Rafael Nadal returns to Rotterdam Ahoy for the first time since 2009. The Spanish holder of a record twenty Grand Slam-titles will participate in the 48th ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. The tournament is held from 1 to 7 March.
Rafael Nadal: “I am looking forward to returning to the Netherlands. It has been a long time ago since I went to play in Rotterdam. This year the season has a different calendar and in this case it fits well into my schedule. It’s a tournament that I like to play and hopefully be in their honours roll. I hope to see again all my Dutch friends and fans in Rotterdam.”
Tournament Director Richard Krajicek: “It’s no secret that Rafael Nadal is one of my all-time favourite players. The intensity he brings to the court is unparalleled. His fighting spirit in combination with his unique technique is an example for everyone. The fact that he returns to Rotterdam after so many years makes it extra special, of course.”
Krajicek: “What applied to his debut in 2008 in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, still applies. Rafa is again in second place in the ATP Rankings. That shows how unique it is. Non-stop in the top 10 since April 2005. There is no one who will be close to this, or who will match him for a long time to come.”
Rafael Nadal could be seen live twice before in Rotterdam. In 2008 he surprisingly lost in the second round to Andreas Seppi. A year later, as the then number one in the world, he reached the final by beating Bolelli, Dimitrov, Tsonga and Monfils. In the final, Nadal had to leave the title to Andy Murray.
Krajicek: “We had annual contact about him playing here, but it did not fit into the schedule. Now that the season looks different in terms of planning, he was open to coming back to Rotterdam. Of course we immediately seized that opportunity. It would be great if we could add him to our Ring of Champions on March 7th. ”
Source: abnamrowtt.nl
Anyone in Britain or Ireland, Rafa is one of the specialist subjects on this week’s Mastermind 🙂 (on Monday)!
I’m fairly sure that this has never happened before!
Dominic Thiem has a major goal for 2021:
Tweet from Tennis reporters
We Are Tennis
@WeAreTennis
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18h
“Beating Nadal on the Philippe Chatrier court is perhaps one of the toughest things in sport. But that’s my big goal for 2021.”
I hope it’s not true that the variant of the virus first recognized in England is not deadlier that the original virus. “England’s chief scientific advisor, Patrick Valance, gave an example. He said that among 1,000 men in England 60 years or older, the original virus would kill 10. The new variant, he said, would kill 13 or 14.”
The article by the Washington Post did not include data on how this conclusion was reached.
While the current vaccines are working against all current strains of the virus, with varying degrees of efficacy, scientists are rightfully worried about future variants.
CORRECTION: I hope it’s not true that the variant of the virus first recognized in England is deadlier that the original virus.
2021 CAPTAINS
Team No. 1 Player Captain
Serbia Novak Djokovic Viktor Troicki
Spain Rafael Nadal Pepe Vendrell
Austria Dominic Thiem Wolfgang Thiem
Russia Daniil Medvedev Evgeny Donskoy
Greece Stefanos Tsitsipas Apostolos Tsitsipas
German Alexander Zverev Mischa Zverev
Argentina Diego Schwartzman
Diego Schwartzman
Italy Matteo Berrettini Vincenzo Santopadre
Japan Kei Nishikori Max Mirnyi
France Gael Monfils Richard Ruckelshausen
Canada Denis Shapovalov Peter Polansky
Australia Alex de Minaur Lleyton Hewitt
Argentina is the only team to have a player in dual roles.
Diego 💪👍
Hiya Mimi, the poor guy is doing double duty. A shame the team couldn’t find a coach so Diego could concentrate on just playing. I hope this doesn’t add stress to an already fraught start to the season for him.
No worries, Margo. I believe he will be fine👌
The ATP CUP draw:
GROUP A
Serbia
Germany
Canada
GROUP B
Spain
Greece
Australia
GROUP C
Austria
Italy
France
GROUP D
Russia
Argentina
Japan
GOOD LUCK TO RAFA AND TEAM SPAIN
I just love the new Fedal video which is set to the Adele song “Set Fire to the Rain”, showing some legendary points played by Rafa and Roger.
UPDATE
“Hotel quarantine for the Australian Open is fully funded by Tennis Australia, I’ve triple confirmed that again today,” Neville said. “I want to be really clear about this.”
“The Victorian government support relates to ongoing discussions about funding for an extension to the agreement to host the AO in Melbourne and a range of other assets to help promote the city and the state, domestically and internationally,” the statement said.
[Source: The Guardian]
I’m concerned that if Rafa, Nole and Dominic all do well at the AO (e.g., they all make the semis) people will say it was unfair that the top three have better training conditions and so many players can’t even practice for 14 days. In fact it is unfair. It’s not Rafa’s fault of course. I would hate to see his performance be diminished by the way the event has been organized.
Guido Pella’s moaning that Rafa and Dominic haven’t said anything about it. But Novak did speak out, and people moaned at him too. You can’t do right for doing wrong. I don’t think anyone anticipated that people would test positive on arrival when they’d tested negative 72 hours before departure. If that hadn’t happened, everyone would be able to practise for 5 hours a day. But it has.
These are days that are still filled with uncertainty and yet Rafa’s schedule is very ambitious…There is no question that it might have to be adjusted along the way but just to see it and know his desire and commitment is more than ever is so exciting…
Can’t wait to watch him in action!!
VAMOS RAFA!!!
It’s hard to plan at the moment. It’d be a funny year anyway, with the Olympics as well as everything else, and the Australian Open being late means that the schedule’s strange before the year’s even started. And that’s before you even start considering possible cancellations due to the virus situation, and whether or not Indian Wells will be rescheduled.
I’m not convinced he’ll play Acapulco: it’s a lot of travelling so soon after Australia, and the golf event due to be held in Mexico around the same time’s just been moved because of the virus situation. So maybe the idea’s to play Rotterdam as an alternative to that.
Rafa 12 yrs ago won AO then went on to win Rotterdam…omens are abounding here…this is 1st time Rafa playing Rotterdam since 2009…20 Gs in 2020…!!! 2021 let it be 21st GS down under….12yrs reverse it…21..🤔🤔🤔
Best of Luck and add AUS Open 2nd time to your grand slam list which was missed out from long time.
Ah… I didn’t see the RNF schedule and since you didn’t post the tournaments, I googled. Thanks for sending me into a tailspin 😉 LOL
I knew about Rotterdam and searched for their virus situation. Not looking good and within the EU they are at the tail end of receiving vaccines, according to reports.
Happy about the ATP CUP and AO. I’ll worry later.
Pauline, my 3:07am was meant for you. It arrived in wrong location and hours after I sent it😬
Rafa good luck all the best 2021 this is your year vamosssssss champ we love you fans for ever 🎾👍😘🙏
Vamos Rafa👍
Great King Rafa i Wish you a Good Start to 2021 and with Great success and a lot of Health
If all tournaments go ahead, which is by no means certain, Rafa is scheduled to play in 19 events. Adding in Indian Wells and Miami would take it up to 21 unless they are played in October whereby he might skip the Asian swing.
A couple of years ago Tomeu Salva stated that they wanted to keep him to around 14 tournaments due to his age so that he would stay fresh enough to continue for a few more years.
Perhaps he is front loading his schedule in case of cancellations later in the year?
Something’s up Pauline. Rafa hasn’t posted an entire season’s schedule in quite some time, pre pandemic. And he can pull out of a tournament before it starts, so why post an entire season? Yours is a plausible explanation.
I did see the schedule provided by Essentially Sports and it’s a nightmare at this time in his career.
I’m just going to think about Australia for the present because COVID-19 is still at the center of everything, everywhere.
Mea culpa. I based the numbers on the schedule shown on this site but should have added the word tentative as it has not been confirmed beyond Rotterdam. He has usually played the tournaments listed other than Cincinnati in recent years. Just wondering which ones he might drop if they all take place.
It’s understandable that he is eager to compete after only playing eight tournaments last year. I would like him not to exceed 14 or 15 as his team recommended.
I’ll try to follow your example and take it one tournament at a time. That’s a very good plan in light of the world situation.
The Netherlands is in lockdown until February 9. The variant sweeping through England has been found there. If they go ahead with the tournament I sure hope they are as fastidious as Australia has been in protecting against the virus.
Stay safe Rafa.
Good luck to you, Rafa ❤️