In again, out again, on again, off again…that has been the story with Rafael Nadal and the Western & Southern Open so far this summer.
The Spanish news outlet Marta reported earlier this month that the world No. 4 would skip Cincinnati, which is by his worst Masters event. Nadal owns a mere 13-8 lifetime record, which includes three opening-match losses, just two trips past the quarterfinals, and no appearances in the final.
Nadal has not fared well in Cincinnati since 2009. He lost to Marcos Baghdatis in a 2010 quarterfinal and in 2011 he played an infamous three-set match against Fernando Verdasco before getting crushed by Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. He obviously skipped the 2012 installment during his seven-month layoff from tennis.
Knee troubles perhaps contributed to Nadal’s first-round Wimbledon upset loss to Steve Darcis and Marca speculated that the former world No. 1 would bypass one of his worst events in order to rest for next month’s U.S. Open. On Monday, however, Nadal told reporters at an Inter Manacor football match that he would indeed be participating in both Canada and Cincinnati.
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Rafa is playing doubles in Montreal.
with who
His partner is not yet known. Perhaps I should re-phrase that and say Rafa may play doubles in Montreal according to some tweets.
Conspirator, will you go watch Rafa play?
i will
Rafa arrived in Montreal.
http://tinyurl.com/nqb8v32
http://tinyurl.com/ob8bz5r
Rafa is scheduled to practice with Richard Gasquet on Friday and with Andy Murray on Saturday.
The official draw for the Montreal Masters will take place on Friday, August 2 at 4 p.m. (local time). [Source: tournament website]
Rafa arrived in Montreal.
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2013/08/01/rafael-nadal-arrives-in-montreal/
Rafa is scheduled to practice with Richard Gasquet on Friday and with Andy Murray on Saturday.
The official draw for the Montreal Masters will take place on Friday, August 2 at 4 p.m. (local time). [Source: tournament website]
He looks super healthy and relaxed 🙂
Yes, thanks for the link! Rafa looks absolutely great!
I can’t wait to see him out on the court again!
Oh and I won’t have to go through the torture of staying up late now that we are in North America!
Life really is a series of hills and troughs, no? It’s not so long ago that we in the European time zone were happily watching the major tennis tournaments live during the day as the Tour wound it’s way through Europe. Even if the European summer was blighted by rain, it was nice to not have to wake up at 02h00 in the middle of the night to catch a match live on telly! Now the shoe is on the other foot and you North Americans get to enjoy day-time live tennis………I envy you.
Enjoy….sigh.
Rafa must win USO. It would be a nice bonus if he could win Montreal too. Also that will probably mean he won’t go to Cincy. I don’t want him to go to Cincy.
he must win the USO or what?
Is it true Novak will surpass Rafa for weeks at number one?
I think he will, yes. Never been bothered by weeks at #1 stat myself, it’s Slam count that matters for me. I mean, Wozniacki was how many weeks at #1? Bet Serena, Victoria, Sharpie don’t care..
ritb,
Yes, I feel the same way. It’s all about the slams as far as I am concerned. That is what ensures a player’s place in history.
whom do you think will win more majors?
Cilic test positive for banned substances:
http://bleacherreport.com/tb/daWrD?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=tennis
Ricky, from my vantage point, it’s looking increasingly likely that Fed will end up with the most slams. However, should Rafa win either the upcoming USOpen or Oz Open, then Rafa will have a sniffing chance of catching him.
Nadline, that Cilic story is weird, really weird. What I don’t like about it is the appearance that there was a “silent” ban going on. Rafa had to suffer such accusations being thrown at him during his injury lay-off and I just feel the Cilic case could have been handled better by the ITF/ATP to avoid the appearance of there being a cover-up.
i meant between Nadal and Djokovic. Federer will obviously end up with the most.
hello to all of you again 😀
Ricky!!! federer????!!!! seriously?????!!!!!
with room to spare!
I would say Rafa, but it’s a very difficult one to call, because although Rafa owns clay I think Nole has the edge on hard. However, now at last Andy is in the mix, making hard even more difficult to win. Of them all, I think USOpen is the most difficult to predict too.
For Nole to top Rafa I think he would need to reproduce 2011 and that would be well nigh impossible, I’d say. Though never say never.
And of course Rafa’s health is also in the equation, as is Andy’s new found mental strength.
Time is running out for Rafa. He is 27 now. I doubt that he can win multiple slams in a year or be number 1 after he is 29. He needs to win USO this year to establish his goat credentials. And end the year at no. 1.
I think the confusion about silent ban is not created by ITF but by Cilic. ITF is following its policy of not publicizing the positive results till the tribunal takes its decision. Same thing happened in the Agassi case. There was no cover up.The tribunal accepted his explanation for crystal menth so he was deemed innocent and his positive test was not made public.
In the case of Cilic, it is clear that the tribunal was yet to take a decision before Cilic went to town. Why he did so is a mystery. He probably realized that he would be deemed guilty so he wanted to be first in with his version before ITF made his positive result public.
As for those who constantly point fingers at Rafa, what is new? Any doping case, whether in tennis or in cycling is taken as proof that Rafa is doping! Although Rafa was in his teens when Dr Fuentes was arrested, and there is absolutely no evidence that Rafa was his client, yet merely because Dr Fuentes is Spanish, Rafa is deemed guilty!
There is a recent article by Greg Garber ( http://espn.go.com/sports/tennis/notebook/_/page/secondservings08012013/tennis-recent-drug-news-viktor-troicki-marin-cilic-depressing) in which he writes “Rafael Nadal, for example, has never failed a drug test, but there have been repeated, random whispers that his 12 major titles were built on a foundation of better chemistry”.
The media is largely responsible for spreading the canard that Rafa is doping.
I agree time is running out for Rafa, and as deucy points out, with Muzza now a bona fide Slam contender, it just makes the business of winning Slams even more difficult. And I sense the “second” tier (Delpo, Berdy, Jerzy) is now sharpening its knives to be not just spoilers but real contenders. But you know what, I like, because it makes any Slams won in this golden era even more valuable imo.
Unlike others, I am not convinced that Rafa is ready to cede RG domination to Djokovic just yet, so I expect at least a couple more RGs from him. And I feel Rafa has a better chance of snagging an HC Slam right now than Djokovic has of snagging an RG crown. Just me saying, never mind my rose tinted glasses…………
Will Djokovic repeat 2011? I don’t see it, but he will continue at a high level for at least another 3 years and him being apparently impervious to injuries only helps his cause.
I just hope you aren’t comparing Berdych and Delpo with Janowicz. DO YOU?
Apparently, what they did regarding Cilic is the normal procedure. There was no silent ban, they have to confirm the first positive test by another positive test.
According to an article
New racket, bigger business for Nadal
January 30 2013 at 01:12pm
By Sebastian Fest
“As soon as Nadal confirmed his return to the tour after a long injury break, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) proceeded to test him for doping four times in two weeks, according to sources close to the player. Overall, Nadal was tested “six or seven” times ahead of his return, ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti told dpa.”
That’s hardly the senario of someone returning from a silent ban.
More correctly then, it’s the way Cilic handled the whole matter which provided fodder for the conspiracy theorists. My concern was, the conspiracy theorists had already had a field day smearing Rafa, and now with the way the Cilic case panned out, it just gave them ammunition to say, you see, silent bans do exist! I think Tignor lays it all out here:
http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/07/silence-isnt-golden/48573/#.UfuVdW1RCDc
Why won’t they take up Rafa’s suggestion to publish all testing data?
Ricky, I am not comparing Jerzy to Delpo and Berdy but his results todate, ranking and Race to London standing put him in the conversation much more than anyone else imo. He has gone deeper than Berdy in a couple of Slams already and considering his inexperience, that’s nothing to sniff at. I expect him to be a top tenner soon.
I was just joking (although he really isn’t the same group). Just making a pun on Berdych’s infamous quote about Rosol.
Re Rafa vs Novak career slam total… it might end up being close in the end.
Like you said Novak will likely remain mostly injury free and play below novak 2.0 level most times but high enough to win a slam (or two) every year for another three or four.
Rafa still has some slams in him and how many will depend largely on whether he will be injured much or not.
No matter which way their relative count turns out when the healthy lady sings… what Rafa has done already with his career is astounding and will be remembered for as long as most of the other legends. And it is even with _not_ taking into considerations his many times off for serious injury…. which will be forgotten.
Nole still has a way to go to reach a level where he will unquestionably be remembered as a legend one generation from now. But he likely will reach it.
As for Rafa / Roger’s slam count: hard to imagine Rafa going to 17 or surpassing it. But depending on injuries he might get very close, so expect a lot more hatred insults and distortions of facts from those whose cognitive dissonance cannot abide by the facts of the stats. But does it _really_ matter who of the two of them will end up with more slams, and by how many? In all honestly, imho, it matters not at all. It matters about as much as what I had for breakfast today. What does matter is that they have both done incredible things, are absolutely legends already, have raised the game for all, have inspired many millions for ten years now, that Rafa’s level helped push Roger and vice-versa and his challenge to Roger and his passion back almost ten years ago lifted tennis out of the boring era, and that they have both behaved like princes all along (minus Roger’s many ungracious verbal statements, but he clearly couldn’t help those).
—hard to imagine Rafa going to 17 or surpassing it. —
Why not! At the age of 27 they both had 12 GS titles. Fed won his 13th title at the age of 27 years & 1 months and his next – at the age of 27y 9 m.
Fed was able to win his 17 titles, being chronically sick during all his career (his back problem). I think, Rafa is able too.
chloro,
Great to see you posting here. I think the biggest issue for Rafa is the knee. That is the key for him. Because if he can stay healthy, then he can get close to Fed. He’s still going to have his chances at RG. It would be nice for him to get another hard court slam or two. Injury is his greatest foe. Depending on what Rafa does, that will determine in my mind whether Nole catches him. He’s not going anywhere, that’s for sure. He still has some more good years in him. He hasn’t had Rafa’s injury woes.
But the truth is that Rafa has established himself and his greatness. Whatever he does from here on out, is simply icing on the cake.
Apparently Cilic’s “knee injury”(which was the official reason for him withdrawng from the 2nd round of Wimbledon) was nothing more than a ruse to hide his positive test. There are rumours on the web that he was given a 3 month silent ban.(although I am not sure if this is true.) Btw, luckystar must be disappointed!
On Fed’s FB:
“:I am disappointed not to be playing in Montreal next week. It is a great tournament with amazing fans. I look forward to competing there in the future.”
Maybe it should be called a silent ban?
Oh no, “silent bans” never apply to Fed, lol…………
Fed’s slump this year may also be due to the silent ban. He is not allowed to win any titles but as his sponsors want him to there, he is allowed to be present in the early rounds with strict instructions to lose after a couple of rounds, the number of rounds depending on the sponsors’ bargaining ability!
Like Cilic, Fed may also be pretending that he has a fitness issue to account for his sudden drop in form after the extraordinary streak last year
Rafa’s short interview in Montreal 01/08/2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYN1co5J4xw&feature=youtu.be
Rafa about his knee: the knee is here. 🙂
classic