On Friday, the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) approved the proposal to honor Rafael Nadal’s achievements in a unique way. Starting next year, Rafael Nadal’s birthday will be celebrated as ‘National Tennis Day’ in his home country.
Celebrating National Tennis Day on Rafa’s birthday, the RFET aims to create a national tennis movement across the entire spectrum of the sport.
“It is about all the clubs (more than 1,500 in Spain), the Territorial Federations and the fans from all over Spain celebrate tennis with different activities: social tournaments (mixed, male, female, children, veterans, etc.), Master classes, wheel chair tennis, beach tennis, exhibitions, etc. The idea came up in a broadcast on Eurosport (a chain that offers several RFET Challengers and ITF Women Tour tournaments) during the Roland Garros match between Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet, held on June 3, the birthday of the Manacor tennis player,” the RFET said in a statement.
Rafa, to my knowledge, has never offered an excuse for losing a match, “Now is not the time to find excuses” as he tells reporters.
There are no details about an injury but I am worried because we know of his Tarsal Schafoid problem. Is it his Archilles’ heel or plantar fasciitis or none of these.
Please let him be OK after a good rest from competition. With so many injured ATP/WTA players is it safe to blame injuries on players’ inactivity, because of COVID, before restarting competition? Or are injuries occurring in players who have a history of injuries? We know about the high profile players but what about the majority of active players.
Wishing Rafa a complete recovery and a continued thirst for his beloved tennis.
Wishing Rafa and Dominic all the best!🥰
Dominic Thiem will be our for at least a month, possibly longer after consulting with a specialist about his wrist injury.
A specialist confirmed that the world No. 5 has a “detachment of the posterior sheath of the ulnar side of the right wrist,” which will sideline him for a month and maybe longer.
He will be replaced at Wimbledon by a lucky loser.
Goffin, Wawrinka, Raonic, and Coric have also withdrawn from Wimbledon.
Correction: ….Thiem will be out…
I believe the specialist is Rafa’s doctor, Angel Ruíz-Cotorro. Nico Massu was at RNA yesterday, so I guess Dominic was too, a supportive place to be for sure. Dominic’s hope of defending his USO title is really under threat by the looks of things.
I agree. On his Twitter account he said he has to wear a splint for FIVE weeks.
“Dr. Cotorro and his medical team will supervise the progress of his injury and recovery. Further testing will be done to assess when he can start the rehab process; a progressive process of specific, functional rehabilitation to regain mobility as well as muscle strength in his wrist and ultimately return to training on court.”
It’s a lot to accomplish in order to be ready for the US Open. Wishing him the best.
In an interview with Tennis Majors, French Open tournament director, Guy Forget, offered a reason why Rafa decided to skip Wimbledon and the Olympics. He said that Rafa had been experiencing pain in his foot prior to the match against Djokovic. However, he opted to keep the injury quiet. He got treatment from the trainer during the fourth set and this may have been for the same pain he was suffering.
Forget went on to say that Rafa had the “class” not to raise the issue in defeat.
Forget may well be right about the reason for Rafa losing and certainly about his classiness – but it’s not up to him to speculate in public if Rafa and his team have chosen not to say anything. Just to clarify for anyone reading that didn’t watch the match – I’m sure you did, Lorna – Rafa didn’t receive treatment, he just had the tape (that he normally wears, for support) removed. Rafa has had flare-ups of his original foot problem on a few occasions, recently he’s spoken about it happening after lockdown. Rafa was obviously hindered in the last set at RG, whether the problem started before or during the match, we don’t know. We can only hope that rest and/or treatment will help.
Rafa has to do to Novak at Melbourne Park what Novak did to Rafa at Roland Harris.
At AO 2022 there’s no escaping it -Rafa must beat Novak Djokovic otherwise Rafa will cease to be relevant in the GOAT race (that is, if we even assume that he is still relevant).
Rafa must destroy the King of Melbourne Park next year otherwise he will remain restricted to forever being the King of clay. Sham!!
maria (snake island)
I hope so but the reality is that rafa has not beaten djokovic on hard court since the us open final of 2013 that is 8 years ago.
I am encouraged by the words of Moya that Rafa is determined to be at his best at the us open and will participate in Toronto and Cincinnati hopefully nadal will play both and not just one of them. In the meantime he has work to do put tremendous work in improving his serve, return of serve and his backhand but moreover his nerves and dealing with pressure in difficult moments. That is something that is bothering him since losing the australian open final of 2012.
He has to come up with a solution add to sportpsychologist to his team a spanish woman who can do some session with him.
I believe that nadal can beat djokovic at the us open and wimbeldon still has to played strange things can happen at wimbeldon I am going to cheer for every opponent that will face djokovic.
Perhaps if nadal can beat djokovic on hardcourt in new york for the first time in 8 years then maybe he can do it again melbourne
Can it get any worse for Dominic Thiem. I was disheartened to learn that he had to retire from his opening match at the Mallorca Open due to a wrist injury. His health issues seem to be never ending. Such a shame for a gifted player.
Yes, i just read that about Dominic. The poor guy has had such wretched luck with injuries lately. Wishing him all the best.
I’d just switched over to that match after watching ADF. Dominic was doing so well, then after he hit what looked like a routine forehand, he was suddenly calling for the physio saying he’d sprained his wrist. It was a freak injury and cruel luck after the last few months especially as he’d said recently that he was feeling better both mentally and physically. I wish him well, Domi is such a nice guy.
“Dominic Thiem
@ThiemDomi
Yesterday during the match I had a problem with my wrist. I went immediately to do an MRI at the hospital in Palma de Mallorca. The results weren’t that clear and I have decided to go to Barcelona to check with a specialist.
I hope I can get the results and a clear diagnosis in the next days.”
All the way to Barcelona for “a clear diagnosis?” Geezzz
Hopefully it’s just a matter of getting a second opinion. What happens when regular folk on the island need a diagnosis?
I hope I can get the results and a clear diagnosis in the next days.
Correction @1:35PM
The last paragraph “I hope….” was duplicated in error.
Congratulations Rafa in your next honour! If anyone deserves accolades, praise, trophies it’s you!!!!!
You are not only a superb player but a wonderful, magnificent human being.
Wish you many many more and all the best always!
🍀🍀🍀❤️❤️❤️
An amazing athlete and well deserved – full marks to his advisors in advising him to not play every tournament – this way I am sure we will be blessed watching him for a long time to come
The list is still growing:
José Morgado
@josemorgado
·
ATP Top 20 players out of #Tokyo2020
#3 Nadal
#5 Thiem
#10 Bautista
#12 Shapovalov
#14 Ruud
#16 Monfils
Goffin doubtful.
Margo, with all the covid restrictions it will involve, i’m not surprised that the list of Olympic withdrawals is growing. It would be interesting to know players’ reasons for not wanting to take part.
Novak must be rubbing his hands with glee, but my hope is that one of the youngsters – or anyone else but Novak – can seize that much coveted gold medal.
Hi Lorna, I just finished reading an Olympics article. A Ugandan athlete tested positive and is being quarantined outside of Tokyo but the distressing thing for me is that he was fully vaccinated. The rest of his team tested negative. No details on when he was vaccinated with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine or which strain of COVID he contracted. He tested negative before leaving for Japan.
Japan is going to be in big trouble if its hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID cases. A group of Japanese medical experts have been pushing for no fans, so far unsuccessfully.
In the same article, there was mention that England has postponed Freedom Day until July 19 because of a spike in the Delta [ from India] variant. This variant is also becoming dominant in the US. I am totally disgusted that we haven’t been able to vaccinate everyone who is eligible and medically able to be vaccinated.
Where does July 19 leave Wimbledon with regard to fans, etc.?
Are we all running around in circles?
To your point Lorna, I was so worked up after reading that article, I went off-topic. Sorry for victimizing you🤭
Rest assured that I, and assuredly others, are hoping the same thing. You’re not alone.
While rankings play an important role in who will win a match, there’s always the possibility of a dark horse. Whoever wins gold at Tokyo I hope it’s someone in the rankings starting at world No. 2 and lower.
By the way, there was a very short tweet over the weekend about that one not wearing a mask, “Where’s his mask?” I couldn’t verify it so I left it alone. I hope Toni isn’t kissing his ___ because he’s No. 1.
Margo, it all seems chaotic in Japan to me. The news that a Ugandan athlete tested positive for covid just adds to the concern about the OGs going ahead, with covid numbers increasing by several hundred in Japan and only 6% of the population fully vaccinated. Given this, It comes as no surprise that many Japanese residents are even more opposed to the games going ahead.
You have a situation of public health versus the financial investment in the games and you have to wonder how bad the covid levels have to be before the well being of the nation is seen as the clear priority.
Despite the delay of the so called “Freedom Day”, Wimbledon has been given special dispensation to have a 50% capacity crowd, which will increase to 100% capacity during finals weekend.
The covid vaccine rollout has been going well in England, with 60% aged over 18 being fully vaccinated and 80% who have received the first dose. However, the new variants are yet more problems which have to be grappled with.