Let's face it, Nadal's serve has alway been his bete noir , at times its very good but it's been tweaked, reworked as many times as Kevin McCarthy's concessions...
It's insane to think he was partially injured with the ab AND still played those exhibitiions in December. What I think was those AB injuries did wreck havoc on his confidence as far as his serve and service motion, so in that sense I think his problem is more mental.
Rafa has intense training sessions though I think Moya has wisely tempered that. So coming back from yet another injury, as long as his foot is not in constant pain which it doesn't appear to be, IMO it's more the mental hurdle of being "up" for every match after so many years on the tour. Unlike Novak, Rafa has been consistently a top 5 players practically from his first full year 2005 until now, going on 19 years.
My spec is that Rafa/Moya & team has to try to balance his being "fresh" and mentally prepared with just enough practice/matchplay. Last year they played a warmup tournament, this year they opted not to, so I'm thinking keeping him mentally fresh has priority. Trying to tweak the serve yet again. We don't know yet if this strategy will work. Apparently he looked tired at the end of the Cup matches this year, I seriously doubt it's because he's out of shape and lacking conditioning.
