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

94 Comments on Rafael Nadal

  1. amy,

    Yes, that’s what she is saying. Also, that it’s all my fault because I talk about my personal life here! It’s because I told another poster that I relocated to Florida so she wouldn’t be under the wrong impression that I was still living on the west coast in the same time zone. I said that over a year ago! But according to Mary, I talk about my personal life all the time!

    Oh yes, I have cast my spell on you for sure! Because it’s what I do! LOL!

    I just don’t want you to leave. I am sorry that you are in the middle of this craziness. At least next week Rafa will be playing again and we can talk about tennis.

    I have no illusion about these attacks stopping any time soon. Apparently, vr and myself and also hawkeye are not true blue Rafa fans! Why? Because we are trying to discuss honestly his current situation and what can be done about it. Or would it be better for us to just pretend that all is sunshine and roses with Rafa?

    I don’t feel good seeing him look the way he did after that Wimbledon loss. There was so much pain in his eyes. That’s why I want him to get some help. But according to some here, that makes me not only a bad person, but not a Rafa fan!

    You can’t make this stuff up!

    • Let’s not be too innocent NNY,, we know we are not true blue rafa fans because we never predicted rafa to win a calender slam in 2014 and 2015 and lately wimbledon 2015! we also did not predict that rafa will never lose to Novak again.

      Now you understand why you are not a true blue rafa fan. Take some responsibility :p

      • rafa never losing prediction should haev been made after 2013? I cannot remember that exactly. Well , not a true blue rafa fan so 😛

      • yes! no way ! rafa has the best of every shot that exists in the book and he is the GOAT on every tennis surface. We need to accept and agree with all this to get a shot at qualifying for the true blue fan club.

    • how are you feeling about rafa playing hamburg? probably a good thing to try and get some kind of form going into the hard court season…….although it does have a bit of the flavour of fed playing there after wimby 2013 and i hope it doesn’t go the same way….

      • Yes a lot of parallels with Fed playing summer clay, a decision he regretted with his back problems.

        I kind of have mixed feelings about it. Hopefully there is more behind it than just trying to play through his funk and gain a few race points.

      • don’t know what to think about it hawkeye…can’t help mentally referencing fed’s 2013 decision which hardly helped him….if his mind is gone then playing more won’t help…..

      • about this rhetorical war between real rafa fans and those who are somehow deficient.
        that poster ‘littlefoot’ who came on here last week said that was the reason she left (i think that’s pretty much the paraphrase) ie that she wasn’t a ‘real’ rafa-fan according to some and didn’t want to get caught up in a civil war

      • amy,

        That’s a great point about Fed. I hadn’t thought about that. It didn’t work out well for Fed. I sure hope it works out better for Rafa.

      • Deuce ironically now posts on Tennis-X, which is moderated by a fedfan but you get a much broader discussion on tennis with a good mix of fans from different camps. I post there occasionally also. You’d fit in well there amy. Wish VR was there too.

      • just commented below on vamosrafa saying that lucky had been attacked and driven away hawkeye…i thought she had been called lucky….but obviously can’t remember all details!
        vr had said she was incredibly knowledgeable…

      • July 21, 2015 at 4:25 pm,
        —Many good posters such as deuce (a Murray fan) and Luckystar (a Rafan) have been driven away from gussie-bot and her minions.—
        ==================

        The dishonesty in your post is ultra extreme – lies, lies, lies. Nothing new!
        What else can be expected from the malicious troll!

  2. a question: why was it that rafa was able to win stuttgart?? any thoughts? he did play well there so why was he able to do it for that week?

    • amy,

      Thanks for bringing up the post from littlefoot. Yes, this was someone who was a regular and then just disappeared. However, once I read that post then I realized why he/she left. At least people are coming out now and speaking up more. Some don’t like being told they are not real Rafa fans just because they don’t think and say whatever the select few supposed “real” Rafa fans deem appropriate.

      • i think it was vamosrafa who said a while ago that one of the most knowledgeable posters on the site called ‘lucky’ (?) i think had left the site after being attacked…it’s not a great trend….

    • amy,

      As to why Rafa was able to win Stuttgart, it was because he was able to play consistently well throughout the whole tournament. He didn’t have the dramatic ups and downs that he’s been having in most tournaments.

      The question as to why he could play well that week and then not be able to keep on doing it at Queens, is the $64,000 question! I thought that he would get some confidence and a bit of momentum that would carry over to Queens. But inexplicably, he went back to the same pattern. Dolgo is a funky player who does not give opponents any rhythm, but Rafa has been able to deal with him in the past. But Rafa slipped back into the pattern of poor serving and being two games from winning and then just letting the match slip out of his grasp.

      When that happened, I had a bad feeling about Wimbledon. I also realized that his problem was more serious than I might have thought.

      • i don’t think i ever really believed it (ie stuttgart) was a new dawn. not after what happened in that last set at RG…that collapse was the worst i have even seen by rafa in a grand slam, although the match against brown was even worse and i read a day or so ago that courier said that was the worst match he had ever seen rafa play. once i start to think about those matches i find it very difficult to conjure up any optimism for the hard court season…..

    • I think it was a combination of Rafa temporarily finding relatively good form combined with a pretty weak field.

      Agreed about hard court season. He needs to address his anxiety and that is more easier said than done.

      • No not this year, mostly because of Rafa’s slump. We’ve made our biannual pilgrimage there in 2009, 2011 and 2013 which is the last three times the mens event was in Montreal – much nicer city than Toronto IMO.

        2013 was incredible. We were lucky to see three Rafa matches including his win over Nole (when he clocked him with the ball) and the final when he beat out Milos.

        The Rafole semi was a bucket list event. Fans were evenly split and loud.

        I’ll have to watch on TV.

      • sigh….that rafole semi was a great match….third set was excellent and rafa was fantastic in the tie break. it’s actually quite weird to think about that summer 2013 season when he won everything and was easily the best player in the world and compare it with the player he is now. it’s a bit like hallucinating…..
        do you remember how well rafa returned as well as served then? how he was playing the kind of aggressive first-strike tennis we all want from him, and doing it so well….

      • We also got to see Milos play del Potro and Milos beat Gulbis.

        Gulbis is the sort of character tennis needs IMO. Loved this after he lost.

        “Gulbis would obviously prefer to see the locals show a bit more class, sort of like he did when he smashed his racket after losing a point to Raonic.

        Thousands of centre court spectators showered the European with boos, which the 24-year-old European hadn’t forgotten post-match.

        “They’re used to hockey here. It’s OK,” he quipped. “But, honestly, I don’t understand why you need to clap for a double fault. Simply, I don’t understand it. You know, there can be emotions, but I think it’s stupid.”

        Gulbis immediately seemed to realize the quote might not go over too well.

        “I can’t call a thousand people stupid,” he backtracked. “Don’t put it as a quote.”

      • Getting to watch a top player live is pretty special but to see two top guys play each other at the same time when they are both playing well is insane. I was pretty excited when I realized what we were about to see.

        The tennis was played at such a fast tempo and both guys were hitting the lines or close to it on many rallies.

        I’ve never seen Rafa play as aggressive as he did in 2013 on a hard court.

      • so envious hawkeye….to see both rafa and nole playing at the top of their game..that’s incredible….how often does it happen that there are 2 all time greats on court playing at their best..?
        i really miss rafole matches! the intensity of their rivalry has never been matched…

      • Looking back at Rafa’s incredible 2013 and comparing it with this year is becoming more and more painful with every week that passes. I remember being so angry with Djokovic for ostentatiously gloating at wresting the Monte Carlo crown from Rafa – conveniently forgetting Rafa had only just come back from a seven month lay-off.

        When he got the better of Djokovic in Montreal I remember assuming that must have been a fluke. But no. Watching him repeat the feat at the USO was unadulterated joy.

  3. I thought about Fed playing in back to back clay tournaments in 2013 when I heard Rafa is playing Hamburg. Fed actually played in 2 but I thought he did that to try playing with new stick which he then postponed till end of year.

    • I think he thought clay is a great surface to find form on in general and, as such (as you’ve said) was a great opportunity to become accustomed to his new racquet.

      Now that you mentioned it, another parallel, because he parked his new racquet until year end, same as Rafa did earlier this year.

    • ^^^Wasn’t he also desperately chasing points? I seem to remember he was struggling to work his way up the ladder to be sure of getting to the O2. Or maybe I’m confusing it with another year.

    • Yeah could be as his ranking had already slipped but they were only 250 events so not a lot of points for a lot of work.

      At least Hamburg is 500 but he will be at a disadvantage as many of the players there are playing on clay this week already.

  4. Rafa played excellent in Montreal, Cincy and USO 2013. He was very aggressive , standing on the baseline and literally smoking the ball.

    The Rafa Nole Montreal semi was top class and even better than USO 2013 final as Montreal was really close whereas USO final, Rafa dominated Nole in set 1 & 4.

    • yeah sanju..was fantastic….
      but rafa’s fightback down those 3 breakpoints in the 3rd set of the us open was incredible. then that amazing forehand to take the set……!!

      • Yes those monster 3 BPs saved one with the only ace served whole match , 1 a crushing FH DTL was awesome.

        It broke Novaks spirit and Vajda admitted Nole just was not ready to play the 4th after that.

      • Loved the 2013 USO final.

        In terms of finals, I’d only put 2008 Wimby and 2009 AO finals above it.

        I’d probably put the 2013 French Open semi final win over Nole in there too given that it was a virtual final.

  5. Listening to you guys reminiscing over the great days back in 2013, makes me even sadder about what is going on now.

    The Montreal semi was a pure classic. DVR stuff for sure! Rafa was playing some of his best hard court tennis at that time. He was doing everything well, serving great, ROS was superb, aggressive tennis at its best.

    Hawkeye is really lucky to have seen a classic like that one. One of those memories that you have for the rest of your life.

    • Yes we were very lucky and great seats too!

      I’ve only seen Federer play once there against Wawrinka in 2009, but that’s back when Stan would simply just lie down for him. Still amazing to see him live though.

  6. The 2008 Wimbledon and 2009 AO are my two favorite final matches. I do think that the 2013 RG semifinal with Rafa and Novak was the best non final. It’s true that this was a virtual final match and the final with Ferrer was pretty routine.

    I had the 2013 RG semifinal in my DVR until I had to get a new one. That was one of my favorites of all time. In that fifth set it was like the last round in a boxing match. Each guy giving it his all. Rafa came up with some of the best pure tennis, some mind blowing shots in that fifth set to get the win.

    Great memories.

    • I’ve also seen Rafa at Wimbledon! We used to go to Wimby regularly in the 80s as we got complimentary tickets from the RAF we even slept in the park on a few occasions so I saw a lot of the 80s/90s players like Navratilova, Ivanisevic, Nasty, Edberg, Chang, Borg, J. Lloyd etc. I’ve seen Fed at Wimby but never seen him play there but I saw him play in A. Dhabi. I saw the Williams sisters play doubles at Wimby.

  7. On the same day, I saw Sharapova play someone, can’t remember who. I was just so pleased to see Rafa live for the first time that whatever else was going on just paled into insignificance.

    In 2007, we got tickets from someone we knew who worked in the Wimby office and didn’t want to use her staff complimentary tickets.

      • I never saw Sampras. I was not enarmoured with the Sampras/ Agassi era at all so didn’t care to go to Wimby until the boy from Mallorca turned up.

    • Ooh, aah. If we are playing that game, as senior granny on this site, I can probably trump most of you. I went to Wimbledon most years from the 1950s onwards till I left London in 1992. You name them and I most likely have seen them play.

      One of my most vivid memories has to be the 1968 USO. This was the first time many of the great stars (Laver, Rosewall, Roche, Emerson, Stolle, etc. etc.) who had been excluded when they became professionals were able to enter again. I was working in the Sports Illustrated hospitality tent and I escaped as often as possible to watch the matches.

      Incidentally in those days it was still played on grass at Forest Hill

      • ed, were you tennis correspondent for Sports Illustrated? Sampras won his first Wimbledon in 1993 ( after you left). But did you see him play earlier and did anyone spot his Wimbledon potential? My Dad told me most people thought Agassi had more potential and Sampras was about to be written off as a one slam (1990 US Open ) wonder. Before he won Wimbledon in 1993, he was already no. 1 but my Dad says this was dismissed by tennis writers as computer being a bot and labeling the wrong guy as no. 1!!! Shows the perspicacity of tennis analysts!!!

      • ed,

        I just came on here and read your post and had to respond. So you saw Laver play in person? I well remember how they were excluded when they were professionals and then finally could play at Wimbledon again. Some of Laver’s wins are excluded from his official record, so all that he did is not there because of this nonsense of professional vs. amateur. Finally in 1968 it was sorted out and we had the Open Era.

        I well remember that it was grass at Forest Hills!

    • Mary. No I wasn’t in the editorial department at SI. My background was marketing/promotions and I was on ‘meet and greet duties’ at that particular tournament. I then joined the Express group on my return to London so had plenty of opportunities through the network to be at Wimbledon. About 80% of the people who accept the invitations have no interest in tennis and were mystified I didn’t want to spend the whole afternoon drinking in the tents – hence the empty seats you always see in the front pews.

      After all these years I’m pushed to remember in detail all the matches I’ve watched but yes I did see Sampras two or three times in his early days. Never really warmed to him – my favourites of that era were Agassi, McEnroe and Edberg.

  8. Ah the hate, the vitriol in the posts directed at me! Poor Rafa, I shudder to think what his fate would be when these trolls become Djoko converts.

  9. Hey augusta08,

    If you remember, I need to apologise since I never got round to translating that article from Mallorca about U. Toni talking about Rafa’s chances for the rest of the season. Truth is I’ve been awfully busy but not it’s winding down… seriously need a holiday..

    • But overall of course, Rafa is still the best. (Rafa has played both players on several occasions and has winning records vs both of them.)

      hahahahha

    • vamosrafa,

      Yes! I had some great chats with Luckystar on TT. We would even talk about the past greats in the game. Those talks are something I treasure. As much as I have watched tennis over the decades, I still learned something from her. She had a brilliant tennis mind.

  10. Did you know that the Pakistan Davis cup team had to forfeit Davis cup matches because they could not prepare grass courts of the requisite playing standards?

  11. Ricky, while you are at it, please keep a strict check on continual posting of completely out-of-context screen shots from previous thread, that have the potential to destroy any tennis discussion here.

    Good job, much appreciated.

    #AllHailTennisDiscussions

    • vamosrafa says:
      July 22, 2015 at 2:13 pm,,
      — screen shots from previous thread, that have the potential to destroy any tennis discussion here.—
      ===============

      The stories that YOU are continually making up about other posters, will certainly destroy any tennis discussion here!

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