of the main theater of Palma [the capital of Mallorca].
    The Conuncil of Mallorca and the Main Theater gave a tribute to the musicians Rafel Nadal and Serafí Guiscafre, the main drivers of creating the Choir of the Main Theater of Palma de Mallorca, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of its founding. The event took place after the performance of ‘Luisa Fernanda’ , a lyric comedy that opened the season. ¤¤
    http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/grupolasiesta/2013/12/6/el-abuelo-rafa-nadal-recibe-homenaje-visiblemente

    Reply

  12. http://www.tio.ch/News/Sport/768229/Sampras-Nadal-puo-battere-i-record-di-Federer/

    Sampras praises rafa..FINALLY ,some real praise for rafa has started to come from him

    Below is the translation :
    “Nadal is a ‘beast’ in the field, has all the capabilities to exceed 17 Majors won by Roger Federer. If you will manage well the calendar, given his young age can do it. The only obstacle that may prevent him from doing what is his body, especially his knees, very fragile. He won all the Grand Slams, the Olympics, and dominates in head to head against the Swiss. ”

    “I do not think his goal is to get to 16, 17 or 18 wins, is just trying to improve his game and if that happens, it will be good for tennis. This, however, does not mean that Roger will soon have a decline. ”

    “Every generation has it. Laver in 1960, 80 Lendl and McEnroe, Agassi in ’90 and I. Every decade has its best player. But Rafa is definitely among the top 3 -4, and that’s not all: it is in the middle of his career, and will win many more tournaments. “

    Reply

      • lol, what about a third wimbledon to shup up those who say his future on grass is bleak !! hahha:P

        anyway, good to have you back Sanju ! I was wondering where were you recently 🙂

        Reply

    • vamosrafa,

      It’s gratifying to hear Sampras give Rafa his due. I remember seeing an interview with Sampra, I think it was on the tennis channel during its countdown of the top 100 best players of all time. In that interview, Sampras said that Rafa’s overwhelming head-to-head advantage over Fed is a reason to question him being the GOAT.

      I found that interesting coming from a great champion like Sampras, given how intensely the Federazzi have argued about Rafa’s lopsided h2h over Fed. As far as Sampras is concerned, it’s a big deal.

      Reply

      • Yup…you are right… besides, sampras’s praise about rafa for a long time was centered around rafa’s physical strength and endurance….he was always saying stuff like ‘nadal is a beast ‘..it was only after nadal won 3 slams in 2010 sampras realy started praising him and now finally he has started putting rafa in the same league as federer !

        He is a big fed fan but a fair person i think…he now admits rafa is in the same league and is in a good position to possibly overtake federer…

        and yes , i remember that interview ! pete also said that all the greats in the past had winning h2hd records over their chief rivals and if he had a losing record against agassi and somebody told him he was the best of his era, he would be pretty confused !

        Reply

  13. lol.i agree ! Aus open 2014 would make rafa the best of this generation in my opinion …

    it will be the most significant achievement since 1969… arguably even more valuable than laver’s celandar slam…

    Reply

  14. Please let’s not count our chickens before they are hatched. Let’s not go down the Nole route when he declared at the beginning of this year that his main ambition for 2013 was to win RG. We all know what happened.

    Reply

    • @nadline, nobody’s saying Rafa is going to win AO 2014. We are hoping, dreaming, imploring him to win AO 2014, not saying he is going to win. How is that the same as Djoker telling everybody he knew how to beat Rafa pre RG 2013?

      Reply

    • P.Bodo: —From the time Nadal returned in early February, world No.1 Djokovic’s mission was clear: Stop Nadal in his tracks. This Djokovic failed to accomplish.
      The bottom line is that as good a year as Djokovic had, he failed in job No.1, which was to stop Nadal. —

      Yeah, Djoko didn’t fulfill Fedfans’ dream of stopping Rafa. I don’t feel sad for them. 🙂

      Reply

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