Rafael Nadal said he intends to have a free weekend before ramping up his preparations for Roland Garros from Monday.
Tomorrow I’ll be in Mallorca fishing or playing golf, or another thing. I’m going to rest a little bit, I think I deserve it. Then from Monday and Tuesday I will start to prepare for Roland Garros. It’s an important event for me. If you do things well, you have more chances in Roland Garros. I hope to play my best tennis in Roland Garros.
I didn’t play very well. I want to congratulate him because he was better than me this afternoon. Great, in all aspects. He played long, he played very aggressive, hitting the ball very strong with high intensity. In general I was not able to push him back. He got a lot of points, maximum, more times than me. And that’s the key of this game. It’s obvious I didn’t play my best match.
I’ve been playing a lot. It’s difficult, every day. Madrid then Rome back-to-back, after Barcelona. It’s not easy playing every day for the last four weeks.
Source: AFP
I posted this on an incorrect thread. I have reposted it here.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but I find many positive articles about Rafa.
[excerpts from an article by Ahmed Rizvi, 5/14/17]
“Coming to Paris, Nadal is the hottest player on the men’s tour, his performance in this week’s Rome Masters notwithstanding. The only slight concern is his workload.
He is in sizzling form as well winning thre back-to-back titles on clay…to climb to the top of the ATP’s Race to London rankings.
The Nadal of 2017 knows he owns these courts and that is essentially the difference between him and the plebeian of 2015 and 2016, who lost seven consecutive matches to Djokovic, was beaten by Thiem on the clay courts of Buenos Aires [2016] and who lost to Fognini three times in 2015.
Last week he beat all three of them in Madrid, along with Nick Kyrgios and David Goffin. And each of those wins must be worth their weight in gold in terms of confidence.
Lest we forget, Nadal also reached the final of the AO, Acapulco and Miami.”
Margo, I can’t reply you in the other thread so have to do it here.
“Margo
Do you have the stats for every match Rafa played versus every match he lost since turning pro? If not, where could these numbers be found? Should exhibition tournaments be included?
Thanks”
You mean the stats for every match or the win/loss ratio?
If it’s the latter, you can find it here and more:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/fedex-atp-win-loss
The stats for every match are a bit more complicated. I have some files and folders of my own but basically you need to check the stats for each match and compile them by yourself. I often take screenshots of the stats shown on TV/gadgets and combined with the stats updated on ATP and sofascore sites.
You can also check the overall or different kinds of stats on these sites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Nadal_career_statistics
http://www.tennisabstract.com
@Rainier [don’t know if this response will go where it belongs…hence @Rainier]
In your response to Annie Nadal, you disagreed with her “U will lose more than U win.” So I was asking if you had the stats to support your rebuttal; tournaments won vs tournaments lost is what I should have asked, not matches. Matches won would surely outnumber matches lost, it’s only logical. My error.
So how many tournaments did he win vs lost? Or is your rebuttal based on something else. Thanks
RAFA ROCKS
My initial opinion was for Rafa to play MC, Barca and Madrid and skip Rome to be fresh for RG. I believe that Rafa somehow convinced Carlos that he was fit for Rome. He wasn’t.
Rafa never offers excuses for losing. This time was different citing being tired after having competed so much. Rafa also could have simply miscalculated his readiness.
I don’t think Carlos is going to fall for that one again.
At least by the time of his first match at RG, he will have had 12 days to recuperate from his three successive grueling tournaments.
ROCK ON RAFA
As i thought thiem got so diastorusly out of the match winning just one game ……because of playing such injury type match with Nadal …he got so drained out………..
Well done, do it and enjoy your stay on your Island, have much fun. C. Javier
Rafa on ranking: “I want to be high in the ranking, because if I am high in the ranking means I am playing well. That’s all. I said before the season that I’m not gonna try to be number one again.”
“What worries me is trying to be healthy, try to be competitive, and the most important thing is to be happy.” [FirstPost]
If you are happy Rafa, so am I.
Jack Sock tweeted:
I’ll be interviewing the king of clay @RafaelNadal live on May 25 @babalot. What do y’all think I should ask him??? #RG17
“That mantle of favorite will be UNCHANGED despite his [Nadal’s] defeat Friday at the hands of an opponent [Thiem] who had learned from recent experience. Thiem lost to Nadal in straight sets in the finals in both Barcelona and Madrid.” [The New York Times, Ben Rothenberg]
New York is with you Rafa.
RAFA ROCKS
Details of the Agassi-Djokovic partnership are emerging. According to the Guardian, “Andre Agassi will be in Novak Djokovic’s box when he begins his defense of his French Open title next week — at least for a few matches.”
“Djokovic later said, ‘I spoke to Andre the last couple of weeks on the phone, and we decided to get together in Paris. We don’t have any long-term commitment, it’s just us trying to get to know each other a little bit. He will not stay the whole tournament. He’s going to stay only to a certain time, and then we’ll see after what happens after that what’s going to happen.'”
“The odds are Agassi, who values his home life, will stay briefly. It is almost certain he will not last as long as Boris Becker.”
Rafa, Nole wants to keep his FO title and others are looking to take it from him. Let that someone be YOU….
RAFA ROCKS
“Alexander Zverev refused to back himself to add a maiden Grand Slam to his first Masters crown on Sunday, insisting Rafael Nadal remained the man to beat at the French Open.
Zverev, 20, stunned World No. 2, Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, in the Rome Masters final to put himself firmly in the frame as a potential champion at Roland Garros when the second major of the year starts in Paris next Sunday.”
“‘No, the favourite is still definitely Rafael Nadal,’ said German star Zverev.” “‘And the others, the rest, it’s going to be quite open. I think Novak is playing quite great again. Dominic [Thiem] has been showing he’s been playing very, very well.
I just won here. So I’ve got to put me on that list, even though, you know, I don’t want to sound like I want to say that I’m the favourite myself or something like this.'”
“This year he [Zverev] will go to the tournament as the new world number 10.”
[SuperSport, May 21, 20:41]
Rafa, bring your tennis DefCon 1 with you to Roland Garros.
I am hoping for a great draw and a well-rested Rafa.
RAFA ROCKS
Disappointed to read that Novak has hired Agassi as his new coach. Always wished that Rafa would hire Agassi. Anyway Moya is doing good so …. .
on partime basis. Me too i wish nadal would have hired agassi but understand why he hired moya. Look nadal is a spanish player who feels very comfortable surrounding himself with spanish speaking people. The difference between him and federer and djokovic is that the swiss and the serb speak english better and nadal expresses himself better in english so i think that is why he didnt hire agassi. But you have to admire djokovic because unless nadal who waited two years before the made changes djokovic only needed 5 months to make drastic changes and hire another coach
i mean nadal expresses himself better in spanish
Language is not one of the reason Rafa
According to tweets, Agassi is Nole’s new coach.
RAFA ROCKS
Twenty-year-old Alexander “Sascha” Sverev, Jr., has just won his first Masters at Rome, beating world number two, Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, WOWWEEEEE WHOAAAAAAA
Fantastic
Looks as if Thiem wore himself out yesterday! (Result against Djokovic…) Don’t know how he’ll cope with several 5-setters. We’ll see.
i am impressed that it took djokovic only five months to get back in form where it took nadal two years to get back to his form
Before agreeing with you I’ll wait to see what happens at RG. I think you posted before Zverev beat Nole.
RAFA ROCKS
Please bear in mind that Rafa’s lengthy return to form was also due to injury, Toni publicly and possibly privately telling him that other players were better than him, and Rafa losing matches he should have won which only compounded his loss of confidence.
RAFA ROCKS ON
djokovic has crushed thiem into pieces that means that his victory over nadal was a coincidence. I was impressed by djokovic it looks like this tournament is a gamechanger for djokovic which is good news for rafa because i dont want la decima handed easily to him he has to earned it and a inform djokovic is good thing
Well, I feel quite negative when I say this – pardon me – but Novak seems to be back to where he was and if he defeats thiem then I don’t know what will be going on in Rafa’s and his team’s minds. Thiem will have to be very strong mentally to beat Novak. Aaaah Novak really seems to be a thorn in our sides.
If only Rafa really believed that he could beat anyone and not give his opponents especially Novak and Roger too much respect ……
VAMOS Rafa!!!! Attack, play your shots early and flat., vary your game, don’t stand too far behind the baseline ……
Sorry people – I am actually no one to give Rafa advice but just thinking aloud.
Alexander Zverev will play either Thiem or Nole in the final. Hhhmmmm
RAFA ROCKS
@mjus Carlos has confirmed that Rafa will play Wimbledon.
RAFA ROCKS