[romismak]

This is interresting question. First of all it is logical NAdal plays Barcelona -
that must be said, it is almost his ,,home,, event, it is on clay in his country, it is pretty safe bet he will win it-so another title for him, he loves it there and Barca even has great history, it is one of better 500s tournaments for sure.

But there is one problem with mandatory tournaments- top players must play Masters 1000 events, only MC they can skip. So the same question like in Barca´s case is why he is playing MC - the same like Barca- safe bet he is going to win there, history and even bigger event- Masters 1000 tournament.

Ideal would be if he skip one of those 2 events-either MC or Barca, but problem is he is supposed to win both, loves both and probably they are his 2 best events overall.

So how i mentioned MAsters 1000 he must play Madrid and Rome, maybe he would skip Madrid who knows, but problem it is mandatory for him, just like Rome, so he must play both those events- before he was skipping Hamburg for example and he was playing MC, Barca, Rome - rest - RG that was fine, right now under circumstances he must play 2 Masters 1000 and those 2 he loves both events- MC, Barca and problem is just like he must play Rome, Madrid he must play 4x500s or 6 other events under new rules.

So Rafa as top player is playing slams, Masters1000 and WTF - now which 6 else events he will play- will he skip such succesfull tournament for him on his best surface- good for confidence and rather play 500-250 events during indoor season? i don´t know it is not good for scheduling, but for example last year he played without injury all 5 clay events- Mc, Barca, Madrid, Rome, RG and he played maximum possible ammount of matches - W, F all the time- actually he had W/O over Delpo in Madrid, but my point is he played everything and he did fine - we can say for example if Nole didn´t had that form, he easily could have won 5 from 5 clay events he entered.

So basically the issue here is mandatory obligations for top guys - they must play Madrid, Rome but also they must play 6 non slams-mandatory MAsters 1000, which in Rafa´s case is:

1.warm-up for AO - Doha - logicall
2.Queens - warm-up for Wimby again logicall - Halle this season
He didn´t need to play any small 250 warm-ups for RG-USO, because they have MAsters 1000 before slams - Madrid, Rome and Canada,Cinci

So he normally is playing 2x250-warm-ups for slams, and where in the hell he will find another 4x500 and another 4,,other,, events - BArca, MC are very logicall and reasonable answers.

i can´t see him play Basel for example.

He is playing now Tokyo-because he must play 1x500 post-USO season and he prefers outdoor HC rather than indoor HC in Europe

Only possible solution for Nadal not to play Barcelona is i think to play Acapulco- which is not far away by plane from Californian IW- what is next, but the question here is how tired- he will be than in Miami already... but only solution for him is to play Acapulco every year instead of Barca - another 500 safe title for him instead of Ferrer-Almagro...

[cardio]

Because this is easiest 500 points he can ever get ? No Djoko here , no Federer... He could play Hamburg or Valencia instead, but he is too tired after Wimbledon and nothing is guaranteed on hardcourt.Plus, this is his home tournament, perhaps he feels same way Fed feels about Basel : I MUST play if I am not seriously injured.

Of course his schedule is crazy from April to June, but he also gets most of points from this period of season, not to mention money .Hard work, lot of risk to burn out or injure himself, but huge reward. Perhaps he thinks reward is bigger than risk he takes.

[MariaV]

Originally Posted by rocketassist

He should fuck that blue clay tragedy off instead.

Ditto.
I really hope he'll skip Madrid.

[heya]

he has no chance to win indoor hardcourts while djoker is playing. djoker can beat him in roland garros, not just this year but every remaining year.

if rafa doesn't win at least 2 clay titles and reach the other slam finals, federer will take the #2 ranking.

[Mimi]

Originally Posted by Clay Death

i am not happy with the clay warrior.

me too, no longer as good as when he was peak, making too much unforced errors too

[Nole Rules]

Originally Posted by heya

he has no chance to win indoor hardcourts while djoker is playing. djoker can beat him in roland garros, not just this year but every remaining year.

if rafa doesn't win at least 2 clay titles and reach the other slam finals, federer will take the #2 ranking.

[Jamoz]

Originally Posted by heya

he has no chance to win indoor hardcourts while djoker is playing. djoker can beat him in roland garros, not just this year but every remaining year.

if rafa doesn't win at least 2 clay titles and reach the other slam finals, federer will take the #2 ranking.

This is so true

[Gustavo Kuerten]

Originally Posted by Raferminator

Wow, really?! The fact noone has pointed out the obvious up to this point just goes to show this is a board full of mindless Fedtards!

Why does Muger Frauderer play Basel, you Fedtard Imbeciles?!!!

GOAT post

[Johnny Groove]

Gotta have it.

romismak explained it well.