Rafael Nadal will be back in action one day after surviving a three-hour marathon against Gilles Simon, this time facing Mikhail Youzhny on Thursday in Rome. Tomas Berdych and Grigor Dimitrov are also taking the court.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (14) Mikhail Youzhny
Nadal and Youzhny will be facing each other for the 15th time in their careers when they collide in round three of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday. The head-to-head series stands at 10-4 in Nadal’s favor, including 3-0 on clay. Youzhny has never won more than three games in any clay-court set against the current world No. 1. Their most recent encounter came last spring on the slow stuff in Madrid, where Nadal cruised 6-2, 6-3.
Interestingly, one of Youzhny’s four victories (Chennai 2008) came after Nadal survived a three-hour, 55-minute marathon against Carlos Moya. This time around, the Spaniard is coming off a 7-6(1), 6-7(4), 6-2 victory over Gilles Simon that lasted three hours and 18 minutes. Youzhny, on the other hand, beat Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-4 then got a second-set retirement from Andrey Golubev on Wednesday. The 16th-ranked Russian has the game to trouble to Nadal, along the lines of the Nikolay Davydenko of yesteryear and the present-day Kei Nishikoi, with hard, flat groundstrokes and the ability to dictate baseline rallies by taking the ball early. Unfortunately for Youzhny, he appears to be past his prime at 31 and the surface certainly will not help his chances of implementing that kind of gameplan.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 8-10 games
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(12) Grigor Dimitrov vs. (6) Tomas Berdych
Dimitrov and Berdych will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time in as many weeks. They just met at the Madrid Masters, where Berdych earned his first-ever win in the head-to-head series by prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, also in a third-round encounter. Dimitrov’s victories came via a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam in 2009 and a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 scoreline two years ago in Miami.
They have taken much different paths to get to this latest showdown in Rome. Dimitrov overcame Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his opener then held off Ivo Karlovic 7-6(3), 6-4 on Wednesday. Berdych got a first-round bye as the No. 6 seed before rolling over Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-3. The Czech is 27-7 for the season, while Dimitrov is a similarly stellar 24-7. The slightly slower conditions in Rome than Madrid will favor the 12th-seeded Bulgarian, who may also have a slight edge in current form despite last week’s result.
Pick: Dimitrov in 3
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Now that I have watched the match, I will say that Youzhny didn’t play anywhere near as well as Simon did. I thought Rafa played decent in the first set, but just gave it away when he was serving to close it out. Two DF’s in one game? Then a missed forehand. He was practically handing it to Youzhny on a silver platter. In the tb, Rafa was too passive. Again I didn’t see Youzhny do anything special. It was more like Rafa was just not there. That was the ugly part.
But Rafa seemed to come alive in the second set. He took charge and played so much more aggressively, with much better court position. His groundstrokes had so much more depth and penetration and accuracy. When his mind clicks, he’s a just a different player. I wonder if Rafa now is like Hamlet – to be or not to be, that is the question! But he took control and never looked back. That was the good part.
I am not sure what to expect in the next match. Rafa has been on the court for a long time with his first two matches. Will it help or hurt? Murray is a real top four player, not a pretender like Stan. He has the game to challenge Rafa. It just depends how Rafa plays. I can’t see how he can afford to give up breaks if he’s serving for the set. But we will have to wait and see.
^^that
I don’t like what I read below (:-
The top-ranked Nadal dropped behind a set and a break against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, then took 11 of the final 12 games to win 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1 on another windy day at the Foro Italico.
“Get used to (it),” Nadal said of his recent struggles. “With the years that’s the normal thing. Everybody suffers. That’s part of the sport.”
At 27, Nadal’s best days could be behind him.
“At this age, (Bjorn) Borg was doing other things,” said Nadal, a 13-time Grand Slam winner. “It’s not possible to win for 10 years with easy scores and easy matches. At the same time, I’m sure I can do much better than I am doing.”
Nadal was looking forward to facing Murray for the first time in more than two years.
“I play against one of the top players in the world after two tough days,” Nadal said. “If I play well I’m going to have my chances, if not I’m going to spend the weekend (at home) in Mallorca.”
Sanju: It is easy to read too much into that comment. It’s only natural: Rafans are feeling jittery at the moment. Rafa is simply being realistic and saying it’s not possible to stay at the same high peak for years on end. We can’t demand he attempts to push himself beyond his limits just for our sakes.
@Sanju, try and understand that the Rafa you knew 5-10 years ago is no longer the Rafa you know now. For one thing, he is older. We all age. If you understand and accept that, maybe you may see his comments in a different light. Not saying you should like what Rafa said, just asking that you factor in the aging process as well?
Personally, I think Rafa still has a long way to go at the top level of the game, but I am calibrating my expectations to take into account the above.
Rafa has never bought into his invincibility on clay. He keeps it real, he’s never accepted being the favourite at any time but that doesn’t mean he won’t try his best. It’s funny how we all view stars of any genre as larger than than life and put them on a pedestal, believing that they are super human. When they go home, they are just human beings full of doubts and insecurities. This is why some on them fall off the rails because they find it to hard to live up to the hype.
Even the most successful players know how difficult it is to keep being successful. Some put up an air of confidence as a front but deep down they are not so sure they can walk on water. At RG in 2011, Rafa was not at his best and he kept saying in his pressers that he wasn’t playing well enough to win the title, but he won it. He always tries his best.
What separates Rafa from many (far from all) regular folks is that during training and in matches his attitude to difficulty, fear, etc is one where you keep doing what seems to best choice to do next, regardless of what seems easier or harder, more or less pleasant etc, That attitude to life can be developed and strengthened and strengthened further. There are many who practice it in all kinds of other areas of life. Again, he is accustomed to take the hard moments, days or months as they come without adding a lot of mental dramas or a lot of unnecessary mental resistance. And we see that yet again in how he is going about the last few weeks.
On the other hand, on top of that he has practiced the relentless warrior abilities when on court since a young age. To get into that mode and take it to the best version he can takes all kinds of things. Some are easy to keep doing, his usual anchors and rituals, including the cold shower before a match. So there is that. But as we all know to have that warrior mode work close to his potential he also needs the confidence and the ‘colm’. Something he often had in big part due to the support system around him and the lifestyle he grew up in. In 2009 that part was weakened with his parents’ separation and with his knee(s) giving out at the same time. Whatever is / are the core reason(s) why he does not have that level of confidence and consistent ‘colm’ right now, at least he has all the other parts: the basic toughness, the being used to ‘suffer’ when needed without thinking it a problem, his conditioning, tennis skills etc. And this allows him to still win his matches.
It is possible he is not telling us (yet) the whole story of what is bothering him. We’ll see when he comes out the other end of this period of time. In the meantime I admire yet again his ability to remain the same warrior: do your best, whatever it might be on the day, in the moment, and keep on going regardless of circumstances.
I am not complaining about him saying get used to it, 3 setters will be common etc..I only am skeptical of the Borg reference 🙂
I don’t expect Rafa is feeling like doing a Borg. My guess is that the reference to Borg comes easily to him as it is perhaps the most direct example of what he talks about. Borg too was a prodigy I mean very good early. They both own(ed) RG. Borg is the former athlete Rafa has been compared to the most (I think). And Borg was about a year younger when he quit than Rafa is now. It seems to me that Rafa in Borg’s exact shoes would not have quit. I take what Rafa said in this interview at face value: all of the players including the best have times when wins are hard to achieve.
Some people on other blogs are interpreting the Borg reference as a sign that Rafa is contemplating life outside of tennis but I see it as just a fact he put out there, to provide perspective for his current “drama”.
If Rafa was contemplating life outside of tennis… believe me, he would not be telling the world about it. It would be suicide in matches while he was still playing. Also it would have a lot of repercussions re his sponsorship deals so it would be uncharacteristically irresponsible. And if he were thinking about retiring now, which he is not, it would not be because he has been going for months not being able to go deep in tournaments and believing he couldn’t again, so what would be the reason?
I’m sure you don’t believe their interpretation either, ritb.
Meh. Just more hopeful blather from the federazzi turned djokerazzi.
pfft.
#InTheirDreams
Poor NNY: When she wakes up and starts reading this thread she will have a panic attack. Any mention that Rafa could possibly do a Borg reawakens for her the nightmare moment when he walked off the court never to return. I think it scarred her for life.
No I don’t at all @chloro. Just reporting what I have been reading on other blogs. Rafa is not going anywhere yet.
rafaisthebest@:May 16, 2014 at 2:50 pm
It doesn’t matter what the Federazzi writes ‘in other blogs’,
The tennis pundits predicted long ago that Rafa would have a short career. He still plays.
—“For the last five years, it seems like lot of people were saying I will not be able to play long the way that I play,” said Nadal, Olympic singles champion in 2008.
“But I am here again at 27-and-a-half years old and I really hope to have the chance to be here for a lot of more years.
“So still in my mind Olympics in Brazil. I really want to arrive there in good condition. It’s a real goal for me.”—- [October 8th, 2013]
http://sports.inquirer.net/123251/miracle-recovery-im-still-in-pain-says-nadal
Nole is 5-2 up despite his BTDL completely absent
Oh, I have to tell you this: I told the story, on another thread, of my colleague here in Tunis who is a Fedfan telling me that Rafa was finished, this after watching Rafa’s grueling match against Gillou, saying zero about Fed’s ouster. Well, there he was yesterday excitedly, again, telling me that Rafa was finished. I decided to humour him and agree with his assessment. Boy, did he literally light up with joy! I didn’t have the heart to remind him that Fed was out and Rafa still in, despite his struggles.
Seriously, I get the feeling some Fedfans no longer bother following Fed but are actually “following” Rafa!
The cognitive dissonance that started round about 2004,,, has roots that have grown deep on both sides of the divide in their mind.
Hard to reconcile this dissonance. For many that has still not happened. It requires an entirely lucid realistic reappraisal of your views of the actual accomplishments and level of BOTH Roger and Rafa.
#EmperorClothes
Perhaps this is the main reason (no matter how that sounds 🙂 why I would in a way like Rafa to complete a second career slam, catch up with Roger’s slam count, win the WhatTheF tournament the one time, and more or less catch up or surpass Roger total number of tournament wins and finals, while retaining his positive H2H against everyone high in the rankings (not named Davidovitch :-). Because if he matches and surpasses Roger on all those counts (while not in various other records Roger has) then it will be even more interesting to watch how the psychology of denial continues to be played out. I am not saying Rafa would then have to be declared the GOAT (peace, some of you) but it would then be very hard to argue that Roger definitely is.
Having seen the level of some of these fans’ selective amnesia, it would not surprise me if, the situation you describe happened @chloro, and they simply denied that……….it happened!
Sure just yesterday a fedfan admitted that rafa was one of the biggest parts of his life.
#FirstStep