RAFA looked like he was holding back on purpose to give his opponents a false sense of belief. I hope it works out for him. For sure he knows it better than any of the internet forum warriors
Given that RAFA has consistently obtained outstanding results on grass before, I am more inclined to think his losses in 2012-2015 were mostly outliers. He ran across a few inspired opponents at times in which RAFA was probably not at his very best.
Grass courts WERE (not ARE) his worst courts because his knees weren't 100% since 2012 and always had issues bending it to chase down the balls. This year, RAFA looks 100% healthy since April and with the new found confidence during clay season it seems he might not have a worst surface after all
Well, that's a harsh scoreline. Hard to know exactly what happened without any statistics, but I certainly wasn't expecting a less than an hour routine.
The Friday match vs Haas will surely be very helpful for Rafa before hitting Wimbledon.
Eerily, this is seeming more and more similar to 2009 where Nadal withdrew from Queens, and then played exhibitions at Hurlingham to test his readiness.
Recall that the 2008 defending Wimbledon champion lost in Hurlingham on Thursday June 18, 2009 against just about washed up Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4 with Lleyton mercilessly slicing balls low to Rafa forcing him to bend over.
He then played Wawrinka the following day, Friday, and though he appeared better than he did against Hewitt, he still lost, and then declared after the match that he was withdrawing from Wimbledon due to not feeling 100% because of his knees.
Let's see what happens this Friday, June 30, 2017, against Tommy Haas who has not beaten Nadal in 5 tries (AO-2, Cinci-2, Madrid-1).
These exhibitions or even some lead up events dont mean much for Rafa's form to me. He won Stuttgart in 2015, look what happend in London in very same year. Dustin freking Brown I just hope he magically finds his 2014 form.
Also @masterclass stop with reminding 2009 over and over again. He won't pull out Wimbledon. He may lose early but Rafa will play.
Rafa has zero chances at winning Wimbledon and he is pretty aware of it. The reason the bookies are giving odds around 10.00 is to fool people who are dumb enough to bet on him, believing those are great odds, when in fact those are very overrated odds.
Weak serve + short return is a horrible combo for the grass, add to that he got old and his legs are not the same and you get the explanation why he is losing early every year and most likely will do again.
Fair odds for Nadal winning Wimbledon would be around 101.00!
'better' grass courter? when Nadal routined Berdych when they played in a Wimbledon final? you're reading a bitttt too much into the exho.
I'll agree Nadal hasn't been that hot on grass the last few years, but he also happened to take multiple injury breaks around/after Wimby a few of those years too. We'll see what happens in the event. As far as odds are concerned Nadal is a tough candidate to judge and really put odds on because he had such great results on grass pre 2012 and then such middling results afterwards. But at the same time, obviously, Nadal had more injury struggles in the years after like 2011 (not a shocker considering he grinds a lot in the spring).
I think Abraxas made a good point, Nadal's record is pretty good on grass despite some rough early losses in recent years (which might have a little to do with physical issues and injuries). The reality is Nadal could get upset in the second round or he could get a good draw and become incredibly dangerous in the second week (when the grass has worn down). Either options are probably equally possible and the odds match that imo. I think Nadal is probably the #1 player that gets a massive boost in chances simply by scraping through the first week because he vastly prefers the conditions when the baseline is a bit beaten
The grass courts with Rafa's knees are these days not a good combination. I think he is worried about more physical problems which makes him less focused on his play.
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