There will be no 12th title for Rafael Nadal at the Monte-Carlo Masters. At least not this year.
Fabio Fognini shocked Nadal 6-4, 6-2 in the semis on Saturday afternoon, advancing to his first-ever Masters 1000 final after one hour and 36 minutes.
It was Nadal’s first event back after missing a month due to knee issues, but he had been mostly dominant through three matches to suggest that nothing out of the ordinary would take place against Fognini. But a surprisingly erratic performance by the world No. 2 (25 unforced errors, six donations of serve) combined with a red-hot Fognini resulted in perhaps the biggest upset of this 2019 season.
“I want to enjoy my victory,” the Italian said. “It’s an amazing feeling, especially beating him on this surface.”
Speaking of upsets, Fognini’s opponent in the final is Dusan Lajovic. The world No. 48 booked a spot in his first ATP title match of any kind by ending Daniil Medvedev’s run 7-5, 6-1. Lajovic trailed 5-1 in the first set before completely dominating the rest of the way to prevail in one hour and 35 minutes over the main who had previously ousted Novak Djokovic.
“It was an incredible match today,” the 28-year-old assured. “I had the worst nightmare, falling down 5-1. But I won 10 games in a row, so I was able to find my rhythm and my game. In windy conditions like today, it was impossible to play real tennis and in the end I was able to hit my forehands better than him. I’m still unaware of my achievement in Monte-Carlo.”
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wow
Rafa is there for the taking; it’s just that Pella didn’t believe he would or could win hence served poorly and allowed Rafa back into the match.
Foggy otoh had beaten Rafa on clay before so he had the belief he could do it again and sure enough he did! Rafa was and is playing poorly match after match; he’s certainly playing subpar tennis on clay regardless of how good his opponents were playing.
He hitting CC to Foggy’s BH all match long told the story – he’s not problem solving out there; was just sticking to his CC FH vs opponent’s CCBH pattern disregarding how well his opponent was hitting the BH! He not hitting his FHDTL to change the pattern of play showed that he’s not confident in his own game.
He literally ‘sleep’ through the whole match playing one dimensional hitting cross court from well behind the baseline tennis; and until he almost had to swallow a bagel that he finally woke up, hit his FHDTL winners, hit a few solid penetrating shots to break serve and finally won two more games to save himself from the embarrassment of getting bageled.
I mean, if he’s capable of playing like in the last two or three games of the match, why won’t he play that way earlier on during the match, esp when he was about to lose the first set, or early during the second set??
I feel that it’s perhaps Rafa just couldn’t summon that kind of game anymore at will; and had to be back against the wall, that his fighting spirit took over and forced the issue. Rafa is aging and his body breaking down so often these days, that maybe we’re seeing the end of his career very soon. If he can’t win the FO or any other slam this year, I feel he’s going to call it quit soon. After all, he’s getting married and it’s time for a 33 yo man to settle down and starts a family.
He’s unlike Fed, and said that he would want to spend time with his children at home instead of having them travelling round the world with him while he plays his tennis.
I may be wrong and predicting things too soon (or just simply over reacting) but it’s not difficult to see that Rafa is getting injured more and more frequently and at shorter intervals – in 2017 he played 75 matches before he got injured (at Shanghai); in 2018 he was injured at AO, played another 45 matches and got injured. In 2019 he barely played, just 13 matches played and he’s injured again. I wonder how’s he going to last the whole clay season this time; just hope that he doesn’t over play on clay and doesn’t get injured; and hope he wins the FO again!
The reason Nadal was hitting to Fognini BH is 1) that’s his go-to shot against right handers; and 2) he fears Fognini’s FH, which is a point-ending shot when it’s on.
Problem with Nadal today wasn’t tactical. He just got badly outplayed from the baseline.
Nah, after a few games, don’t tell me Rafa couldn’t sense that Foggy wasn’t missing his BH! Foggy was hitting more BH winners than FH ones. A ‘normal’ Rafa would’ve changed direction and hit his FH DTL more often to Foggy’s FH instead. So, it just showed that Rafa wasn’t his usual self, fell back to play his default game instead.
It happened too during the Pella match, when he kept hitting his FHCC when Pella being a lefty was receiving that with his FH, so effectively Rafa was hitting to Pella’s stronger wing. It all go to show that Rafa wasnt thinking out there and was just playing his default game, not trusting his own FHDTL shots.
Nah, after a few games, don’t tell me Rafa couldn’t sense that Foggy wasn’t missing his BH, when he had so many BH winners!
Foggy was hitting more BH winners than FH ones; a ‘normal’ Rafa would’ve changed direction by hitting his own FHDTL more often to Foggy’s FH instead, and kept Foggy guessing and running. So, it just showed that Rafa wasn’t his usual self, fell back to play his default game when it’s not working for him!
It happened too during the Pella match, when Rafa was doing the same thing despite Pella being a lefty and Rafa was actually hitting to Pella’s stronger wing. It all go to show that Rafa wasn’t even thinking clearly out there, and was just playing his default game, not trusting his FHDTL shots.
Problem with Rafa today was that he’s playing poorly – serve was bad, shots were bad when they landed mostly in Foggy’s service box instead of closer to the baseline. He played bad with no tactical plans out there, not even bother to change directions or to move inside the court to at least hit with more depth; doomed to fail when Foggy wasn’t going to miss anything.
Also, if Rafa indeed still has an injured knee (which seems likely to me) at this early stage in the clay court season, it is unlikely to get better by RG and very unlikely that he’ll play out the whole rest of the HC season.
I’m also disappointed with how Medvedev played in the SF; was leading in the first set but ended up losing it and losing the match in straight sets.
Was also disappointed with Tsitsipas when he lost to Medvedev ; he had the varieties in his game but didn’t know how to deal with change of pace. Looks like he still has some way to go before he can win a big title.
Since the AO, it’s only Fed in the top ten who’s playing well; the others – Rafa, Djoko, Sasha, Kei are playing poorly. Thiem managed to win at IW but is doing poorly after that; Tsitsipas managed to win a 250 title and reached final at Dubai but did poorly at the Masters. Isner reached the final of Miami but was injured. Anderson, except for winning a 250 event, was not playing well at all so far this season.
It looks like there are plenty of movements in and out of the TOP ten this season. Delpo most likely will drop out, Anderson too. Sasha has plenty of points to defend on clay, he’s not playing well this season due to some injuries, I doubt he will do well on clay this year; he may even fall out of top ten if he continues to play so poorly.
Watching Fognini today, it makes you wonder why he isn’t the one with a bagful of RG titles. He has to be one of the most talented players on tour; it’s always been a mental thing for him. It’s clear, to me at least, that he has always had the ability to dictate play against most players, and he showed it today even on clay against Rafa. Shame he couldn’t serve up the bagel, but what a match. Also great for men’s tennis to see some new faces in these big tournament finals. We’ll be seeing much more of it, it seems.
Why shame? It’s because Rafa woke up and played the way he should and was capable of playing on clay! If Rafa was playing like that from the start to the finish of the match, Foggy won’t be beating him! Shame, that Rafa couldn’t play that way the whole match, but only in the last few games!
My thoughts exactly re the last few games. Rafa’s clay court game is down there somewhere but he hasn’t been able to access it. Maybe he relaxed once he knew the match was lost and played more freely. First time all week I’d really recognized him. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see which Rafa shows up in Barcelona. Getting injured so very often over the last 2 years has to have taken a toll on him.
Well, obviously I was cheering for Fognini, who had played a brilliant second set and I thought deserved the bagel. Credit to Rafa for lifting his game just in time to avoid it.
Actually, I think Fognini played well enough today to have a good chance to win even if Rafa had been at his best. He has just as much ability as Nadal but is usually much weaker mentally. When Fabio can sustain his best level (which he mostly did today) he is tough for anyone to beat.
Nadal obviously did not play well, but he was still better, imo than his 2015 level. I disagree with him that it was his worst match on clay in 14 years and I think he was worse in 2015.
Come on, this is easily his worse match ever on clay since becoming the player he is! I mean how many times he was broken during his service games? And that’s not exactly due to Foggy’s play but his own poor serving! He hardly got his first serve in, and when it’s in, it’s a weak one! Also, he’s hitting short all the time, until the last few games!
If Rafa played the way he did in the last few games, Foggy won’t be able to play his game or get so many winners! He just capitalized on Rafa’s short balls! This may rank as bad as the match he played against Foggy at Barcelona in 2015, but at that time, Rafa had just changed a new racket and wasn’t used to that. This time, it’s Rafa’s own poor play that led to his loss (both times Foggy did play well, to be fair to Foggy).
The scoreline said so too, at least Rafa won more games in 2015 match and wasn’t broken three or four times during that match, and lost the second set in a TB. This time round, Rafa was so bad that nothing could help him!
lucky,
I agree with your take on the match. Keeping it real! What I really cannot stand is a Fed fan giving the usual distorted and biased view of
the match.
Oh yeah, Fog would have beaten Rafa even if he had been at his best! Say what? That is positively delusional!
I also think Rafa would know better than some Fed fan on a forum if this was his worst match in 14 years.
Anyway, thanks for keeping it real!
Exactly NNY! What nonsense to say that Foggy could beat Rafa at his best, and Foggy could win a few FOs.
Come on, these twisted Fed fans, if Djoko or Stan couldn’t beat Rafa at the FO when Rafa was playing well, how would Foggy beat Rafa to win a few FOs? Don’t tell me Foggy is more talented than both Djoko and Stan? Both Djoko and Stan are talented, dedicated and hardworking and consistent enough to reach the business end of the FO, yet they couldn’t beat Rafa (save for once in 2015 when Djoko beat him in the QF).
Even if Foggy becomes more consistent and put in the hard yard, I’m not sure he can fare better than Djoko or Stan at the FO and against Rafa there. If it’s that simple to win at the FO, we would have seen other players winning the FO instead of seeing Rafa’s incredible dominance there!
Also, saying that Foggy may win a few FOs if not for this or that, well, that’s simply mere speculation, a baseless one, for there’s nothing in Foggy’s career so far, that indicates he could win a FO, when at 31 he has for the first time reached a clay Masters final!
Fognini’s other 3 wins v Nadal were all in 2015. Rafa won the other 8 matches – most were not close. Foggy is kind of a junior version of Kyrgios, an oft injured talented head case, less talented but also less nasty. Maybe marriage and fatherhood have straightened him up some since he’s having a decent year for a change. He used to play especially badly in Italy for some godforsaken reason.
Pathetic , but you did at least say Fogi played well.
Great tournament by the Italians,the conditions were difficult but same for everyone.
‘Nini deserves a big title on clay , he’s hugely talented, if he can hold it together mentally.
Pathetic? Rafa was pathetic the way he played! My comment wasn’t pathetic if that’s what you meant. Anyone except the twisted Fed fans could see how badly Rafa played! Foggy just had to hit hard and took advantage of all the short balls Rafa threw at him. Foggy himself was also serving poorly due to the wind, hence he was also broken twice in the first set. Foggy just kept his cool and allowed Rafa to continue his poor play and stick with his(Foggy’s) own game plan and never relent.
Fed kicking himself? I bet with that kind of windy conditions, Fed would also suffer! Fed isn’t Foggy, and couldn’t hit as hard as Foggy did, and Fed’s SHBH in such conditions won’t have much effect on Rafa.
Funny each time Rafa lost, the pathetic Fed fans would think that Fed had a chance against Rafa, without considering how his opponent played and how Fed won’t be able to play that way!
Fed is better than all this players, he is one of the best or the best.
Yet Rafa had Fed’s numbers for so Long now!
I think its pathetic that after one bad tournament , you’re almost writing him off as about to retire!Just because he had ‘his worst match on clay since whenever.’ It happens to the best , I never called for Federer or Djokovic to retire, just because they had an off spell.They managed to bounce back! Im even optimistic about Murray .
When I said Federer was kicking himself for not entering , it was only because he never won here , and he may not get another chance ,wind or not .
I bet Fed is kicking himself now …
Fognini is one of the most talented players on tour, right up there with Fed and Kyrgios. I didn’t say he would have beaten Nadal if the latter was at his best; I said he would have had a good chance had he played like he did today. Rafa at his best would always be favoured on clay, but Fognini at his best is one of the few players who could beat him, imo. He actually has more weapons, which has to be weighed against his lesser consistency and much weaker mental game.
Btw, I didn’t say anything about Fed, and I think Fed would have really struggled with the wind today. Fabio dealt with it beautifully.
Foggy more talented than Rafa, Djoko, Stan and Murray? Don’t make me laugh, ha ha ha!!!
Joe again at it about Kyrgios and now Foggy being as talented as Fed (and implied that they’re more talented than the rest!). My goodness, what kind of logic do you have Joe? Like I said before, Fed’s fellow big four members are all very talented, much talented than the rest, and that’s why even when they’re in their teens, they’re already beating a player like Fed! As teenagers, one can’t say that they’re oh so experienced, or so physically fit as their more experienced opponents who were in their prime, yet the trio were starting to beat Fed and his peers.
What have Kyrgios and Foggy achieved when they’re teens and now in their prime, or are more experienced? Sod also played his best match on clay to beat Rafa at the FO, hitting without missing, was he right up there with Fed in terms of talent?
It seems that Joe always rate those who beat Rafa (and not even regularly) as having talent right up there as Fed! Can I take it as a compliment to Rafa, that whoever beats Rafa has to be very talented in order to beat Rafa.
Well, I didn’t compare him specifically to any of those guys, but yes, I would say in terms of natural talent he is equal to any of them.
Even though I say it all the time, you seem to have a hard time understanding that that just shows that natural talent is only a part -and not the largest part- of overall success.
Its obvious that Fognini has more natural talent than most, as does Kyrgios . Murray is a talented individual too, but Fognini gave him a clay court lesson a couple of times, and beat Nadal three times now on clay. Unfortunately players with so much natural talent tend to rely on it than hard work. They’re artists, basically, and have the temperament that often goes along with that, which can let them down .
Big Al, how come you didn’t mention about Murray beating Foggy on the HCs and on grass?
So Foggy has more natural talent than Murray when he beats Murray on clay;but Murray isnt more talented when he beats Foggy on HCs and grass?
Flair and talent without hard work = Kyrgios and Foggy.
Flair, talent and hard work = the big four, simple as that.
Well Joe, I’ve no problem that you rated Foggy so high up in terms of natural talent but I’ve issue if you rate him higher than Rafa, Djoko and Murray.
I didn’t miss the point about talent and hard work, I just disagree about Foggy having more natural talent than that trio. In the first place, we cant even agree on what’s natural talent, and you seemed to rate natural talent as physical talent (and even on physical talent, the trio may be better than or at least as good as Foggy too – raw speed, raw power, serve, ball striking, balance etc.).
Fabio is now one of only three players to have beaten Nadal thrice on clay: Djokovic (7), Thiem (3) and Fognini (3). Fabio has beaten Rafa on clay more than Federer (2) and Murray (2). I think it’s safe to say that you have to be extremely talented to beat Nadal that many times on clay.
Ha ha, So Foggy more talented than Fed and Murray!
Foggy has more weapons than Rafa? How?
Rafa’s FH > Foggy’s; Rafa’s varieties > Foggy’s; Rafa’s speed and footwork > Foggy’s; Rafa’s ROS > Foggy’s; Rafa’s tennis brain > Foggy’s; Rafa’s court craft > Foggy’s.
Foggy’s BH and serve may be better than Rafa’s. How then Foggy has more weapon than Rafa?
I rate Fabio’s FH as superior as a weapon, that is, as a point-ending shot. A big part of that is his balance and his short back-swing (also true of his BH). Nadal’s FH can be devastating, of course, but it usually requires a lot off preparation, both in footwork, back-swing, and (usually) point-construction. Oddly, Rafa’s BH has become more of a weapon when he flattens it out and blasts it cross-court.
Agree that Rafa is superior in all mental aspects of the game, including ‘tennis brain’ and court craft. I’m not sure he has more variety. Fognini has all the shots as he showed in their match. Those aren’t weapons in my book.
I’m not sure about ROS but I think they’re pretty even. Neither is good enough to call it a weapon.
Ha, You think Foggy can have as much varieties as Rafa? Rafa has deft touches that Foggy doesn’t have, and Rafa’s overheads are the best in the business, not to mention Rafa’s use of lobs and slices, etc during a match.
Foggy has easy power, just like Delpo, but he doesn’t have as much varieties in his game as Rafa, I thought that’s obvious! Rafa’s FHDTL is also a killer shot, and his I/O FH too which he hits it flatter.
And did you say their ROS are about the same? Go check the stats, Rafa has one of the best ROS in the tour, in top two if I’m not wrong. Where is Foggy? What a joke!
If Foggy has more weapons than Rafa, he would have beaten many people and won more titles by now, and won’t be 4-11 vs Rafa! So much for ‘having more weapons’’! What nonsense!
You know what, Joe? You have shown that you actually watched very little of Rafa’s matches, know very little of his game and yet each time you come here and talk big about his opponents, even on clay, as if everyone is more talented than Rafa!
Rafa has proven you wrong time and again, esp when you said Stan had a good chance of beating him at RG in 2017 final, and what a one sided affair it turned out, with Rafa having the upper hand from start to finish! When Rafa was in that type of mood, nobody could stand in his way, not even Stan with all his power!
Rafa was beating Foggy so often throughout their career, and it’s only in 2015, Rafa’s worse year so far (when he’s low in confidence coming back from multiple injuries) that Foggy managed to beat him thrice (and he’s not the only player not named Djoko to beat Rafa in that year).
Rafa played his worst match in this MC SF, and Foggy played one of his best, so Foggy won. Don’t expect Rafa to play any worse than this the next time they meet.
In 2017, Rafa was the dethroned champ, Wawrinka the 2015 champ , and US Open champ, so not unreasonable to predict that .
Nah, you got to look at how Rafa played during that clay season, anything else were irrelevant. Stan the 2015 champ but wasnt doing well in 2017, no reason to think that he would suddenly got better to beat Rafa at RG, moreover, that SHBH of Stan….
Wasn’t Stan the dethroned FO champ too in 2017, when he was beaten by Djoko in 2016 FO and no longer the defending champ in 2017??
What exactly are you talking about, when you’re comparing Stan to Rafa at RG, esp when Rafa was winning at MC, Barcelona and Madrid that year coming into the FO?
You, like Joe, are often belittling Rafa, even on clay, and always trying to big up Rafa’s opponents. In so doing, you two are actually bigging up Rafa, for Rafa have beaten those bigged up opponents oh so often!
Well, I may have bigged up a few of Nadal’s opponents in early 2017, when he was returning from injury and it was unclear if he would be able to dominate as he once did. After he started slow, losing a set to Edmund, that seemed justified. And as Al has said, it was not at all unreasonable to think Stan had a good chance to win in that final. I stand by that, even though in the event Rafa smashed him. Stan simply under-played; otherwise the match would have been much closer. In any case, I haven’t under-rated Nadal on clay for the past two years. He is, objectively, not as good as he was in 2017, which is part of an age-related slide over the last year or more. But I haven’t under-rated him.
Back to Fognini, the main reason he hasn’t achieved more in his career is that he is a head case. You can see it in the way he plays; you can read in it his face. In that respect he literally couldn’t be further from Nadal, who almost always plays with maximum effort and intensity. Put Nadal’s brain into Fognini’s body and there’s no question in my mind that Fog would be a multiple slam winner.
So? The tennis brain isn’t a weapon? In fact it’s the biggest weapon. You can have the best FH on earth but if you can’t use it to your advantage, it’s still useless.
See, the tennis brain is so important. Perhaps you should compare Foggy to Ferrer, who doesn’t have great weapons like Foggy but see what Ferrer has achieved! If Ferrer has Foggy’s weapons, he would be a multiple slam winner!
Even without big weapons, Ferrer is still doing much better than Foggy, winning titles on all surfaces!
Rafa’s ROS is one of the best in the business and you don’t call that a weapon?
Foggy’s FH may be a weapon, but how often he could use that to win his matches? The problem with him is that he’s not always able to use it to his advantage to win his matches, hence he’s only 337-289 in terms of W/L during his career, so much for it being a bigger weapon than Rafa’s.
Rafa’s FH, OTOH, won him close to 1000 matches, with only 191 losses, you think who has the bigger weapon?
Well Stan did beat Murray at RG that year, didnt he? Who was turning into quite the force on clay but then he got injured.
Yeah, but Murray was already having issues with his body, yet Stan had to go the distance in five sets to beat Murray, and on Stan’sfave surface but Murray’s worst! And you and Joe expected that Stan to beat Rafa in the final when Rafa was in that kind of mood?
If you two weren’t disrespectful of Rafa, or even worse, showed contempt of Rafa even on clay, then perhaps you are just having wishful thinking, and hoping that Rafa would fail at the FO, so that he would not catch up with Fed in the slam counts.
Lucky, even you must realize that Rafa is probably still injured and that his chances in the remainder of this clay season are much reduced. His performances against Pella and Fognini don’t lie; he doesn’t play two poor matches in a row on clay unless something is wrong. I don’t see him winning RG at this point and definitely don’t see him ever catching Fed in the slam count. As I think you said, if he can’t play at his best during the clay season, it is as likely as not that he will retire at the end of this year.
Id agree with that , Fognini has easy power, Nadal needs more preparation and if his huge topspin isn’t working, he struggles, esp on damp courts.
He struggles on damp court? But he still wins the match! It’s not like he hasn’t played and won on damp clay all through his career! For some players, damp or not damp courts, they still couldn’t win!
Not just damp courts, but low bouncing courts in general .
Esp indoor ones
So what with low bouncing court, even a player like Foggy who came with easy power, couldn’t win an indoor event. So much for easy power FH.
I said not unreasonable, not expected Stan to beat Rafa.
Anyway, I don’t understand why you’re so incredibly defensive of Nadal losing even one or two matches on clay to an opponent who might be more naturally talented .No-ones arguing with his clay court record.
As I said earlier, Rafa loses one match and its the end of the world to some people. I wouldn’t bet against him winning RG no 12 . Im done on this now , looking forward to Barcelona.
Nope, Big Al. In fact you and Joe are the ones who quickly jumped in each time Rafa suffered a loss!
As mentioned, you two are always bigging up Rafa’s opponents even when there’s no evidence to support them!
Yeah, you should be done writing about this as you simply couldn’t support your claim!
I’m only trying to see some credit for Nadals opponent,every time he loses .It’s still a huge feat to beat him on clay.
We’ll see if he improves and wins Barcelona, or if he doesn’t win a title this clay season,he will hang up his racquet.
Evidence? For what , natural talent? Ridiculous ,its just an opinion.
Nice analysis of what Fabio did well in beating Nadal. Basically, he controlled the baseline rallies by hitting the ball harder (123 vs 118 kph) from further forward in the court. Crucially, he hit enough angled shots to neutralize Rafa’s usual clay court strategy of standing far back to absorb pace and give himself more time.
https://www.atptour.com/en/news/fognini-monte-carlo-2019-brain-game
Joe, read what he said in his presser after the match. He wasn’t still injured but he said he couldn’t play at 100% consistently yet, as he’s not that confident.
He said he’s consistent when playing at his 70% level, but in order to raise it to 80 or 90 or 100%, he still needs time and matches for him to feel confident doing that consistently.
He could play the way he played vs Agut in R2, that showed he wasn’t injured, he was up 4-1 vs Dimi in set one, but couldn’t sustain that level and so allowed Dimi to level it at 4-4.
The matches vs Pella and Foggy showed that he wasn’t playing at his 100% level throughout the matches, but when his back was against the wall, he did raise his level to fight back to beat Pella, but wasn’t good enough against Foggy as Foggy had played one of his best matches in that SF.
His serve suffered because of 1) the windy conditions, 2) he wasn’t pushing hard on his knees I feel, in order to protect them, perhaps, for they have to last the full clay season at least, for him.
In normal circumstances his 70% level was good enough to win him matches on clay, but to beat a red hot Foggy, he needed his 100% level consistently which he couldn’t have until perhaps the last few games but too late.
Do remember Foggy always played his best against Rafa ever since he beat Rafa thrice in 2015. Rafa needed three sets to beat Foggy in Rome last year, Foggy’s home turf.
Foggy was inspired this MC,
if you’d watched how he played and how his whole family supported him courtside at MC. It seemed he didnt want to disappoint them and sure he didn’t, even when he’s in pain.
I feel Foggy should just rest and recover for two weeks, and concentrates on Madrid, Rome and RG and skips the smaller events. If he does well in the coming two masters, he may even reach top 10 before the FO, will be good for him with a higher ranking, maybe he may even reach the SF at RG.
The clay season after Wimbledon may be good for Foggy to win some titles and secure his top ten rankings.
I actually think he has a good chance, with Delpo looking like he’s going to drop out of top ten, Anderson too. Sasha doesn’t have a great season so far and he’s recovering from some injuries I think so he may also suffer in the rankings.
Of course Rafa is not going to admit that he’s injured now, at the start of the clay season. However, I didn’t think he played that well in any of his matches in MC. RBA played horribly; that was no test at all. And in the rest of his matches, Nadal was just not that good…by which I mean, not good compared to what we have seen in the last couple of years.
I do think the wind affected him, but of course it affects the opponents as well. If anything, one would have expected his standard of play to improve throughout the tournament, starting slow against RBA due to rust and gradually increasing. I think what we saw was the opposite, and the best explanation (to me) is that his knee is still hurting him and/or he doesn’t want to really push it for fear of injuring it further.
Joe, he’s just back from injury and you expect him to be on fire and in top form?
In 2018, he had already played two BO5 matches before playing at MC so he was playing better then. Also he had longer break last year after his AO2018 injury, but this time he had 4 weeks after IW. Look to him to improve from Barcelona onwards.
Rafa also has a very tough draw in Barcelona: Pouille or Ferrer, followed by probably Tsisipas and then Thiem, just to get to the final. He will have to lift his level significantly to win the title in Barcelona; let’s see if he can.
Fabio probably not even trying at indoor events
Plus he has no claim on GOAT
So you think if Foggy tried at indoor events, he would win some titles? Ha ha ha, he already find it difficult to win a HC 250 event, you expect him to do well on indoor HCs when those big servers have all the advantage?
And, who are the ones who claim to be GOAT? Rafa didn’t and doesn’t claim to be Goat.
He’s the clay GOAT , no-one argues with that
Nice article on the mercurial Fabio by one of the better tennis writers out there.
https://deadspin.com/fabio-fognini-is-one-slippery-noodle-1834251680