Rafael Nadal will look to maintain grass-court momentum when he begins at Queen’s Club on Tuesday against Alexandr Dolgopolov. Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios are also set for a tough first-round matchup.
(5) Rafael Nadal vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov
Nadal and Dolgopolov will be facing each other for the seventh time in their careers when they clash in round one of the AEGON Championships on Tuesday. The head-to-head series stands at 5-1 in favor of Nadal, but plenty of entertainment has taken place since the Spaniard dominated their first four encounters. Nadal triumphed 6-3, 7-6(3) in the 2014 Rio de Janeiro final before Dolgopolov pulled off a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) upset a month later at the Indian Wells Masters.
If Nadal was expected to emerge from a season-long slump on his old stomping grounds of European clay, he may be in line to deliver a big surprise on a more unlikely surface. The world No. 10 captured just his second title of 2015 last week on the grass courts of Stuttgart. It is a surface on which Nadal has never played Dolgopolov, who has also been in lackluster form this year. The 79th-ranked Ukrainian has lost three matches in a row and has not been past the second round of a tournament since Miami. Dolgopolov is coming off a routine setback against Philipp Kohlschreiber in his Stuttgart opener, so his confidence cannot be high at the moment.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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Nick Kyrgios vs. (2) Stan Wawrinka
Wawrinka will play for the first time as a French Open champion when he takes the court on Tuesday at Queen’s Club. The fourth-ranked Swiss began the season on fire but was in completely mediocre form heading into Roland Garros. Out of almost nowhere, he lifted his second Grand Slam winner’s trophy by upsetting Novak Djokovic in the final to cap off a run that also included defeats of Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Solid but unspectacular on grass, Wawrinka is up against an opponent who is especially dangerous on fast surfaces. Kyrgios, who has never faced the No. 2 seed, reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in his first appearance at the tournament last summer. The 28th-ranked Australian has not been great of late, but he generally loves the limelight–and a showdown against Wawrinka at a 500-point event certainly qualifies. Although Kyrgios will make this competitive, the favorite’s serve and backhand will be the difference.
Pick: Wawrinka in 3
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Why does Rafa now need two breaks, at least, to guarantee winning a set?
how the hell did Nadal lose?
his nerves..had easy forehands to break back in third set and just tanked them…one forehand he had the entire court and missed…another in net……
he has to make changes
also rafa got a first time warning on break point!
Same way he’s lost all his matches this year,
He beat himself.
Nothing new.
We can’t blame Toni or Roig. Rafa is the only one who knows what’s up with him. He’s very stubborn it would seem and doesn’t think he needs any help for his psyche but it’s clear that he does.
ANY other top player with these problems would be making changes and probably seeing a sports psychologist…..
No. He knows what the problem is but doesn’t know how to fix it (nor does his team).
And that is why he needs a change.
absobloodylutley
I think this is probably true. Unfortunately.
this giving warnings at crucial moments is becoming ridiculous! it isn’t happening to anyone else
No one else is threatening 17.
The time violation Rafa rule is the catalyst.
the problem also is that rafa used to get mad and win the points after the time violation now he’s losing them……
Anxiety untreated is an ever worsening spiral.
yes of course…..it may well get worse not better…..
but is toni even acknowledging this?….doubt it….it’s just more of the same…back on the practice court…..
I think they all know what the problem is but have zero idea how to fix it
why not?? every one else sees psychologists so why make it a religion to stay away from them…..
exactly!
1. I don’t expect team Nadal to come out and say to the world (and its vultures) the words ‘anxiety disorder’ and Rafa in the same sentence. The most we’ve heard is the understated ‘some anxiety’. Fair enough/
2. That does not mean they don’t know that this is the case.
3. How much of the anxiety came from rafa’s proneness to it in the first case, how much, possibly from the type of tough love language from uncle T? Not sure. Perhaps it matters, but it matters then only when looked at with a psychologist or someone like that.
4. Could adding a former champion to the team and really hearing what he (she 🙂 ) has to say be enough with no need for also a (sports or anxiety) psychologist? Don’t know, but at least try one of them, rafa, please.
5. Does anyone on the team not know that this is what most other teams would do? Of course they all know this.
6.Then what is the hold-up? Uncle T and/or rafa having a view that those types of help are a. not necessary, b. don’t really work, c. they can’t even think straight about this question, or don’t talk about it, or rarely…
Seems all to be in number 6, no?
yes chloro, is frustrating beyond belief watching all this and knowing that it is actually not that bloody difficult to make huge psychological movement with the right help.
as you know, i have been saying for ages that rafa has to makes changes….maybe getting in an ex great if they can listen and help would do it…maybe he needs both that and a psychologist. but he is just wasting time right now…..
these problems could have been addressed and substantially ameliorated long ago…hey, he could even have just won the french!
3. is of course unanswerable, but Toni’s kind of tough love is not the kind that rafa needs
right now….
feeling depressed….
yes amy
to be willing to really address this problem is also to be willing to see clearly and take actions based on seeing clearly what has not worked well for many years… ie in good part uncle T’s approach… and thus the symptoms were increasing, e.g. increasing number of rituals on court and before serving
many of the cultures we are part of or that are part of us are not kind towards people being vulnerable, even when that is called for (and a brave thing to do), and even more so towards men being vulnerable
while at the same time you are right: a ‘huge psychological movement’ is not difficult with the right help. You just have to be open to it and willing to do it.
yes chloro, but rafa is part of a larger culture ie the international culture of sport which accepts that nerves are a part of a sportsman’s makeup and that is why no-one bats an eyelid when someone sees a sports psychologist. even in the more macho sports.
rafa says that sport is not life in relation to this which frankly makes no sense to me..of course it’s not war or death.. but it is his life, his vocation, his passion. this kind of language is just the language of denial…..
I don’t know who is controlling the dialogues and vocabulary surrounding rafa and which he himself uses….because rafa is very much a part of his family and that is where this kind of thinking seems to come from…..
sorry not being very coherent, haven’t eaten for hours….
chloro, i just wrote you a post which has somehow got lost…in it i was making the point that rafa is part of the international culture of sport where it is a given that people see psychologist when they have problems. there is no shame attached to it even in the more macho sports. that is part of what is so frustrating and baffling…
rafa says tennis is not life…. well no it’s not war and death but it is his life, his vocation and passion so how can he really make that separation. it’s the language of denial….
very good points!
language of denial
when i head rafa say this ‘tennis is not life’ i always think he is more or less quoting uncle t ‘it is not complicated, not important, just a game where you send a ball back to the other court’. But as you say, when you have dedicated your entire life thus far to be the best in the world at it, or as near as you can to the best in the world, and you have millions of people follow you, admire you, be inspired by you, and earn millions upon millions each year in match wins and sponsorships, this is a little more than a regular job
June 16, 2015 at 6:15 pm,
U.Toni has said more than that, you quoted him partially.
Interview with Toni Nadal, Tennis Magazine (Fr), n°413, Octobre 2010:
¤¤ TENNIS means HITTING THE BALL back and forth over the net, there is no other signification. However, tennis BECOMES a PASSION when you measure the mental effort it requires, when you sum up all the difficulties you’ve encountered and when you gradually, step by step, start to rise above these obstacles. This is a good summary of Rafa’s career. Whatever happens in the future, I can assure you that he’ll leave a happy and satisfied man with all that he has accomplished. ¤¤
Agree wit hawkeye. Rafa beat himself.
yes I totally agree….it is toni who is blocking rafa from making changes…he has to initiate the changes rafa needs
sorry i meant this as a reply to hawkeye below…
Rafa will never fire Toni. Toni needs to do what’s best for Rafa and walk away.
Set Rafa free Toni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGl3d4KOMk
Aside: Omar Hakim rules.
No point in letting expectations get the better of reality, the reality is Rafa lost the match in the 1st set. He was so tentative, allowed Dolgo to bully him. He was waiting for Dolgo to make mistakes. Rafa was lucky to win that TB, it could have gone either way. Dolgo had MP in the 2nd set. The 3rd set, Rafa let his concentration wander and Dolgo pounced.
A below par performance by Rafa.
He needs to do better.
Rafa lost the match a long time ago.
#BeforeToday
Rafa of today, that is Rafa of the whole clay season, stands no chance at Wimby…he lost the strongest part of his game: his mental strength…this way he will keep losing to nobody…it’s funny how Dolgo believed the whole time…he knew if he kept his service Rafa would choke and give that one thin break back…
Rafa becomes predictable with his behavior, his fears…just about anybody on tour is dangerous for him…now, with no confidence and no belief he will lose in the first round…
I feel broken…I wasted time watching this to learn that Rafa is not progressed as I thought…one step forward two steps back…that’s the story of Rafa this year…
yes natashao, the problem is that the players now know that rafa will crack at crucial moments so that instead of losing belief and giving up against him as they would have done before they have hope and just keep hanging in there…
natashao,
I have to say that I agree with you. I put off doing some things that were necessary in order to watch this match. Now I have to play catch up. Now I really, truly understand that this is not going to be solved by Rafa and his team alone.
The players are on to Rafa’s problems. They know that if they hang around and don’t go away, then they have a chance to win the match.
i was very nervous even after he had broken in the 3rd set thinking that something was going to go wrong….but those forehand misses on break points were unbelievable…
Sigh, at least one person in my life is happy Rafa lost………..my mother! I meekly surrendered the TV remote control to her and she has the run of her favourite channel now, National Geographic. No protest from me………..
She can have the whole tv for all I care……………
while other players have one opponent to face, Rafa has two…Rafa is his worst enemy…
Very well said!
Gussie, please post Rafa’s post match interview when you get it, thanks.
Ooops, Rafa’s still in the dubs. Good luck to Rafa and Mac in that!
Rafa says Dolgo’s 2nd serve was difficult to read. He says whilst he is sad to lose a match he should have won, the best player of all time on grass nearly lost in the 1st round in Halle yesterday.
“nearly lost”…but he still won…that is what greatest players do…wining when they should have lost…while Rafa is losing where he should have won…
oh snap, nats!
Oh snap @nats!
Oh snap @ritb!
When did Sampras come out of retirement?
Besides, two differences here:
Firstly, Fed is five years older.
Secondly (and more importantly), Fed won (when not at his best). Just like Rafa USED to do.
although he stated objective facts that is not the whole picture, as we know… not that he SHOULD say the rest that is upsetting us… to the world.. repeatedly or ever… but he SHOULD address it at the core
a new challenge in the form of an even deeper form of humility…
Spaniards are too macho.
that for sure is part of the problem here
@nadline10, did Rafa actually reference Fed’s near loss in his post match interview? I am hoping he did not. That would be a new low for me. Fed’s near loss in Halle totally irrelevant to his loss to Dolgo today. Fed won, he lost. Nearly just does not cut it. Hell, he should have nearly won himself!
Dolgo took his chances, Rafa did not. He cannot bemoan other reasons.
+++1
Yes, BBC 2 showed an interview with him during a break in the Murray match and he did not look too distraught, disappointed, yes, but not distraught.
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-adapt-or-perish-2.png
#DontYou?
#OrDoYou.
to be able to keep calm consistently again, rafa will need to adapt
#WillHe?
#OrWontHe?
i fear that we are a long way still from the changes needed. that there is such a deep structural resistance to change in rafa’s camp that it will only happen after the problems go on and on….
his relationship with his family is becoming a big problem….
For myself, I was actually thinking about how Fed almost got bounced out of Halle. Almost being the operative word here. The difference is that Fed managed to get the win in a tight battle where he easily could have lost. From a player who is five years older than Rafa and clearly not in his prime anymore, well he did what he should have done. Rafa did not get the job done and these are the kinds of matches where he would step up and find a way to win.
He lost and there is no way to rationalize it. He needs to stop doing that and face the problem. It’s not a terrible thing to have this problem, but it’s a terrible waste not to do anything about it.
Sadly, I expected this to happen at some point this week and if not at Wimby, but much more likely before Halle was out. The nervousness he alluded recently of earlier in the year not sure how the back would hold up… ok, that must have been part of it (I don’t think rafa resorts of making up reasons like this) but when I read about it a couple of days ago I knew that this was at most a smaller concern. In other years this type of worry was not causing these major breakdowns in confidence left and right.
At the age of 29 and after having missed six months last year, I do not think that Rafa can afford to fritter away the rest of this year.
I thought that now that RG was behind him and there were almost no points to defend, that the pressure was off. I was wrong. There will always be pressure, the internal pressure and anxiety inside Rafa.
In this day and age, there is simply no excuse for a player to continue playing and struggling with futility when the problem can be resolved with some expert help.
Bjorn Borg came to mind. When he couldn’t win the way he was winning slams earlier he quit. Makes you wonder whether with some psychological counselling or something equivalent he might have decided to stay on the circuit some time longer and see how it goes.
Rafa has been the opposite. He’s hit many walls over the last years, Djokovic no 2 in 2011, early 2012, several injuries, etc and none caused him to retire. Right now he might be thinking there is no way he is going to retire at this low point… and I’m afraid you are all right: he is very unlikely to suddenly go for that kind of help / change the dynamics with Uncle T / his family.
I try not to think about what happened to Borg. He had a kind of burnout and then just walked away. But I never realized all the intricate routines he followed that enabled him to do what he did. For whatever reason, it was gone. He did say in the documentary “McEnroe/Borg:Fire and Ice”, that it wasn’t because he lost to McEnroe. He wasn’t even sure what happened. But he did say that he has been thinking about quitting for a while because he had no life. Only his parents and coach knew.
However, Rafa has stayed the course through everything. He has dealt with so much. But this is something that I believe he cannot deal with alone.
chloro, i was remembering again something i commented on before about how rafa says that he never makes changes to his team because the losses are his fault, his responsibility. that language is frightening! why is it all his fault, his responsibility?? they are there to help him and have to take their share of praise or blame in equal measure. it’s very isolating to construct things in this way.
you are right again… how can it all be just rafa’s?
also, this team which never changes is a closed circle, closed group, like his family
and that was all pretty much ok while it was going well… With the exception of that we will never know how else rafa’s game would have evolved had he changed uncle t’s coaching for someone else’s long ago, or simply added another coach long ago and perhaps experimented with various coaches as most top players have…
it would not have had to be in contradiction to the continuing to live in a close-knit family… he could have even kept many of the same physiotherapists, doctors, etc.
rafa has said that because he always keeps the same people they know just what to say to him….that’s scarcely apparent now is it?? or indeed for periods of time in the past.
but the mindset of always taking responsibility really unnerves me…no wonder he gets weighed down by anxiety and one supposes from his readiness to use this language that it is inherent in his thinking. people who take on excessive responsibilities upon themselves do tend to suffer from anxiety for obvious reasons as they are carrying too great a load. he just needs way way more help and please from outside the family….!
someone to whom he can open up and offload some of these burdens…..
Even if it is all Rafa, the simple fact is that there is help. Sports psychologists exist for a reason. If they weren’t there for a purpose, then they would not exist. The pressure and mental stress of competing in this sport can take a toll. There is no shame in admitting that one needs help.
Rafa is not failing. It’s not that it’s all on him. There are better ways to deal with this. But I just don’t see Rafa and his team doing it. They don’t have to publicly announce that they are getting some help. It can be done privately.
I just don’t want to see Rafa helplessly going around in the same circle. It’s not pleasant to watch.