After clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking, Rafael Nadal will continue his Paris campaign when he goes up against Pablo Cuevas in the Paris third round on Thursday. Dominic Thiem and Fernando Verdasco are also aiming for a place in the quarterfinals.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Pablo Cuevas
The year-end No. 1 ranking has been clinched. Nadal locked it up for the fourth time in his illustrious career when he defeated Hyeon Chung 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters on Wednesday. The top-seeded Spaniard is 66-10 this season with two Grand Slam titles and four other winners’ trophies (including two at Masters 1000 tournaments) plus a runner-up performance at the Australian Open. He is 17-0 in his last 17 matches against opponents other than Roger Federer.
It is safe to say that Nadal is not facing Federer on Thursday; not even close. Cuevas had not won a single match since the French Open prior to his arrival in Paris, a brutal stretch that saw him compile an 0-10 record. Out of absolutely nowhere, the 36th-ranked Uruguayan has picked up victories this week over Karen Khachanov (6-4, 6-2) and Albert Ramos-Vinolas (6-7(5), 7-6(1), 6-2). Cuevas is 1-3 lifetime against Nadal with a clay-court upset in last year’s Rio de Janeiro semifinals. With Nadal in stellar form and the underdog nothing short of hopeless over the last five months, another upset will not be taking place.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
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(5) Dominic Thiem vs. Fernando Verdasco
Thiem and Verdasco will be going head-to-head for just the second time in their careers on Thursday. Their only previous encounter came two years ago at Wimbledon, where Verdasco prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. The Spaniard is a bigger underdog now according to the rankings (No. 39 to No. 6), but current form suggests otherwise. Thiem, as usual, has been a borderline disaster since the end of the clay-court swing. The 24-year-old Austrian is 8-9 in his last 17 tournament matches, but he at least managed to hold off lucky loser Peter Gojowyczk 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4 on Tuesday.
Verdasco is coming off a semifinal performance last week in Stockholm and so far in Paris he has taken out Andrey Rublev and Kevin Anderson. The 33-year-old sent Rublev packing for the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan with a 7-6(1), 7-6(6) victory and he eliminated Anderson from World Tour Finals contention by getting the job done 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. This is a good opportunity for a confident Verdasco against a struggling opponent who has admitted that indoor hard courts are a rough surface for his game.
Pick: Verdasco in 3
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I hope they can sort his knee out for before the WTF.
Might be best for him to withdraw if the knee is serious. Nonetheless a great fight as always even when he wasn’t playing good tennis
I knew it would be incautious to play Paris not being 100%. Plus, indoors is definitely not Rafa playground,so he was taking unnecessary risks for his health playing there.
We cannot forget that he has played an incredible amount of tennis this year, so it’s normal that is level of play is decreasing by now.
I fear that Rafa is in dangerous of jeopardize his 2018 chances with another possible injury falldown.
For your health, withdraw from the WTF King.
He’s lucky that he wins in the end; the way he serves, he’s likely to be broken if the match goes on longer.
I already knew from watching his first match that he’s not playing well here and it’s not going to improve much. He’s reverting to playing long rallies from behind the baseline, like playing typical clay court tennis. He makes the ball and the court look slower than they really are. I watched other players and they were hitting like it’s not a slow court – the Dimi vs Gasquet match was a fast pace one, typical of an indoor HC match.
TBH, I’m quite disappointed with the way he and his team approach this event and his matches; it’s like they all agree that he would grind out his matches, instead of playing more offensive tennis the way he played at Beijing. Why revert back to old way of playing on the HCs when the old way isn’t/wasn’t serving him well?
I think Rafa nowadays needs more time to think his way out of troubles, or changes tactic during his matches. At the USO, he had to struggle before finding his way to win his matches and he was successful because it’s BO5 so he had enough time to do so. I even feel that his Beijing/Shanghai game style was just a one off, he’s not going to replicate that way of playing going forward; I bet he’ll play horribly at the WTF, playing like the way he plays here in Paris. I mean, he won’t suddenly starts playing top class tennis when two weeks before, he’s playing horribly.
He’s one player who needs match play to feel confident about his game; he’s not Fed or Djoko on the HCs, they are confident with their games once they step onto the HCs.
Only great players can afford to play ‘terrible’ and still win against this Cuevas.
why? Cuevas has been awful.
Marton Fucsovics could play terrible and still beat Cuevas right now.
easily
He didn’t look impressive at Montreal and Cinci, but played much better at USO and won it. I think he has a real chance at WTF, unless he’ll be mentally and physically exhausted after a very intense season.
Eugene, USO was BO5, like I said, he had time to think and change tactics. WTF is BO3, one mistake and he may lose the set.
…. and then may lose the match next.
After the match, Rafa said:
It was a very difficult match, Pablo is a very good player.
It’s always hard playing someone for the first time, but I will do my best (against Krajinovic).
I don’t want to talk about the knee, but about the quarter final. I am in the most important city of my life, I am not taking risk, I just play.”
https://rafaelnadalfans.com/2017/11/02/photos-rafael-nadal-somehow-overcomes-knee-problem-to-reach-paris-masters-quarters/
You’re so right Lucky, playing passive/defensive tennis in this conditions it’s not gonna give him good results. If he continues to play like this, Delpo will beat in quick and straight, and at WTF, imagine the beatdown he will take from Federer.
He needs to get the agression back to his game, like he’s done so well in Beijing.
Let’s hope Moya can bring it back for the beggining of the next season.
It’s typical of Rafa’s mentality, that once he lacks confidence (in this case perhaps due to his knee being hurting?)he reverts back to more defensive play from the baseline. I mean if his knee was hurting during his match, why not served or hit bigger or harder, forced his opponent to go on the back foot and then won the point asap? I thought if you’re not feeling too good physically, you shouldn’t drag on but instead tried finding a way to win asap?
I think he’s not serving well and was slow in getting to the ball (resulting in two mishit volleys at the net) because he coulnt push hard on his knee while serving (for fear of injuring it) and his movement was affected. It’s his fighting spirit and will to win that pushed him to the finished line and winning.
Withdraw from the event Rafa. Why is he playing ?
Do you mean he had no tape earlier but got it on midway match ?
No tape, until changeover after losing the second set; the trainer taped his knee during that changeover.
He might have felt something during set two when he was leading with a break of serve, lost focus and then lost his serve allowing Cuevas to comeback and win the second set TB. He was horrible during that stretch; probably worrying about his knee. He should have played better in the TB when he had a chance to win, had a mini break but managed to lose in the end. Had he played or served better, he would’ve won in straight sets and saved himself some precious energy and also less stress on his knee.
If Nadal would have won in 2 sets he would have also saved tons of money for his fans/bettors(even all @10grand) who expected Nadal to finish the match in 2 sets!
Sanju,
Yes. Rafa hadcto get the trainer to tape his knee before the third set. At least that explained why he was playing so poorly. I found myself wondering what was going on with Rafa and worrying if the knee was acting up,
I stopped watching after Rafa lost the second set, but I recorded the third set. It was obvious to me that Rafa’s knee problem was affecting his serve. He did get through on sheer will power.
But I don’t know why he would continue to play here. He is risking the WTF. Rafa stayed healthy up until now. But his knee has not recovered. This is the last thing he needs. I don’t want Rafa to have to spend the off season recovering from a knee problem and then not be ready for the 2018 AO.
Even if Rafa gets by his next opponent, there is no way he can beat either Isner or Delpo.
NNY,
Delpo and Isner didn’t look like world beaters either, they looked spent physically. In fact if Rafa gets past Krajanovic quickly, he’ll have good chances against Delpo or Isner.
If Rafa reaches the final (I hope he does), I would hope that Verdasco, Sock, Cilic and Bennetaeu tire each other out so that Rafa can have better chances of winning.
Rafa has always said he can only play on or close to the baseline when he’s feeling confident.
#YouSerious???
#NothingNew
#HOWMANYTIMES!!!!
#GroundHogDayAllOverAgain
Yep, he’s not confident thats what I’m saying; he must be worried about his knee so he preferred to play it safe, his way of playing it safe was to play more defensively from behind the baseline. It’s like his SA clay court swing in 2015 where he lost to Cuevas, he was certainly not playing with confidence there in 2015.
Yes nny Rafa will not learn. As simple as that.
Btw isn’t his qf opponent the same guy who almost beat cilic in Basel qf ?
Sanju,
This is for you and all Rafa fans. I was on VB and this is the information that they had.
This was posted by VB forum member cliffsiders –
“Posters on Twitter report in his presser he said he knows what his knee problem is – that he had it checked after Shanghai.”
Then there is this from forum member Natalie –
“Ubitennis
Nadal:”I don’t want to talk about the knee but about the quarter final”
Nadal:”I am in the most important city of my life, I am not taking risk, I just play”
Nadal:”It was a very long year. I just keep fighting”
Nadal:”I don’t worry to play tomorrow at 3,30 p.m. The rest is not a problem for me”
Nadal:”Of course I will play in London!”
@Rafael_Plaza
Nadal sobre la rodilla: “No me preocupa lo que pueda tener porque sé lo que hay, me miré después de Shanghái”.
Translated by @genny_ss: “I’m not worried about what the knee issue can be because I know what’s up, as I underwent a check-up after Shanghai”
I thought you might be interested to hear what Rafa had to say. It appears that he knows what is going on with the knee and feels that he can play.
thanks nny. must be simple tiredness that will heal with time but worry is that he has to play 2 weeks..
There’s a one week break between Paris and WTF.
If Rafa thinks his knee is OK, that he can manage it, then let him decide what he wants to do. I just wish for him to play more offensively and finishes his matches asap, not to aggravate whatever knee problem he has.
His match with Cuevas could be finished within one and a half hours, yet he let it dragged on till past the two hours mark.
His QF opponent is someone he hasn’t played against before, so I just hope he doesn’t take long to figure his opponent’s game. His opponent will play like there’s nothing to lose, just like Cuevas, so for Rafa’s own benefit, I hope he dictates play from the get go and stamps his foot on the pedal from start to finish, not allowing his opponent into the match.
Isner or Delpo won’t be easy SF opponent, so all the more Rafa has to win his QF match quickly and not wasting energy letting his opponent hangs around unnecessarily.
Rafa has never played well in Paris indoors. Good knee or bad knee, I dont think he is moving too badly. He cant be that stupid to play with injured knee and risk the injury further.
He’s not moving too badly, but bad enough to not reach the ball in time and hence misfired his volleys into the net, or his smashes ending at his side of the net. I mean he finished with 41 UEs, how often you see him with that kind of UEs? His serve was clearly affected by his knee, DF 7times in the match, or hitting his first serves into the net so often.
If Cuevas was that formidable, Rafa won’t be winning the first set so comfortably, had a break in the second set before fading away in the second set, and yet, had his chances in the TB leading 4-2.
It is very simple. Nadal is doing some many unforced errors and struggling to win because he is very tired from playing 84 matches this year(someone gave me that number).
Nadal’s tiredness coupled with his knee problem is restricting his free movement on the court, reaching the ball and not having the energy to hit the ball across the net many times or do overhead smashes correctly or take drop shots just over the net.
Nadal should not have competed @Paris Open and been smart like Federer to skip the Paris Open to recover and heal his knee injury to make him fresh and strong for the WTF London matches. Now I don’t give Nadal any chance of winning either the Paris Open or the WTF because of the above issues of Nadal (not because he does not have the required skills)!
Not 84, 77 including the Cuevas match. Where do you get 84?
He had at least reached the QF when he played there. Compared to Fed, Fed lost in his first match in 2009 to Bennetaeu, lost in R3 to Nalby in 2007,lost in R3 to Isner in 2015. The only thing is Fed won the title in 2011; if Rafa plays more aggressively and not allowing his opponents to hang around unnecessarily, he can win. The problem is he’s not doing that at the moment.
He knows his body better than his fans. He cant beat Fed given the current scheme of things . So maybe he wants to collect as many points as possible when the field is weak. I dont think this is a bad strategy at all.
Yeah, so all the more he should play and tries to win. Anyway, there’s no guarantee that Fedal would meet at the WTF; if Delpo is there, he may be the one preventing them from meeting. Rafa may win the title there without even needing to beat Fed. There’s always such a possibility.
win the title at WTF lucky? Cmon very optimistic :-). I would be very happy if it happens but I find it tough to see him going into even SF if he has DElpo , Cilic , Dimi, Zverev on his side given the way he is playing at Paris and he seems fatigued.
Cilic and Zverev will not be on the same half of the draw if Cilic reaches the SF here. Cilic will move ahead of Thiem and will then be no.4, so he won’t be in the same group as no.3 Zverev. So let’s wish that Cilic beats Benneteau tonight.
Thiem and Dimi will then be no.5 and 6 respectively. If Delpo qualifies he will be either no. 7 or no. 8 depending on how far he goes at Paris. He will be no.7 if he at least reaches the final.
I’m not worried about Cilic or Zverev at WTF, Rafa can handle them. I don’t mind Delpo in Rafa’s half of the draw, if he can meet and beat Fed in the SF. Thiem and Goffin, Rafa can beat them. The player I don’t like seeing in Rafa’s group is Dimi. I hope Dimi is in Fed’s group.
You’re right, lucky, It is absolutely not a guarantee that Fedal will meet in WTF. Both of Fed’s wins over Delpo at Shanghai and Basel were very hard-fought and close. Plus, just like Basel, WTF is another tourny where DelPo has a winning record over Fed. Delpo could very well beat ether Fed or Rafa, and prevent them from meeting. There are obviously factors for each guy that could make a difference. Hopefully Delpo is not too worn out. Hopefully Rafa’s knee holds up. And hopefully Fed’s back holds up. If all three of those factors are in place, then the WTF could be awesome!
Kevin, not likely now that Delpo can’t qualify. If Isner wins Paris he’ll qualify and if Rafa withdraws from WTF due to bad knee, PCB will qualify.
The quality of the field at WTF is really substandard, when players like PCB who keeps losing matches early in tournaments, still qualifies. And, Isner who hasn’t won much but wins one Masters and he’s in.
The tour really misses Djoko, Murray, Stan and Kei; they are the ones going deep in big tournaments like slams and masters and winning some.
Without Delpo to at least put up some resistance to Fed, Fed will have a clean sweep at the WTF. The field there, excluding Rafa, is pathetic vs Fed.
Goffin, Dimi, PCB (if he qualifies) have zero win over Fed. Cilic has only one win, Zverev two and Thiem two, that’s about all.
My ideal list of top eight at WTF is Rafa, Fed, Djoko, Murray, Delpo, Stan, Cilic and Kei. Not going to happen this season, but maybe next season, may not happen thereafter as Fed gets even older, almost ancient.
Haha, he’s definitely approaching “ancient” territory as it relates to pro-tennis age.
And, those who want him to lose early here to concentrate on winning WTF, don’t realize that if he doesn’t gain many points here and if he loses in SF at WTF while Fed goes on to win WTF, come 2018, Fed may take over as no.1 if Fed can defend his AO title and Rafa loses before the final there.
I’m glad Rafa and his team at least work that out and certainly don’t want Rafa to lose his no.1 ranking so soon after fighting so hard to achieve it. I’m sure Rafa and his team are good enough to calculate all risks involved and know exactly what to do to max out Rafa’s chances of retaining the no.1 ranking without risking Rafa’s health and well being.
He needs to be 800 points ahead at bare minimum. But Fed winning AO 18 again is not as easy as it looks
You never know so why leave it to luck when in the first place Rafa can do something about it by gaining as many points as possible? There’s no guarantee that he’ll win the WTF given how well Fed could play there, so why not gain some points or even wins the title here at Paris to gain 1000 points, and if he could do that, come WTF, he would have one less thing to worry about ( no need to worry about YE no.1, worry less about Fed catching him come early next year).
He may play better at WTF having no such worries bothering him!
to be honest lucky, i was more bothered he ends year as no 1. how long he keeps it does not really matter. I wanted him to equal atleast djokovics year end no 1 at 4 and he did that. Come to think of it, Fed is not far ahead at 5.
either rafa or novak can touch Feds 5 ye no 1 if they do well
Exactly, so why not try harder right? For Rafa especially, because he’s already at no.1. All he needs is to do better at those events that he’s not doing well this season (IW, Canada, Cincy, Wimbledon) and continues to do well at those that he has won this season.
My wish is for Rafa to defend his YE no.1 ranking and has > 200 weeks as no.1. He’s an ATG so it’s befitting his status to have at least achieve all those that his fellow ATGs (Sampras, Fed and Djoko) had/have achieved.
He already has multiple slams on non clay surfaces ( six ) in addition to his 10 FO titles, has 30 Masters at least (can add to that some more), has both singles and doubles Olympics gold medals and has helped Spain won four of their five Davis Cups. What he needs now is a WTF title to complete the list.
Nobody remembers YE1. Only Slams matter and to some extent Masters 1000 and WTF.
Yes, Sanju, given that Rafa and Novak are 5-6 years younger than Fed, I’d say it’s very likely that at least one of them will get 6 YE #1’s. Obviously it’s possible that Fed could play as well as he has recently for another year or two, even if it’s relatively unlikely. However, even if Fed were able to continue to play this well even with the other top guys back, it will still be extremely difficult and unlikely for him to get another YE#1 as long as he skips so many tournaments. There’s a good reason why 36 year olds don’t get to #1. You need to be able to play a full season like Rafa did this year to realistically be #1. Sure, Fed had a good shot at one point, but it was always going to be very difficult when he plays such a reduced schedule. I am pretty sure Serena Williams is an anomaly, being able to play even less tournaments than Fed and getting to #1 in her mid-30’s.
So given all that, unless one of the younger guys is magically able to really step it up, who else aside from Novak, Rafa, or maybe Andy is realistically going to get YE number ones in the next few years? Stan has said that he doesn’t even think he’s capable of getting to #1 because he almost strictly plays well at the majors.
Rafa knows more than any of us what’s going on with his knee. He says it’s not a problem, so I trust him to do what he thinks is in his best interest. Rafa accepts that he cannot win every match easily unlike us, his fans, and I am more guilty of this than most, who think he is superman and should just roll over the likes of Cuevas. Cuevas had nothing to lose and on many occasions, he hit shots not expecting to get anything out of them and they turned out to be winners. Cuevas also has a great serve which is always a plus.
For me, it’s great news that Rafa is not worried about his knee.
Vamos Rafa!
YE no.1 will be remembered all because of the Big Four! How often we hear or heard about Fed surpassing Sampras ‘ 286 weeks as no.1, and how often Fed’s fans mentioned about Fed’s weeks as no.1 and YE no.1 when we have Djoko chasing that record.
It’s because of what the Big Four have and could achieve, that we’re now talking about and comparing their no.of slams, Masters, weeks as no.1, YE no.1, no.of titles, H2H and even prize money, endorsements and even their popularity!
I’ll bet that after they retire, their names will be brought up often and comparisons of the future generations will be made using them as yardsticks for measurements.
Before computers, players just did their own thing, there was not really any competition about how many this or that players had won. Yes everyone knew Borg had won the most Wimbledon and FO but Borg hardly played Australia. Now that the data is readily available and a criteria has been set, kind of, about greatness, players have something to aim for. Even though I think the criteria has been set around Federer’s achievements.
Rafa is practicing ahead of his QF match:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNs_gRWWkAENssr.jpg
Be focused, be confident, be strong, be brave, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNtQj5rWAAACDp1.jpg
Rafa is out of Paris!
I heard the announcement, so Rafa withdraws to rest his knee. He knows best what’s good for him. Rest well Rafa, and tries your best at WTF.
good decision.
Hey guys…i just heard a news that Rafa just pulled out from his match…Is it true guys??
Benito P-B @b1pr 12m12 minutes ago
@RafaelNadal has to retire from #rolexparismasters . Will try his best to be in London. He will post a message on his Social later. 😞