Two days after winning the Stuttgart title for just his second winner’s trophy of the season, Rafael Nadal saw his relative hot streak stopped in the first round of the AEGON Championships on Tuesday afternoon. Nadal led by a break in the third set but ultimately fell to Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4.
First it was Dolgopolov’s turn to squander a lead. The underdog Ukrainian seized a 5-3 advantage in the second-set tiebreaker and got a look at a match point with Nadal serving at 5-6, but the Spaniard snuffed it out with a big serve and won the next two points to force a decider.
The final momentum shift came starting with Nadal leading 4-2 in the third. Dolgopolov finished the match on a streak of four straight games, including breaks at 3-4 and 5-4. He finally clinched victory with a perfect forehand passing shot.
“Overall I’m really happy with the match,” Dolgopolov assured. “Not even because I beat Nadal, but the way I played and the way I fought back after a disappointing second set. I think overall I had a really good match.”
“I was a break up in the third, and then he played some good points,” Nadal reflected. “I missed a few balls. I played against an uncomfortable player in the first round here and I had my chance. I didn’t play a bad match, but matches here are sometimes decided by just a few things and I was not lucky enough today. I probably didn’t play enough aggressive when I was up a break at 4-3.”
Highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmrD24KaQt8]
Dolgopolov interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCHcStsq7g]
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I have to say that it’s the 1st time I see the highlights.
What I take from them is that Rafa is getting there but that he’s still very tentative with his forehand, it’s letting him down big time. Now, it isn’t a point-finishing weapon and his adversaries, Dolgo in this case, take full advantage of it. The last point of the match is a very clear example.
So, the very foundations – or pièce de rĂ©sistence – of Rafa’s game: forehand and mind, are now gone from his game….. he needs to adjust to the circumstances, get acquainted with this new Rafa who can’t bully his opponents any more and only then he’ll be ready to look for solutions.
Shireling says: (at 8:01 am)
—he’s still very tentative with his forehand—
============================
Rafa is aware of this.
Roland Garros, May 28, 2015: ¤¤ “I try to practice more with my forehand,” admitted Nadal. “With my forehand I’m not as steady and consistent as in the past. Of course I can still impart some spin, but I’m not smooth enough with my forehand. I’m suffering from a lack of stability with my shots. That’s the way in tennis. You go through difficult moments.
“I’m still a solid player. I don’t think that my forehand is bad. It’s still good. But I need to reach better targets…”¤¤
Read more at:
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2015-05-28/nadal_and_almagro_meet_again_in_paris.html#R0JekAlvfEax4GkD.99
In my view, this is the cause of his “mental disfunction” if one may call it that: the disintegration of his game weapon, his FH. Its malfunction has been steady and prolonged for such a while that he no longer trusts it, and this dis-trust is lethal during a match. This is the source of Rafa’s doubts.
Everyone knows the lethal FH has been the foundation of Rafa’s game. Without it, he’s lost, that much has been clear the last 2 years. The “fearhand” will make an appearance in one match and vanish the next. This has been the problem for Rafa, and continues to be.
Exactly @ritb.
The inconsistent FH is the SYMPTOM.
The PROBLEM is mental (and machismo).
Nothing new.
Thx augusta,
June 18, 2015 at 8:29 am
I’m just thinking that maybe it doesn’t have a solution (the forehand). That he’s lost his punch and therefore might need to change some things in his game. I know this would be very hard to do but I’m starting to think that there’s no way around it.
It’s just agony watching Queens now. I looked forward to it soooooooooooooo much and Rafa’s loss just punched the air out of me.
rafaisthebest says:
June 18, 2015 at 11:37 am
“In my view, this is the cause of his “mental disfunction” if one may call it that: the disintegration of his game weapon, his FH”
… but one doesn’t know now which came first the “mental dysfunction” or the disintegration of the forehand. It’s the chicken or the egg situation. What is clear is that it’s been conditioned by his never-ending injuries. Even if he’s fit to play – which is not the same as not having pain – his subconscious mind-body connection (you know what I mean) is very frail, this is very normal. If you’ve had any type of injury it’s easy to understand…. the riddle for me, as I said above, is that at times it seems he’s over it and then he regresses again. Since we’re not in his skin nor in his team we can only try to understand and deal with it as best we can.
Here Rafa talks about his body confidence this year (from 1:20 min mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS49p9jiCrI
2000!
Exactly. I think only Rafa can fix it. No matter what his team advice to do when he’s on court he is on his own they can’t make him hit hi f/h with confidence. I hope he gets over it soon.
I must learn to love tennis without Rafa again.
Just like you did before The Weak Era.
#FirstStep
Why would his FH just disintegrate (or become inconsistent)?
Anxiety is seldom fixed alone. On the contrary, it usually just gets worse.
#BetweenTheEars
I like to watch Tomic, Gulbis, Nishikori and Wawrinka but I don’t watch enough tennis to know who the replacements for Rafa could be
Rafa is irreplaceable, he is unique. 🙂
There will never be a replacement for Rafa as far as I am concerned. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I will not have a tennis favourite again, I shall do what I did in the weak era just support the player with the best outfit on the day or support the underdog. No chance of me getting up in the middle of the night to watch anyone else playing at the other end of the world.
Coulda swore you said you were a JMac fan before the Weak Era.
… but maybe it was just his outfit.
http://cdn1.bloguin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2012/04/youngmacwimby.jpg
I was a diehard JMac fan and I never thought I would have an even bigger favourite after him. I used to get upset when JMac lost but it only lasted a few hours not months as it is in Rafa’s case.
JMac’s style was also unique and I didn’t mind his behaviour, I thought he had a point that lines should be called correctly. He didn’t suffer fools gladly.
That’s very true, I was just talking about which players to watch when Rafa is not there.
Right now I’m supporting Feli against Isner. 1, he’s wearing a nice kit and I don’t like giant servers anyway; except I’m torn, because I would like Isner to take Muzz out, I know Feli has little chance of doing that.
are you hoping Murray loses to shut the commentators up ???
that would be nice wouldn’t it?!!
i see grigor lost to muller earlier…..looks like he is going to lose a lot of points from queens and wimby SF as i can’t see him doing much at wimby now…
how does the points system work when you change from a 250 tournament to a 500???
how do they alter the ranking points loss from last year to this?
They simply drop last years point’s and add this year’s points.
Apart of the incessant cooing on and on about Murray by the commies, I don’t want Rafa’s rivals to do well whilst he is in a slump.
yeah i take your point…..i do not want murray to win wimby i have to say….in fact the thought makes me unutterably miserable as i think it might happen……
Lopez has a way better chance vs Muzz
Really? why?
I am having trouble focusing on the matches. I have been watching here and there but without much real interest. It’s beyond frustrating to see this happening to Rafa. I have felt for some time that this is mental. Rafa’s forehand can’t be great in one game and lousy in the next. He doesn’t forget how to hit it. But he loses his focus and concentration in key moments like he did with Dolgo and there goes the match.
I did not expect him to win Queens, nor did I think it was necessary. But I did think that he would get to the quarters or semis at least. Play more matches, get more wins and improve his game to be ready for Wimbledon. That did not happen. So I have no idea what to expect at Wimbledon.
Rafa has been my favorite player and there has never been anyone else. No one can replace him for me. So I miss the real Rafa these days. I wish he would come back.
I do not mind anyone winning as long as it is not Djoker.
Novak is not playing right now at all.
I don’t want Djoker, Fed or Murray to win Wimby. I was very pleased when Cilic won the USO and none of those 3 even made the final.
I still haven’t given up on Rafa at Wimbledon.
nny, yes me too…i have liked players before but not to a fraction of a degree compared with how i like rafa…..he’s like a shadow of himself at the moment….i am finding it very difficult to handle my frustration with the whole situation.
what’s the point of going on about this stroke or that one? it’s not his forehand that’s the problem, that’s still a great shot, it’s his capacity to execute it and that is all mental.
amy,
I am struggling right now, too. I was looking forward to watching Rafa live this week at Queens. Now that won’t happen. I can appreciate other players and their games, but for me it’s all about Rafa. It’s been that way since the first time I saw him play.
It’s not about his game. We saw how well he was hitting his forehand in Stuttgart. His shots had great depth and accuracy. He looked like a different player, so I thought that the pressure was lifted after the loss at RG with barely any points to defend for the rest of the year. I was wrong. Whatever is going on with Rafa is not going to be resolved soon.
nny, no, i agree with you. i just hope that they see the light sooner rather than later and bring someone on board. i am not holding out any huge hope of that happening though as he and toni have set the ship on a course they seem to feel that they have to stick to.
but the worst aspect is feeling that rafa doesn’t have as much time as other players because of his injuries and that he is effectively wasting time through procrastination.
this could have been fixed or at least ameliorated some time ago already.
i totally expected Rafa to win Queens. I was worried about his 1st round match though, considering he lost to Dolgo the last time they played and Rafa might have had that at the back of his mind. I thought that if he got passed that hurdle he stood a great chance of going all the way.
Me too. He was a lock.
You thought that Rafa was a lock to win Queens?
VA-mos MIL-os!!!!!
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VA-mos MIL-os!!!!!
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Well I expected Rafa to beat Dolgo. I know that he’s tricky and has some unorthodox shots and a big serve, but Rafa knows how to beat him. Just because he lost to him the last time doesn’t mean that he would not know what to do now. In fact, Rafa was on his way to defeating Dolgo when everything went off the rails.
I certainly did not expect Rafa to crash out in his first match, especially after having won Stuttgart.
first set isner….
Yes, I have the tennis channel on now and just saw that he won the first set.
nny, i just sent you a long reply which seems to have got lost! oh no, this happened the other day and came through a bit later under anonymous so i’ll wait a bit and see what happens..must be pressing the wrong buttons…
oh good, there it is!!!!!!
How many of you honestly expected Rafa to win Stuttgart or Queens after RG? Seriously did anyone? I think we should be happy that he won atleast one of them.
true enough sanju, i had zero expectations after RG….
and actually yes it is true that was a massive choke against dolgo but other top players might have gone out first round against dolgo (he wasn’t that great but he hit 38 winners and that’s enough to rattle people)
sanju, I live in hope. I always expect Rafa to win any tournament he enters hoping that this is the time he’ll turn the corner, because I know he has the game to do it if only he’d pull himself together. It’s not as if he’s injured or anything, it’s just his mindset that’s letting him down.
Sanju (at 3:53 pm),
I have replied you a zillion times that I always expect Rafa to win.
Real fans.
Only his best fans sanju.
Yes. Quite.
LOL! 🙂
Sanju,
Thanks. Yes you are correct. He got one. It was not likely that he would get the other. I still did not expect to see Rafa lose his first match in Queens.
I dont want Djoko or Fed to win..anyone else is fine by me.
Fed ain’t gonna win 7 matches over 5 sets…..
I wouldn’t bet on that.
Uhm, he came within two games of doing so last year.
only because Chokovic had the upper hand for some of that match….Novak’s not under the same scrutiny in the slams he was back then……
on the other hand, it remains to be seen how he will handle losing to stan……
also how is Djoker gonna cope if he has to play murray on centre court?? the home crowd really gets to him and you can see him fold mentally before he even starts playing…i reckon he could beat murray in a semi but that in the surge of excitement to do with a final he would probably fold again…..
Did I mention how I despise the new ATP web site?
satan holds the copyright on that site….it is an abomination in the eyes of the lord…..
Sanju,
I agree about not wanting either Fed or Novak to win.
Queens should fine Dolgo for beating Rafa because he took the shine off the tournament. It doesn’t matter how much they coo over Muzz he doesn’t have the charisma of Rafa. Apparently, Rafa practice sessions are packed whilst the singles matches are going on with empty seats.
did you notice how the commies were upset when rafa got the time warning on break point? they stifled their response because it was a british umpire but they were not happy….
Really?
My comment @5:36 pm was directed to nadline’s post @ 4:19 pm. Surely that was meant in jest! 🙂
Native, My remark was meant for tournaments in general. I hope that satisfies you. Can’t imagine why you jumped on me. Are you a Djoker supporter?
Mary,
You consider my response jumping on you. I think you are being way too sensitive. Surprising to see you characterizing a factual one sentence reply as “jumping” on you.
Are you trying to make something out of nothing?
Also, if you have been reading this site as you have claimed previously, then you would know that I am a Rafa fan and have been for some time. How could my comment that Novak is not playing now be interpreted as me being a fan of him?
You are overreacting. Unfortunate. Don’t jump to erroneous conclusions because I made a statement that happens to be true. I have no way of knowing if you are aware that Novak is playing or not. I am not a mindreader.
Now you have clarified your comment. That should settle the matter.
does anyone else think that the umpires are now ganging up on him?? i mean, were they giving him time violation warnings for the first time at such crucial moments before?? there was one at a crucial moment against djoker at the end of the first set which visibly affected both him and the outcome of the whole match…..
I think they’ve been instructed to give him a warning when he is serving to save break points, I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that he tends to get at least one per match now.
it’s partly their demeanour while doing it….it seems like they are projecting an aggressive energy towards him…..
it’s as if with the furore over the bernardes situation they’ve decided to go after him….
second set lopez……