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

68 Comments on Rafael Nadal

  1. Rafael Nadal- save yourself for the Sf/F against Federer.
    Don’t fall early like in the past, let see who will win in daylight this time.

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    • Wouldn’t that be lovely. A Fedal match at Wimbledon for Rafa to extend his lead and equal their h2h on grass. Federazzi will have nowhere to hide then.

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    • ^^^

      Hahaha, very funny! You mean to say, “……let us see who will win in the artificial light under the roof?”

      I join you in your prayer @sabs and hope Rafa gets through to the 2nd week. I am also including Fed in my prayer, that the tennis Gods do not put Stakho in his quarter!

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  2. Don’t pick on Rafa. A lot of tennis have superstitions as well, although I;ll have to admit, Rafa’s got far too many. It’s not OCD, though, because he only does thm in a match, never in practice or in his normal life.

    TOP 10: MANİACS AND SUPERSTİTİOUS

    “SUPERSTİTİON İS THE POETRY OF LİFE” WROTE THE GERMAN THİNKER GOETHE. HOWEVER, HE WAS NOT PLAYİNG TENNİS, PROBABLY FEARİNG THE DARK SİDE OF THİS MİND GAME. A WORLD OF FETİSHES, FULL OF SUPERSTİTİONS AND LİTTLE QUİRKS OF ALL KİNDS. VAİN, CHİLDİSH AND MAGİCAL AT THE SAME TİME.

    1. RAFAEL NADAL
    Always takes a cold shower before a game. Bunny hops at the coin toss and a sprint of a few meters to the baseline, to transcend. The socks are perfectly symmetrical, fitted to the millimetre. Two or three bottles are carefully aligned on the ground and perpendicular to the baseline, with the label facing the net. He brushes his foot on the service line, taps the soles of his shoes – even on a hard surface (sic), then readjusts his pants: on average, per set, Nadal plays with his underwear 85 to 97 times. “It’s because I have a fat arse!” he joked one day. Preparing for his service, he passes his hand over his right shoulder. Left shoulder. Right ear. Nose. Left ear. Pushes the ball in his pocket. And so many more things besides… Leading Tony Nadal, his coach, to conclude: “Rafa is a bundle of nerves. To calm him down, we imagined a lot of small habits.”

    2. NOVAK DJOKOVİC
    Laid back and smart, this prototype of the perfect male really has only one flaw: his neurotic horror for bouncing the ball before his service. An obsession such that Novak Djokovic can even count it. “My record was in 2007 during the Davis Cup against Australia. I made the ball bounce 38 or 39 times [before his service, ed.]” confided Nole to CBS News. However, the Serbian said he has “no superstitions” except the mandatory presence of his poodle, Peter, at every Wimbledon tournament. This year will be no exception to the rule. “I have routines, I call it routines!”

    3. BJÖRN BORG
    In 1976, four days before Wimbledon, the Swedish tennis legend decided not to shave until he was knocked out. Wearing the same Fila shirt, “Ice Man” grew out his long blond goatee five times for as many consecutive wins. In 1981, on the eve of the tournament, the headlines of the U.S. version of Sports Illustrated magazine read: “The Beard has begun.” But that year, the bearded man lost in the final against John McEnroe, another legend of Wimbledon. The moral of the story, according to Agassi: “Superstition is like Fight Club, you should never talk about it.” First rule.

    4. DOMİNİKA CİBULKOVA
    This year, the lovely Dominika Cibulkova stood out at Roland Garros by beating the former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the second round. Beyond the victory, the French public discovered her lustful ritual: she tenderly kisses the new balls before her service. Well, not exactly “I don’t kiss the balls but I smell them. I love their smell, the smell of new balls. And then I think that it’ll bring me luck.” Gael Monfils likes this.

    5. LİNDSAY DAVENPORT
    Not so much a compulsion, but more an economic matter. “In 1995, in Strasbourg, I dropped the trophy. Because of me and all the little pieces of the trophy that I had broken that spread all over the court, the doubles final had to be postponed. The sponsors were not happy at all (laughs).”After this incident, Lindsay Davenport promised that she would never raise a cup above her head, arms outstretched, but rather at her ears or just under her chin. Ambitious, she promised her fans to go higher up when she would win her first Grand Slam. Done in 1998, when she won the U.S. Open. Mazeltov!

    6. BARRY COWAN
    In 2001, this modest British player was handed a wild card for Wimbledon. Then ranked 265th in the world, and supported fervently by the partisan London crowd, he played the biggest match of his career by pushing Pete Sampras to his limits. His inspiration? “You’ll never walk alone”the anthem of Liverpool Football Club, which he listened to in his Walkman at every change of side. “You can’t be focused all the time and to think of Liverpool helps me tremendously” said Cowan after the game, have finally gone down in five sets. Alone.

    7. CONCHİTA MARTİNEZ
    When she was brushing the baseline with her shoe, Conchita Martinez would not be feeling good at all. In the evening, on her way back to her hotel, she could see danger everywhere, even under her bed, of which she had to inspect every corner. But above all, in a match, the Spanish always asked to serve using the same ball with which she had just won a point. Systematically. So one day, exasperated, the Swiss Patty Schnyder slipped the lucky charm that had just offered the advantage to Martinez under her skirt. The handshake was cold (non-existent, in fact) but followed by a heated argument in the dressing room. Discreet, but perverse.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k71ezy5CC4k&feature=player_embedded

    8. GORAN IVANİSEVİC
    Goran Ivanisevic used to ask the ball boys to throw him the same ball with which he just made an ace. Less gloriously, on the day of a match, he would not leave his bed without watching an episode of the cartoon “Teletubbies”. One morning, after a good victory in Australia, the giant Croatian even pushed the limits of vice by reproducing the identical program of the previous day: same clothes, same food and same people to talk to. Also, when at the change of side, this great picky man always stood up from his seat after his opponent. A few milliseconds were enough. And of course, he never touched the baseline… Perhaps not so unusual after all…

    9. SERENA WİLLİAMS
    A textbook case. Lucid, the American thinks she is truly OCD. “Yeah, these are questions I ask myself. It’s really a self-diagnosis. But I think I can choose to have it or not… maybe”. As a proof, before each match, Serena Williams wears her shoes exactly the same way. Obsessed with her toenails, she always brings her shower sandals on the court, stashed in her bag as a lucky charm. But above all, she wears the same pair of socks during the whole tournament. Best not to think about the smell…

    10. CATHERİNE TANVİER
    Psychiatrists all agree on this, it’s an underlying fear that lies behind all these strange rituals; a reassuring routine that one shouldn’t ever give up any cause. One day, the “Borgette” made this crucial mistake. When facing Martina Navratilova on the Central court at Roland Garros, the Frenchwoman, paralyzed by the event, forgot her little pre-game rituals and thought for a long time about forfeiting. She finally made it on to the court with earplugs so as not to hear the spectators. She thus played the game without being able to refer to the sound of the ball. Result: two donuts 6/0, 6/0. Deaf and blind, obviously. But also…

    Andre Agassi, who used to wait for all ball boys to stop moving and get in place, even if it meant directing them to do so. Fabrice Santoro, who used to put dirt on his socks before his service. Lleyton Hewitt, who would listen to the Rocky soundtrack of when entering the court (Eye Of The Tiger, ed.) Nicolas Kiefer, who would touch the angles of the lines with his racket. Boris Becker, who yawned regularly. Ivan Lendl, who used to smear his racket handle with sawdust. Kent Carlsson, who displayed a dozen pair of socks on the floor at the change of side, not knowing which one to choose. Mary Pierce, who was playing with her plait to smooth her hair before her service. Zina Garrison, who was twisting her behind in the service return. And many others. Almost everyone actually… By Victor Le Grand

    Reply

    • All but two of these examples are rituals, not disorders, as they don’t prevent or impact degree of success.

      Assuming that Tanvier was the one that lost, then, yes, that would appear to be a disorder.

      When Rafa looks in a stressed panic, trying to rush rituals to avoid time warnings (as he has at times over the last six months, then this is boderline OCD if it severely negatively affects his performance and the outcome of a match…

      Obviously extremely high functioning and it’s only concerned me as a fan over the last six months.

      All of the above is my opinion only..

      Reply

  4. RT @Wimbledon: “Nicolas Almagro has withdrawn from #Wimbledon 2014 with a foot injury. He is replaced in the seeds by Vasek Pospisil “

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    • Ferrer, who withdrew from ‘s-Hertogenbosch this week with a stomach problem, also wrote on Twitter that he will be playing the grass-court major. “After tests, told that I can play next week,” he wrote in Spanish. “Tonight we fly to London.”

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  6. If full blown OCD interfere with everyday functioning then it is an illness requiring professional help. But there are degrees of OCD and there are many well known people who are, or have been, described as clinically OCD who have performed at the highest level in various walks of life.

    http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/famous-ocd.shtml

    There is a whole range of conditions which are mental (i.e.there is no physical cause) which can range from being crippling to mildly disruptive. It would be a gross exaggeration to describe people dealing with these problems as being mentally ill.

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  9. Fed is slowly becoming history. Rafa will eclipse him in all areas by the time they both retire. I think Fed is aiming to outlast Rafa on tour just to recover some ground.

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    • ^^With the help of his friends in the establishment of course. Watch them rig the draw tomorrow so he can, they hope, distance himself from Rafa Slam wise.

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    • 0.001% difference on Facebook!!! Incredible. I think Delpo just topped 2M on twitter which is pretty impressive.

      I think they’ll both deliver on what they have both said in the past.I expect that both will simultaneously retire after the next Olympics in 2016 sadly. Exception being if Rafa was tied or one slam behind Fed and he felt he was still in good health to compete.

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  11. Is Rafa’s match at Hurlingham being televised. If so what time is it and can somebody give me the link?

    Djokovic has pulled out of his match at Boodles (precautionary measure prior to Wimbledon!!!) because of a niggling wrist injury. He is on site though.

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  14. Seems to me TRob is the one getting a nice pre-Wimby work out, he’s playing Rafa tomorrow, no?

    RT @NeilHarmanTimes: “Andy Murray comes through a nice work-out, 62 76 over Tommy Robredo at Hurlingham “

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  15. Rafa is the highest-earning player in tennis, according to Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazine’s annual rankings of athlete incomes [2013]:
    1. Cristiano Ronaldo
    2. Lionel Messi
    3. Rafael Nadal
    4. Roger Federer
    5. Fernando Alonso

    Tennis.com: ¤¤ Nadal was No. 3 among international athletes and said to have earned $42.5 million in 2013, while Federer was No. 4 with $41.2 million. Federer was, however, higher in endorsements earnings, with $38 million compared to Nadal’s $28 million. Federer was No. 2 a year ago, while Nadal was No. 10.
    The rankings had Novak Djokovic at No. 9 with earnings of $30 million, with $18 million through endorsements, and Andy Murray at No. 20 with earnings of $17 million, $12 million in endorsements.¤¤
    http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/06/nadal-tops-federer-among-sports-illustratedfortune-highest-earners/51797/#.U6L9PPmSxXb

    Reply

    • ^^Add the Banc Sabadell and Telefonica sponsorship deals and Rafa will be nipping at Fed’s heels in that department. Also, Rafa as earnings coming in later in the year from the Asian exhos he will play with Muzza and co………

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    • ^^ritb: Perry is my hometown newspaper tennis columnist so I’ve been reading his articles from day one. His Fed bias used to be a lot worse, to the point where I didn’t even want to read his articles. I read the article early this morning and thought….”Oh, it’s just Doug.”

      Reply

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