THE RETURN OF “EL TURRO” RAFAEL NADAL

Rafa-Mania Returns!

Nadal’s Absence Shows Just What Tennis Is Without The Spaniard

Nadal and his sweet stroke with thrill fans again August 10that the Rogers Cup

This is a peculiar time in professional tennis where it is painfully obvious how much the game loses when Rafael Nadal is missing from the tournament draws.  Simply put, the game is suffering without its best player. Roger Federer has reclaimed is number one world ranking, as Nadal sat idle during Wimbledon and was further setback after his historic loss at Roland Garros to 25th-ranked Robin Soderling, in a four set match where Nadal was clearly handicapped by his knees and looked to be in great pain. This was Nadal’s first-ever loss at the French Open.  He will surely be anxious to return to the red clay and reclaim his place in history as the greatest clay court player ever, but right now there is work to be done on a hard court services leading up to the U.S. Open.

It has been a difficult mid-year setback for the Spaniard, Nadal, with his ongoing knee problems. However, the 23-year-old Nadal is back to his old self and reportedly 100% ready to compete again.  Rafa announced before the Wimbledon tournament began, that he wouldn’t be taking part in Wimbledon competition if he wasn’t 100%  healthy enough to compete for championships as he is accustomed to.

After testing his knees on the grass of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Nadal looked very much in pain, and lost two exhibition matches testing the knees. It was clear that he couldn’t compete in his condition at the time, so in front of scores of reporters, he announced officially that he would be pulling his name from the Wimbledon draw.  This was a huge disappointment for everyone, including Roger Federer.  “Rafa missing Wimbledon is of course disappointing to me.  Rafa and I have had a great matches playing each other in our careers, and I’m disappointed that we can’t offer another final to the fans.” Federer said to reporters in London. “Rafa is of course my biggest rival and his absence will be disappointing for everyone, I’m sure.”  said Federer. Missing Wimbledon had to be heartbreaking for Nadal, after playing the magnificent, 5 1/2 hour, five set thriller in 2008 in which Nadal came out on top, winning his first Wimbledon trophy. Nadal had great success in 2008.  It was an historic year for him, winning his fourth consecutive French Open title and then realizing his biggest dream at Wimbledon.  He continued his success on the hard court of the mid-season push toward the U.S. Open.  Immediately after winning the French Open and Wimbledon, the Spaniard won a 6th consecutive tournament winning the Rogers cup in Toronto.  Directly after the Rogers cup, Nadal flew to Ohio the next day for the Cincinnati Masters.  Rafa didn’t win, but he did go to the final where he lost to Andy Murray of Scotland.  But this is another example of tournament champions not afforded a break between events.

Andy Murray Still Eyeing His First Slam Title

After so much success in 2008, Rafael Nadal was feeling ragged, worn out and completely exhausted.  Tennis success will do that to a player and the more you win, the more demand there is on a player.  No one knows this better than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.  Their success, particularly in the grand slam events has required them to attend post tournament parties, trophy presentations and VIP dinners after the championship banquets.  There is also photo shoots for the champions and press conferences allowing writers the opportunity to question players post tournament.

The greed of the ATP brass are causing some of the best tennis talent in the world to get worn down and injured.  It’s really just a matter of simple arithmetic.  Typically, the best players in the world win the most tournaments.  The only way to win a tennis tournament is to advance deep into a tournament and play in the final and win.  This means, that the champion of a tournament plays tennis longer in a tournament than anyone except for the runner-up.  This puts more miles on the best players and because the ATP executives are scheduling far too many tournaments, there is little time between the end of one tournament and the beginning of the next.  The winners are playing more tennis with less time off between events.  This is Nadal’s and Federer’s complaint and they have been very vocal on this subject, out and out blaming the ATP schedulers of not caring about the athletes health and focusing only on the money and the whims of the tournament hosts and sponsors.  This is what has been so damaging to Nadal’s late season success.

Nadal and Federer: The Rivalry

Rafa Nadal plays a punishing, physical brand of tennis and he plays every point like it’s his last.  Perhaps after missing two months out of the tennis season, again, Rafa and his coach and uncle Toni Nadal might be working on the intensity in which he plays each ball.  Roger Federer is a wonderful example of a player who plays within himself and his body.  In other words, Roger doesn’t push his body beyond its breaking point.  He stays remarkably healthy and injury free, yet he plays just as many, if not more, tournaments each year.  What makes Federer stay healthy the way he does is that he knows when he can lose a point without harming his chances to win a match.  You’ll see Federer double fault from time to time, but it always seems that he doesn’t win he is serving at 40-love.  This is a very intelligent way to play the game.  Federer will also give up on a difficult shot, but he does it when he has already wrapped up the game, the set or the match.  Nadal needs to back off on his athleticism and start using smart selective decision-making when choosing which balls to chase down and which can be let go.  It will be a difficult challenge for Rafa, but it is one he must conquer, or letting in the possibilities of an abbreviated career.  Make no mistake, Rafael Nadal is perhaps the most supremely conditioned athlete ever to play the sport of tennis, that’s why he can do the things he does on a tennis court.  It is breathtaking to watch this young man run from one side of the court in a defensive backhand, that turns immediately into a weapon, followed by a sprint back to the other side of the court where he is lately off the playing surface and he comes across with a forehand winner with tons of topspin making it nearly impossible to defend.  This is the kind of game he has played his whole life, well the 20 years he’s been playing.  This is a man who can bring people out of their seats with ovation after ovation, and television does no justice to what this young man from Majorca, Spain does with a tennis racquet.  The fans want more Rafa, let’s hope he has adjusted his game a tiny bit, or that he brings a telephone booth with him everywhere he goes, because he’ll need privacy when he changes into his red superhero cape and blue tennis shorts.

Great news: The Nadal camp has officially announced that Rafa will join Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and several other headliners in the warm-up tournaments to the U.S. Open.  First tournament back for Nadal will be the Rogers cup in Canada and just  a couple of days after that, the Cincinnati Masters in Ohio will begin.  Then, it’s off to the final grand slam tournament of 2009.  The U.S. Open has all the biggest names ready to take the court in NY.  Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Andy Roddick and many more.  Tennis is about to get exciting again.  Nadal is returning and Roger Federer should a proud papa up by the time the U.S. Open commences.  Federer has taken a leave to be by his wife’s side as they welcome their first child.  Federer should be ready to go when the U.S. Open begins.

What makes the upcoming U.S. Open interesting, besides all the great tennis talent coming to Flushing Meadows, is that Rafael Nadal will have his first chance to complete a career grand slam.  He already possesses four French Open titles, he has the Wimbledon trophy and this year he won his first grand slam event on the hard surface in Melbourne, Australian.  He has yet to make a final at Flushing Meadows, but this year will be interesting for Nadal.  He will be in unfamiliar territory.  Never before has Nadal been able to go into the U.S. Open with fresh legs and a rested mind.  Thus far, he has entered  the open pushed beyond his body’s limits and then we don’t see the best of Nadal.

Roddick gives all, not enough to beat 6 time Wimby champ Federer

There will be some very intriguing matchups, as there usually are at a slam event, but because of the emergence of Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Potro, Robin Soderling and the forgotten one, Novak Djokovic, anyone can really surprise us at the last major of the year.  Huge home crowd favorite, Andy Roddick will be an interesting player to watch.  He played the tournament of his life at Wimbledon, had many chances to win the championship, but failed.  Sometimes, getting taken out to the woodshed and beaten can sometimes be easier than playing a fantastic tournament and having to look back at the small number of mistakes, but how crucial they were to the outcome.  Make no mistake, Roger Federer played a brilliant match, but Andy dominated at times. In the end, it was a game where Federer made the points, but I’ll so leave he had lapses of concentration and it cost him dearly.  Andy will surely be looking back at the second set tiebreaker when he led 6-2 and two service points at his command.  He double faulted on one, and then Roger Federer simply took control of the tiebreaker and the second set.  To Roddick’s credit, he put that set behind him and played a magnificent match, he just couldn’t contain Federer’s prowess on his beloved grass court.  So, how will Roddick cope with such a loss?  He may be motivated by what a wonderful performance he had at Wimbledon, or he might still carry the scars from a chance taken away or perhaps handed away.  We’ll never know until we see the American in the next tournament.

But, this is Rafael Nadal’s U.S. Open.  How he plays will be fascinating and with a fresh body to play the last grand slam of the year, this might be his best chance to dethrone Roger Federer and be on his way to regaining his number one status as the best tennis player in the world, not to mention a career grand slam at the age of 23.  Not too bad… Vamos Rafa!