Rafael Nadal and David Goffin will be facing each other for the third time in their careers when they wrap up the first two days of round-robin competition at the World Tour Finals on Monday night. Nadal has won both of their previous meetings; 6-3, 6-1 in this season’s Monte-Carlo semifinals and 7-6(3), 6-2 in the Madrid quarters.
For exactly two reasons, Goffin may have a better a chance in this one. First, it is on an indoor hard court instead of on clay. Second, Nadal is likely less than 100 percent due to a knee injury.
That being said, Goffin has dealt with physical problems of his own throughout the second half of 2017. The eighth-ranked Belgian suffered an ankle injury in the third round of the French Open, missed the grass-court swing, and did not post another strong result until reaching round four of the U.S. Open–where a knee issue hobbled him during a straight-set loss to Andrey Rublev. Goffin, though, is an impressive 17-5 this fall with back-to-back titles in Shenzhen and Tokyo.
Few players have a better record this season than Goffin (54-22), but Nadal’s 67-10 mark has helped him clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking heading into London. The Spaniard took all suspense out of that equation when he beat Hyeon Chung in his first match at the Paris Masters. Nadal held off Pablo Cuevas in three sets one day later but then withdrew with his knee problem prior to a scheduled quarterfinal contest against Filip Krajinovic.
With more than a week off before getting things started at the O2 Arena, Nadal is reportedly good to go.
“I hope (I am ready),” Nadal said in between practice sessions in London. “And if I didn’t believe I can be ready, I wouldn’t be here. I’m working every day, practicing well and just trying to be ready for the action…. Being here is an important thing, but for me the most important thing is everything that happened to me this year, the tournaments, competing almost every week with a very competitive level of tennis; being healthy until Paris.”
Goffin is here for the second time after playing one match as a World Tour Finals alternate in 2016, when he replaced Gael Monfils and got blown out by Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-2. The underdog will be much more competitive on Monday, but another loss is forthcoming if Nadal is close to 100 percent.
Pick: Nadal in 2
[polldaddy poll=9870896]
who ya got?
Nadal in 2
likely (if healthy)
D. Goffin hasn’t won a set against R. Nadal, the H2H is 3-0 obviously Rafito is leading.
Rafa defeated Goffin thrice this year, 2 of those wins were on clay, outside clay their match was competitive.
http://www.tennisexplorer.com/match-detail/?id=1629042
Can this match go over 21.5 games?
D. Goffin has the better record on indoors( overall & this year) and he has done well on this court throughout this year.
All the matches Rafa played on indoors this year went over games, Nadal is the favourite to win and might win but can this match go over games?
Nadal in three
Nadal, returning from a break, is a bit rusty on his worst surface and wins in three.
Rafa in very straight sets… losing no more than 7 games.
I think Rafa is healthy, if not he won’t play. I doubt he will run the risk of further damage if he’s not fit but still wants to play.
I think he withdrew from Paris QF because at that time he’s not sure how serious was his injury. I don’t think he and his team are so dumb to let him play when he’s not fit to play.
luckystar AT 7:29 AM;
Rafa is following his doctor’s advice. He talked to his trusted doctor, Ángel Ruiz Cotorro, before pulling out of his R3 match Paris. The doctor advised him not to play. The doctor made a step-by-step recovery plan for Rafa and keeps a watchful eye on him.
https://www.elespanol.com/deportes/tenis/20171104/259474342_0.html
Not R3, QF. At that time Rafa wasn’t sure how serious was the problem, so he took his team’s ( including his doctor) advice and withdrew. I think he went straight to Barcelona after that to get his knee checked.
Notice that he was fine during set 1 vs Cuevas, but his game went down in set 2, not serving well and not hitting well; probably he felt more pain in set two (and three), that he dare not put too much pressure on his knee, for fear of further damage. He didn’t want to retire from the match so he endured and continued till the finish line.
Luckystar AT 9:56 AM,
Yes, Rafa went straight from Paris to Barcelona to get his knee checked. It’s written in the article I linked. The article is in Spanish, try to read it via Google Translate.
Here is an excerpt via Google Translate:
¤¤ Ángel Ruiz Cotorro, Rafael Nadal’s trusted doctor, received the tennis player at his clinic in Barcelona on Friday afternoon and immediately started to work.
First, the doctor did several tests to see the condition of the patellar tendon of the right knee, which forced Rafa not to play in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.
Secondly, he wanted to see if the injury is exactly the same as Rafa suffered during the Asian tour (the knee joint stress) and which forced him to withdraw from the tournament in Basel.
And thirdly, he chose a specific treatment, the goal of which is recovering in time to play at the WTF in London.
“It is not a new injury or an injury that has worsened,” Cotorro explained by telephone to this newspaper [EL Espanol]. “It’s not a different situation than when Rafa came from the Asian tour. All the images of the tests tell us that it’s the same problem – the knee tendon is suffering,” added the doctor, who had already consulted the Mallorcan after Shanghai and diagnosed the knee joint stress accumulated during the long season.
“Rafa has played a lot of matches this season. The knee tendon is suffering, but the images do not show us anything new [different than after Shanghai]: it’s pain in a stressful situation.”
“Rafa did the right thing by retiring,” said Cotorro, who spoke with the player on Friday morning and supported him in his decision not to jump on the court.
“The problem of tendons in different situations may bother more or less, but we are going to try to be fit to play in London. If he is fit, he’ll play, and if he is not fit, he’ll give up playing. We’ll see how things evolve in the coming days. ”
Thus, on Friday, Rafa began a specific treatment that will combine physiotherapy, rehabilitation and muscle strengthening in Mallorca, trying to recover in time to play at the WTF in London.¤¤
I don’t see how rafa is healthy, based on what he says (he “hopes” to be 100%) and on his recent form. Unless he was tanking a bit in Paris, which is more unlikely than anything imo, he clearly wasn’t fully fit. Nor did he seem to be in Shanghai final. Why think he’s healed up completely?
So I’m still surprised Rafa is playing. I suspect he’ll use this match as a bit of a gauge, and if he doesn’t feel right he’ll pull out. I think the match will be close, as Goffin has picked it up a bit lately and is more comfortable on this surface.
Come on, I’ve already explained. It’s normal to feel pain in his knees(according to him), as long as it’s bearable and not a new kind of pain and as long as he knows what’s the problem about.
He pulled out of Paris QF out of caution(according to Moya as reported in one of Moya’s interviews), not wanting to aggravate the issue, when he still had one more important tournament to go (WTF). Rafa’s knees will not always be at 100%, so he’ll play his tournaments knowing there will be pain but no further damage.
It’s just like Fed would feel his back issue after playing his matches, but it’s not serious enough that he couldn’t play his next match as long as he could rest it between matches.
It may be normal for him to feel pain in his knees, but that still doesn’t explain the difference in playing form. Maybe he was feeling pain in his knees at RG final, but there was no evidence of it. Very different case in his 3-4 most recent matches.
Read Rafa’s comment at the ATP website; he said he’s not worried about meeting Fed here as he’s healthy and would try to find new ways to overcome Fed.
It’s not gonna be easy this time around against Goffin. He knows Rafa might not be fully fit and will try to play more and change directions. Rafa wins in 3 or drops.
R. Nadal won’t be playing WTF if he wasn’t fit or healthy, if he plays which he will, please let no one make an excuse if he loses a match or the title.
Please don’t bring up injury or the surface of the court, this is tennis and this guy’s are pros, they are not novices.
Everyone at this stage of the tournament is struggling with something- back pain, fitness, knee, age etc.
When Rafa loses he does his best to lose with grace and he comes back fighting again with a hunger that I admire, I hope rafans learn 4rm him.
When R. Federer wins he does his best to win with humility and he is sincere about it, Federistas should always be humble and not rub it in too much, because you never know, next season might be R….’s.
When we do this two things( lose with grace and win with humility) with dignity, together we will make tennis great again, greater than it’s ever been and conversing with each other will be sweet.
✌👌👊!
Whoa, since when it’s easy against Goffin? Are you mistaking Rafa for Fed against Goffin? Fed vs Goffin is always easy save for that first match they had at FO some years back.
Rafa defeated D. Goffin twice on clay and once on hard( exhibition in Dubai) this year, it was easy 4 Rafa on clay but not on hard and this time it might/won’t be easy.
Nadal might win but Goofing will push him.
http://www.tennisexplorer.com/match-detail/?id=1629042
Nadal will beat Goffin and then depending on the speed of the court may even not play the other matches. If he does play then, he will lose again to Roger either in the semis or the final http://www.138mph.com/tennis-analyzing-nadals-prospects-with-thiem-dimitrov-and-goffin-in-his-group-at-the-atp-finals/
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/878593/Rafael-Nadal-Roger-Federer-ATP-World-Tour-Finals/amp
So what is the real deal about rafa…is he reasonably fit or not…above article says behind the scenes charter says he is not.
I meant chatter above
Why do you like to read articles from express.co.uk? I read some and imo they’re mostly gossip materials. My advice is, please don’t read them, don’t get yourself confused.
I think Rafa’s knee is an issue and its not a small issue. I am assuming Rafa will go for a full rest for 1 month till December 20. If his knee injury still remains, then it is going to be troublesome for Rafa next year. He has to me smart in scheduling from now on.
He has not played a lot in last 1 month. Injury should have healed b now if it had been a minor injury.
Huh? Last one month he played at Beijing and Shanghai – ten matches! If not for the YE no.1 ranking, he could have skipped both Basel and Paris, thereby giving himself four weeks rest.
He was hitting ok during his practice session, just not serving well, perhaps not willing to push his knee too hard. He looked ok when he’s running.
He has played 2 competitive matches in last 4 weeks. Dont count practice sessions, real matches require different intensity.
luckystar AT 3:17 PM,
As for Rafa’s parctice sessions in London, his doctor did not allow him to serve before Thursday.
fedexal AT 3:10 PM
Rafa has used his off-seasons to receive theraphy. I am sure he & his doctors know what to do during the upcoming off-season.
That is not accurate. A knee injury does not have to be serious if it takes a while to heal. Tendonitis can be stubborn.
There is no way Rafa’s doctor would let him play if he thought it was serious.
If you ever had knee tendonitis then you would know that it can take a while to settle down once it’s inflamed.
The last thing we need here is armchair doctors talking about things which they don’t know enough about.
Just to be clear, my last post was in response to fedexal’s comment at 3:10 pm.
Yeah I don’t think tendinitis is actually usually too serious.
I’m sure Rafa will still fight through this one. If anyone can fight through an injury to win this kind of match, it’s Rafael Nadal.
Yeah, and I don’t think he’ll play like that Cuevas match.
Yeah I don’t think Rafa can play any worse than he did vs Cuevas and even then he won. Shows what a mental beast he is.
it was Cuevas
Ok good point 😂
If it’s tendonitis ( perhaps through over stressing the knee), then perhaps some painkillers or injections may ease the pain. I think during the year end break, Rafa can then have his SCT to speed up the recovery.
The SCT really works wonder for his troubled knees, at least he managed to be injury free (though it won’t be pain free after each match) until end of Shanghai event. Had he skipped some events, like Rome or even Laver Cup, his knee might be better I guess.
Any match win is 150 points. If Rafa wins against Goffin and does not feel right, he can further assess and thats why he is here. His knee is not so bad that he can’t play. He withdrew from Paris to give himself right. But knee is not perfect as well.
Each win is 200 points, so the more he wins, the more he pulls away from Fed. He wants to keep his no.1 ranking for as long as possible I believe. Of course I believe his knee is not that bad that he’ll hurt it further should he play, so he decides to play. I doubt he wants to risk further injuries and does the stop/start all over again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcsXYs-NXf0
This is from his practice with Zverev. I can see that he is NOT at all being explosive with his service motion. He is not taking off like he normally would to hit his serve. Is it precautionary? He will struggle a lot if his first serve is not 100%
Maybe he is just holding back to give his body as much rest as he can before using his energy reserves to explode into the serve in his match? If he’s playing tomorrow I’m guessing that’s what he’s doing.
D. Goffin won’t make it easy for R. Nadal, if rafa is not careful he will lose this match.
If he defeats rafa it would have nothing to do with rafa’s knee, D. Goffin is the injured player and his knee is bad.
Whoever loses, no excuses please.
Stan, if Goffin wins tomorrow it will be because he is the better player currently on indoor hard courts. One has to give complete credit to Goffin then for his superior skills on this fast IH surface.
Rafa’s knee is strained or injured a bit from overuse (70+ games in 2017 on many surfaces. That is too much for any human being.) and not broken. So, Rafa should play at full strength (if he wants to win).
If Rafa doesn’t have any knee issues and restricted movement, then Rafa should win. It could be an ugly match like he played versus Cuevas recently. Note, Goffin is in far better and consistent form than Cuevas. So, just imagine how tough this match will be. Hoping that Rafa doesn’t get blown away in 2 sets as 1000’s have bet millions of dollars on a Nadal’s win!
This could be a 3-setter or 2 long sets (like their last H2H match on hard surface in 12/2016). Note that Rafa’s knee was perfect (pending studying of Rafa’s knees,discussion with his doctor etc.!lol) and strong then in 12/2016 and it still went over games (6-4, 7-6 = 23 games).
Now with a compromised knee of Rafa and with Goffin’s better game and form om IH, this can be a 3-setter or atleast go over games. But, anything can happen in tennis sometimes (like the will to win shown by Benneteau in the Paris Open where he beat many FAV’s like Tsonga, Cilic etc. before tiredness and father age caught up with the old man Benne…) overriding the Statistical & form analysis.
If Rafa can bring his Spanish Bull mentality (win at any cost), then he can win a tight game.
Won the over bet on Roger vs Jack Sock besides Roger -1.5? Couldn’t post that prediction as was very busy with the weekend mma’s profitable event.
Vamos “Ruf,Ruf,Ruf…and Tough” Rafa!
The WTF courts are playing faster this year.
http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/13/how-fast-is-the-atp-finals-court-roger-federer-alexander-zverev-marin-cilic-and-jack-sock-discuss-7074036/
Each of them said different things; Cilic said the court is slower than Paris; I doubt it’s a quick court, at least not as quick as Shanghai. Perhaps, according to Fed, it’s still quicker than the O2 Arena in 2015.
Fed last won this event in 2011, a good six years ago; Djoko won it four times and Murray once in that period. It seemed the court surface favored their style more (no wonder Fed was talking about the baseliners in his comment).
If Rafa is fully fit he should be beating Goffin, and I think that will be the result here. While there are uncertainties over his knee, I think he should still have too much for Goffin. While Goffin has a good game he’s struggled in the past against the very best in the game, with him winning only one match against the ‘Big Four’ throughout his career underlying this fact. Goffin will need to produce a stunning performance here, but I just can’t see it happening. I think Rafa starts with a win here in London, as he sees off the Belgian in straight-sets.
Given that vr has commented on his less than ideal serve motion not sure what to expect from rafa. His serve has vastly improved and if he cannot unleash it due to the knee , foolish to expect anything of him here.
Let’s not forget that D. Goffin also has an injury on his knees.
You won’t see him crying about it or complaining.
#Noexcuses
Whoever wins, wins, if Rafa loses and I don’t think he should lose because… he is the favourite 2 win but if he loses it would have nothing to do with his knee.
Please stop making excuses b4 the match starts, Rafa won’t be playing if he wasn’t fit or healthy, you guys are trying to make Rafa the underdog with silly excuses so that when he loses a match or the title you can whine, complain and make excuses.
Rafael Nadal is #1 in Atp rankings for goodness sake, please grow up and stop acting silly.
Kettle calling the pot black 🙂
Sanju AT 11:01 AM,
You always sound like a prophet of doom.
Gussie
You know full well Sanju can be pessimistic both before and during Rafa matches regardless of whether he is carrying an injury or not. It’s her way of controlling her nerves during closely contested matches.
In other words anti-jinxing!
His way 🙂
Sissy!
He is the prophet of doom.
OK he is not 😂🤣😁😂!
Be calm, be focused, be confident, be courageous, be strong, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOhxKm-WsAA7ov_.jpg
The evidence suggests Nadal is maybe 80% on a surface that doesn’t favour his game. His serve especially looks to be weakened. Goffin in 3, maybe 2.
Good luck, Rafa!
😍
Nice! I like that.
Native in which set do you think Rafa will win in 2 or 3?
I know that you don’t want him to lose, so which set?
D. Goffin vs R. Nadal who is playing well in the 1st set I need to bet on who is likely to win the 1st set on “live bet”.
I am not watching the match live but I know Goffin broke Rafa’s serve.
Is he playing really well?
Rafa broke back, well done.
I wrote this a long time ago but I just realized I didn’t hit post.