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

55 Comments on Rafael Nadal

  2. ……….that’s very worrying Natashao. I had you marked down as a woman of good taste. And I am also alarmed for Jpa. The mind boggles at the thought of Rafa tugging and pulling at the short knickers of the Borg era that she would like to see make a comeback.
    For my part, I still mourn the passing of the pirate pants and sleeveless top.

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  3. Google Translate.
    —JULIEN BENNETEAU: “THE FRENCH ADORE RAFA NADAL”
    Question. What do you think your friends, your neighbors, people on the street in France on that domain of Nadal and the other Spanish players at the French Open?
    BENNETEAU. They think it is the greatest of all time on clay. People here like to. I adore. Off the track is a great person, a gentleman, and the track is the best.
    Question. Is there anger? Is there envy?
    BENNETEAU. No, no. Not at all.—
    http://www.tennistopic.com/centre-court/entrevistas/julien-benneteau-los-franceses-adoran-a-rafa-nadal/

    It’s clear that these spectators who don’t like Rafa are Fedfans-hooligans, and a lot of them are foreigners.

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    • You have to remember that demonstrating is in the DNA of the French. Put a few Frenchmen together at a sporting event and even otherwise respectable middle-aged men start behaving like hooligans if something displeases them.

      They always cheer disproportionately for their own countrymen but as was seen this evening they will also turn on a Frenchman if they are displeased. They were not happy with Paire who started off playing sloppy tennis, then had a racquet tantrum and followed that up by blatantly tanking the match. Understandably they felt they were not getting their moneys worth.

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  8. he’s an EIGHT-time champion of the event, for crying out loud. Any champion of any event EIGHT time should revered at almost God-like level.

    Rafa merely gets golf-clap applause when he wins. He is respected. He certainly isn’t loved.

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    • Agreed for many years he was not shown the respect he deserves but a lot of that has to do with the sycophantic attitude towards Federer, starting with preferential treatment by tournament organisers. As Nadline points out, much of the negativity was shaped by derogatory remarks from influential commentators many of whom have only just gotten around to revising their opinion of Rafa.

      However lack of respect is not the same thing as active dislike. And lack of respect is by no means confined to Roland Garros. Wimbledon were also guilty of that when precedence was given to Federer to open the tournament in spite of the fact Rafa was reigning champion and No.1.

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      • ed, when did that happen? The only time, when Rafa was reigning champion (and No1), was 2011. And I clearly remember, that he played the first Center Court match, since he stated in an interview, how great that felt. Wimby has strict rules about that. 2010, he was No1, but he was not the the reigning champion That was Fed alright’

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  9. Of course many Parisians and other French people love Nadal. And many don’t. Many have been good spectators over all the RGs, of course. But many others have been out of proportion overtly against him and not only in the match against Rosol if that was not bad enough, they have been so since pretty much the start. When he beat, was it Gasquet?, en route to then horrors of all horrors beating Fed in the semi in 2005. The rest is history. At least for those among them that have been rather nasty all along. If he were only a Spaniard and not beating repeatedly who he shouldn’t they would have been ok. But as it is the fact that he is also from Spain adds to the (perceived) insult. My view, at any rate.

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    • I’ve often thought that Rafa’s being from Spain has been a strike against him at the French Open. I still remember Guy Forget’s 2005 comment about Rafa’s attire: “we don’t need construction workers arms in tennis.” That comment was about a lot more than just Rafa’s attire. Rafa’s been referred to as “the gardener,” “the help,” “the bricklayer,” and other assorted insults over the years (those terms are only insults, of course, from an elitist point of view). His early non-fluency in English also contributed to a mind-set among some that he was a simpleton and nothing more than a tennis savant. Add in his on court “tics” and the whole package provides fodder for his detractors.

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    • Chloro: I was there for both those 2005 matches you mention. It was Grosjean he beat in the 4R. It was on the way to that win when the crowd rioted and play was stopped for nearly 10 minutes. But that was not directed at Rafa himself. It was outrage when the umpire refused to overturn a linesman’s call they thought was good. During the SF the crowd were in shock but gave Rafa his due with (to coin Ricky’s lovely phrase) Golf-Clap applause but there was absolutely animosity. That was the day I fell in love 😉

      Jpa: Sorry I was thinking it was Nadline who made the point about the pundits making insulting comments about Rafa. Certainly Roger’s fluent French allows the French to regard him almost as one of them. Note they now cheer Rafa when he uses a few French phrases. Unfortunately being Spanish also does little to help Rafa’s cause. They are pretty touchy about the Spanish Tennis Armada in the absence of a home grown RG champion for 30 years. Unlike the British who were inured to watching every other nationality lift the trophy until Andy broke the 77yr drought.

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      • Littlefoot: Maybe I’m confusing at which major it was. But there was an incidence when protocol was ignored and Federer played the opening match.

        Nadline: Can you help out? Your memory is better than mine.

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  11. Fedfans like to blow up Rafa’s so called unpopularity at RG out of all proportions even though the evidence is to the contrary. He is mobbed by the French in Paris and he is always celebrated on his birthday. Last year he had the biggest cake ever presented to him on court. True, he wasn’t very popular when he beat the biggest hopes for the title in 2005, one after the other – Grosjean in Rnd 32, then Gasquet in Rnd 16.

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    • And this year wasn’t the first time the crowd sang ‘happy birthday’ for Rafa. A couple of years ago Eurosport’s commentators didn’t pay any attention to singing and even didn’t let to listen to it – they continued talking-talking-talking (about Rafa’s opponent).

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    • ^^^^He beat Gasquet then the big white hope Grosjean
      The SF with Federer was played on Rafa’s 19th birthday and I remember longing for the crowd to sing Bonne Anniversaire.

      I stopped going in 2007. I prefer to watch in comfort at home than spend hours hanging around during rain delays. Spectator facilities at RG are poor – you’re lucky to find somewhere to shelter, let alone sit down, unless you’re a hospitality guest.

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  14. Rafa may have many fans in Paris and France, but French tennis fans ‘adoring him’? No way! They love their own players and Fed. They adored Guga. But who wouldn’t? They even cheered him on against Fed, when he was already Wimby champ and No 1. And loved, that Guga beat him. When Rafa did the same a year later, he got into their black book for quite a while. And 2005, they even had a point. I watched the FO final against Puerta for the first time in full a while ago. It wasn’t great tennis at all. Rafa has been a bad match up against Fed right from the start, but he certainly didn’t compare well with Guga’s lightness and finesse. He was nowhere near the player, he would eventually become. And that is one of the reasons, why I am a rafafan. I know of no player, who has evolved so much over the years, and who was and is still able to learn and reinvent himself constantly, in order to become and remain truly great. While Fed’s potential for greatness was apparent from early on, no one in his right mind would’ve predicted Rafa’s career arc, especially outside of clay. That he could do a thing or two on clay, was obvious, but if a pundit would’ve predicted him to become a career slammer with a double digit slam count, challenging all the records, he would’ve been asked, what exactly he had been smoking.
    The French crowd didn’t like him a lot back then, and they don’t love him now, but I think, they (if they are not named Noah) learned over the years to grudgingly respect him. They had no choice, lol, since he has come back for trophy snatching like Ground Hog Day year after year. And when someome finally will beat him at RG for the second time only, it will be a bigger thing than Sampras’ loss 2001 at Wimby to a certain pony tailed nut case from Switzerland. But, you can be sure, that the French crowd will love it.

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    • ^^^^^I fear you are right 🙁 They will show no pity. They take particular glee in seeing the mighty being toppled just so as long as its not a Frenchman or an honorary Frenchman named Federer.

      Don’t forget. It’s only 200 years since they mobbed the tunbrils and flocked to watch heads topple.

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      • Yeah, it will be a feast for them 🙁 . But, that beating Rafa at RG is perceived as kind of the holy grail of tennis, is an honour, no?
        To be fair, the RG crowd can be quite nasty to their own kind as well, just like 200 years ago.
        The Bercy crowd is different to the RG crowd, btw.

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      • ed, since you live in France, you would know more about the average Frenchman’s attitude towards Rafa outside of any tennis stadium.
        I envy you for having witnessed fledgling Rafa live 2005. Even, if I wasn’t impressed with the esthetics of Rafa’s game back then, I was one of his early fans because of his exuberant fighting spirit and his oncourt intelligence. The way, he challenged Fed and otheres right from the start, was marvellous. This attitude is sorely missing in todays up and coming generation

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      • Even the French who like Rafa are hyper critical of his, for want of a better description, OCD rituals and are mystified when I say I don’t notice them any longer. But everybody knows who he is even if they never watch tennis. They try to get a rise out of me by taunting me about his losses but they are far worse when it comes to Andy Murray on the assumption I am strongly nationalistic! OTH they were full of admiration for Henman’s ‘fair play’ possibly because it’s a concept totally alien to them 🙂

        I get a lot of barracking if the Brits are doing well in any sport against the French and they are prone to saying ‘of course they are cheating’ be it football, rugby, cycling, or whatever.

        In spite of living here for 25 years I have never got used to their rowdy behaviour at sports events. My daughter and I sit as far away as possible from her husband and his friends if we can.

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      • Well, ed, this year the French didn’t have many possibilities to taunt you, with Rafa winning almost everything in site and Andy finally winning Wimby 🙂 .
        I do notice Rafa’s oncourt OCD, as I do notice other players’ quirks and habits. But I don’t mind them at all. We need diversity of personality and not cookie cutter players. I’m mystified, how people can be so overly critical about things, which play out mostly subconsciously. And, btw, Andy is dearer to me than Henman ever was. Tim always seemed to be a character out of “Chariots of Fire’, lol!
        The French sporting crowd was never known for it’s fairness. Talk about sour grapes Everybody, who beats French athlets, must be doping… Unfortunately, they were mostly right as far as cycling is concerned, though I highly doubt, that French athlets are all white and innocent lambs.

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    • littlefoot,

      I missed the rise of Rafa because I stopped watching tennis. I couldn’t stand seeing Fed beat everyone without any real competition. But I must say that if I had seen him, I would have known immediately that he was destined for greatness. Just having the opportunity to watch some of those early matches now years later, it was obvious that he was something special.

      I have learned from watching tennis my whole life, that one can spot greatness. Even though he seemed like a clay court specialist, I would have known from how fearless he was against Fed, his fierce competitive spirit and his never say die attitude, that he was going to do great things in this sport.

      When I finally did start watching tennis again and saw him in the 2007 Wimbledon, I felt that excitement and exhilaration. I knew that he was going to do a lot more and that he was not just a clay court specialist. He reminded me of the new, improved version of Borg.

      I don’t know what’s up with the French. Honestly, I really don’t care. If they don’t get Rafa and can’t appreciate him, then it’s their loss.

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      • NNY, like you, I lost my interest in tennis ca. between 2003 to 2005 due to extreme boredom. And while I didn’t find Rafa’s play beautiful at the beginning of his career (that would change later), I simply loved his attitude. And, you are right, that attitude was a hint at greater things to come. I knew, he had the right mind set, when he announced, that he wanted to win Wimby one day. And that in the day and age of the mighty Fed! Most people laughed back then, and were secretly thinking: “Dream on, kiddo”, and yet, there he was right in the final with Fed from 2006 onwards. And getting better and better. Until he played the most beautiful tennis, I have ever seen, in the best match I’ve ever seen. In that period from spring 2008 until the final of the AO 2009, he was, IMHO, a better player than Fed ever was. Later, he had to modify his tennis and become more effective, while conserving some energy. That and his attitude helped him to keep his career wildly successful. But if someone says, Rafa’s game is not as beautiful as Fed’s (which is arguably a matter of taste anyway), I always tell them to watch Rafa’s great matches between 2008 and AO 2009.

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    • Wasn’t that the match, where the tennis community almost lost Rafa because of a vicious banana attack? The crowd’s behaviour was pretty ridiculous back then.

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      • Are you thinking of the time he choked on a banana. If so that was a lot later.

        Vamosrafa: There used to be a YouTube of that match but it got taken down. I reckon the French did not want the world to see that shocking behaviour.

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  17. #TheEmperorHasNoClothes

    This theme in the last ten years in male pro tennis has had two intertwined strands. The first strand was the mythification of the tennis mage of the mountains. When the dark knight of the island came to challenge the mage (or white knight if you will) a second strand appeared and immediately started to twist with the first.

    The first strand was that the incredible mage was even more incredible that can be credible. And many, the majority, of the public watching the procession of tournaments believed the more incredible claims. The first coming of the male tennis deity.

    The second strand was the making less credible of the real accomplishments and qualities of the black knight. The black knight’s accomplishments, personality, and everything about him just about, was blackened, downgraded, twisted. Perhaps he was a fallen angel?

    First strand: the white knight is nearly faultless. There never was and never will be so white a knight.

    Second strand: the black knight is unappealing, less accomplished that the naked eye sees (you really should not just trust your naked eye nor your common sense), and far, far lower in overall accomplishments, merit and (divine) grace than the white knight. He might even partake of forbidden substances concocted in some lab, that is, hell. Even if he is not ingested any such, he is still somewhat ugly, more or less reprehensible in his play and character and ticks, and really ought not to have made an appearance in the era of the mage, let alone made for such a challenge to the divinely-gifted destiny of the great one.

    I paraphrase of course, but are those not the two layers of the magnificent clothes of the emperor, the exquisite fabrics only visible to the honorable and loyal?

    #MixedMetaphors
    #TheEmperorHasNoClothes

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    • What I do not understand in this universal “blackening” (God, what a strange metaphor, me being Black ‘n all) of Rafa’s name and image is the air-brushing of Rafa’s Masters 1000 achievements compared to the White Knight. Every single Goat-hood argument put forth by the White Knight’s supporters totally ignores the Masters 1000 comparison!

      Are we to believe that no. of weeks at #1 is a bigger stat than Masters 1000 trophies garnered? They hand out trophies for the latter, but not for the former, no? Yes, there is a trophy for YE#1, but not for the number of weeks…………………….

      We Rafans need to start perching up on those soap boxes and trumpeting Rafa’s achievements more……………….

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  18. ed251137 says:
    October 29, 2013 at 1:53 am
    The concept that Rafa is unpopular in Paris has been blown up out of all proportion IMO. Apart from the shameful behaviour when he lost to Soderling, there are no real grounds for believing they dislike him.

    Coming to this discussion late but why would we exclude their behaviour during the Soderling match? That event just showed how much hate and disrespect they had towards him and still do to this day. Even Uncle Toni said so.

    When Rafa lost the first set in his first two rounds vs Brands and Kilzan at the FO this year, the fans roared with pleasure.

    The French don’t deserve such a fine champion. They disgust me.

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    • hawkeye@October 29, 2013 at 3:27 pm
      —When Rafa lost the first set in his first two rounds vs Brands and Kilzan at the FO this year, the fans roared with pleasure.—

      Let me correct you: …Fedfans roared with pleasure.

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    • ^^^^It is not being excluded. It was reprehensible, I have always said so. But it does not qualify as hate. There are many far worse examples of the RG crowd behaving in a disgusting manner towards players – particularly the women. in any crowd situation it can take only a few rabble rousers to turn a crowd into a baying mob.

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  19. I dont know why so much emotional effort and time is expended pushing hot treacle up the stairs. The herds of goats are immune to any efforts to make them change direction.

    They cling to the stats they believe support their argument like a child clutching its doudou.

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    • I agree. That’s why I don’t feel inclined to waste my time trying to convince Fedbots and haters about Rafa’s stellar achievements. They won’t ever hear me.

      All one has to do is take a look at tennis-x.com and read some of the rabid hatred for Rafa and the endless arguments as to why their dear Fed is the GOAT.

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  20. The overriding fact of all those stats, and there are so many of them, is that over time there are many amazing stats on the side of both the white and the black knight and it is getting increasingly more difficult to declare either of them as being _vastly_ better stats-wise than the other. In some respect one is stronger than the other… and vice-versa. Perhaps one is _moderately_ better than the other, overall, stats-wise. But neither is _vastly_ better overall, stats-wise. And hence the holy grail of This one fact has got to be one of the most inconvenient ones of them all. That this is not so is another layer of exquisite cloth that only the righteous ones can see.

    Post-scroptum (sic): … and hence the holy grail of Capra aegagrus hircus (google it) is not extant, never was, perhaps never will. It was a phantasm, a play of the light or of the hallucination (sic). It was another layer of exquisite cloth that … you know the rest.

    #TheEmperorHasAtLeastFourExquisiteClothes

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    • chloro, I agree with you, that Rafa’s and Roger’s stats converge more and more. And this trend will will probably continue. I do think, though, that many experts and tennis fans realized, especially after this season, the nonsensical nature of “monoGOATism”. I personally believe in “polyGOATism” 🙂 . There are many goats past and present on the meadows of tennis, and that’s just fine with me. To a certain degree I blame D. F. Wallace. He was a fine writer, but he did a great disservice to the tennis community by elevating tennis to a religion with Fed as it’s high priest. This set of mind causes all the angst about Fed’s natural and inevitable decline. It’s unfair to the great man himself. NO athlet and no human being for that matter should get sattled with the burden of having to be a religious experience.

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