Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy, USO

[tented]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

It is really very sad news that Rafa has withdrawn from US Open. It is sad not only for Rafa fans but sad for all the tennis fans as well. It has taken away some excitements from the competition. Wish him speedy wrist injury recovery.

I agree, Mog, and not just because I'm a Rafa fan.

Regardless of how we may feel about various players, any time one of the top guys (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Wawrinka, Tsonga, Berdych, etc.) doesn't participate, it lessens the tournament.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

With this, Rafa has missed seven Grand Slam Tourneys due to injuries since he started
playing in GSs.

1. 2004 French Open (Left Ankle)
2. 2004 Wimbledon (Left Ankle)
3. 2006 Australian Open (Foot)
4. 2009 Wimbledon (knee Tendinitis)
5. 2012 USO (Knee Tendinitis)
6. 2013 Australian OPen (Stomach Virus)
7. 2014 USO (Right Wrist)

That is really a lot of misses for one player. That is seven misses out of 46 slams giving a
15% of misses.

 

[Kieran]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

It's sad. Nothing more to say, but in the context of tennis, it's sad. His career has been plagued by injuries since the start, and I'm thankful to GSM for digging up the stats. Hopefully Rafa recovers fully and plays again this year, but 2014 has been a season that promised a lot, and has been blighted. A few of us got that dread feeling in the out of the stomach when we witnessed how he couldn't even compete in the Oz final, after his back went. It was mind-numbing and unreal.

This kinda feels the same, and we know he isn't getting younger. People say daft nasty things about Rafa, because they're Federer fans, but I'm glad to see that even Fedfans realise the extent of how badly this great champ has been affected and hampered by injury, and different injuries, at that. The game is lessened by his absence, we all know this, but it makes the US Open an in interesting event for me, personally...

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

I am not surprised with this news,I honestly felt he would not recover in time.As a Rafa fan I am disappointed,main objection for Rafa is to come back healthy on the tour.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

It's sad. Nothing more to say, but in the context of tennis, it's sad. His career has been plagued by injuries since the start, and I'm thankful to GSM for digging up the stats. Hopefully Rafa recovers fully and plays again this year

Given that, there was some chance that he might participate in USO, I am sure he will
come back to action this year itself. Beijing, the next big event after USO, is a full 6 weeks
away giving him enough time to fully recover. Expect him to play Beijing, Shanghai, Basel,
Bercy and WTF.

Think of it positively. This may make him fresh for the WTF which he has never won
as he was worn out usually by that time.

 

[crystalfire]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

sad to see rafa wont be playing. damn im gonna miss him.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

^^yes me too, at least the sensible route was taken..he needs to recover properly,

avoid the del potro route of playing on/rest/playing on/scans/wrist exercises/more play/more pain/scans/comeback abort/wrist exercises/gloom/surgery...long layoff.

 

[Moxie]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

^^yes me too, at least the sensible route was taken..he needs to recover properly,

avoid the del potro route of playing on/rest/playing on/scans/wrist exercises/more play/more pain/scans/comeback abort/wrist exercises/gloom/surgery...long layoff.

In spite of the fact that I was hoping there was a chance he'd be 100% and be able to play my home Slam, I know you're right. When Nole felt pain in his wrist he did give MC a go, but when it got worse he stayed out of Rome. Rafa stopped immediately. I'm sure they're looking at Delpo. I will never understand how Juan Martin's doctor told him to keep playing, even if it hurt. (That came from JMDP directly.) :nono

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

Lots of folks thought that, because of Rafa's style of play, he would not have a long career. I am starting to wonder if the opposite might be the case. Maybe not unlike Haas or Andre, the stoppages help him save some legs for later. Maybe he will have a much longer career , it is just that it will not be continuous...Just thinking out loud.

 

[Moxie]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

Lots of folks thought that, because of Rafa's style of play, he would not have a long career. I am starting to wonder if the opposite might be the case. Maybe not unlike Haas or Andre, the stoppages help him save some legs for later. Maybe he will have a much longer career , it is just that it will not be continuous...Just thinking out loud.

I hope so. He's even said (complained,) that people have been looking for his early demise for years. He's winking at that now. It does seem that there's a kind of 'credit in the bank' when players have to stop. (Tommy Robredo is another example.) Hopefully, stopping long enough to rest and repair the body, occasionally, will give his career a longer life.

 

[kskate2]

RE: Breaking - Rafa injured, out of Rogers Cup, Cincy

For all tennis fans, this blows. Get well soon Nadal.

 

[mrzz]

Unfortunately, more and more "breaks", some of them quite long, in the end translate as short carreer. The time span is longer, but the number of matches is the same. What puzzles me is that those long breaks are generally after an injury which is surely there, but is never (or at at least hardly) something serious enough to make him pull out in the middle of a match or of a tournament. I mean, imagine if that was the case, how much time he would be out? Two years? They (his team) are probably preventing something like this to happen, but, in the end, to me it already sounds like retirement in homeopatic doses.

Last time he was able to come back with a bang. But that will be hard to repeat.

I just hope he does not miss the next French Open. Can you imagine how many asterisks people would give the winner? Poor soul...

 

[Moxie]

Unfortunately, more and more "breaks", some of them quite long, in the end translate as short carreer. The time span is longer, but the number of matches is the same. What puzzles me is that those long breaks are generally after an injury which is surely there, but is never (or at at least hardly) something serious enough to make him pull out in the middle of a match or of a tournament. I mean, imagine if that was the case, how much time he would be out? Two years? They (his team) are probably preventing something like this to happen, but, in the end, to me it already sounds like retirement in homeopatic doses.

Last time he was able to come back with a bang. But that will be hard to repeat.

I just hope he does not miss the next French Open. Can you imagine how many asterisks people would give the winner? Poor soul...

Nadal has been on the tour since he was 15, and he's been a feature for 10 years, and counting. Compare his record with Djokovic, who is also a very winning player: Nadal 702-137. Djokovic 582-138. Nadal has played 119 more matches than Djokovic, and there is only one year difference in their ages. Surely that's not a "shortened career."

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Lots of folks thought that, because of Rafa's style of play, he would not have a long career. I am starting to wonder if the opposite might be the case. Maybe not unlike Haas or Andre, the stoppages help him save some legs for later. Maybe he will have a much longer career , it is just that it will not be continuous...Just thinking out loud.

Here is the problem with your thinking. If the breaks are non-injury related (such as
not taking tennis career seriously, juggling with multiple girl friends, divorces, marrriages
etc0, the career would last long. This is because even though the number of years
might be large, actual milage is less. On the other hand, when the breaks are
purely injury realted (as is the case with Rafa), it is hard to consider it as being
less milage.

In other words, Rafa's situation is analogous to Haas and not analogous to Andre/Serena.

Even though Rafa seems to have lot of injury related issues, he had no surgeries
(at least that I could remember off the top of my head). This is unlike several other
plyers such as Haas, Hewitt, Blake, Dent, Baker etc etc. In that sense, Rafa is
comparatively better than other folks who had gone through multiple operations.

 

[El Dude]

Rafa started younger than most these days, so his total matches even out for his age. Compare number of matches played by the year a player turned a certain age:

Age 20
Rafa - 234
Roger - 171
Novak - 172

Age 25
Rafa - 657
Roger - 608
Novak - 592

While this isn't totally accurate because Roger's birthday is a few months later that Rafa's and Novak's, but you can see that Rafa is almost a full year's worth of matches ahead of both Roger and Novak through both ranges.

 

[Moxie]

Lots of folks thought that, because of Rafa's style of play, he would not have a long career. I am starting to wonder if the opposite might be the case. Maybe not unlike Haas or Andre, the stoppages help him save some legs for later. Maybe he will have a much longer career , it is just that it will not be continuous...Just thinking out loud.

Here is the problem with your thinking. If the breaks are non-injury related (such as
not taking tennis career seriously, juggling with multiple girl friends, divorces, marrriages
etc0, the career would last long. This is because even though the number of years
might be large, actual milage is less. On the other hand, when the breaks are
purely injury realted (as is the case with Rafa), it is hard to consider it as being
less milage.

In other words, Rafa's situation is analogous to Haas and not analogous to Andre/Serena.

Even though Rafa seems to have lot of injury related issues, he had no surgeries
(at least that I could remember off the top of my head). This is unlike several other
plyers such as Haas, Hewitt, Blake, Dent, Baker etc etc. In that sense, Rafa is
comparatively better than other folks who had gone through multiple operations.

Actually, I thought Murat was saying something akin to what you're saying.

 

[mrzz]

Moxie, my point was simple: If, from now on, someone misses, say, one third of the tour every year, and plays 6 more years, that is equivalent of missing 2 years, which by the way is equal to play just four more years. I meant "shortened" in that sense. And please note that I agree that the breaks are wise.

 

[Front242]

If Soderling ever comes back he can play till he's 57

 

[britbox]

^The calendar grand slam is the holy grail of tennis and always has been.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

I wholeheartedly agree with Nadal's decision to skip the US Open, thereby saving his body from a portion of the long haul of hardcourt events between August and March.

Skipping the US hardcourt season gives Nadal the best possible chance to win Australian Open #2 to complete The Double Career Grand Slam Holy Grail of Tennis.

If I could choose Nadal's list of slams I'd prefer these:
French Open x12
Australian Open x2
Wimbledon x2
US Open x2
So no point playing Wimbledon/US Open :clap

Nadal will also have an extremely good shot at The GOLDEN Double Career Grand Slam as he takes aim at his 2nd Olympic Gold Medal at Rio 2016 (this time on clay).

:celeb: