Rafael Nadal: Discuss His Future Scheduling Strategy

[Front242]

masterclass lacks class when it comes to Rafa "In the somewhat faster North American DecoTurf hard court season this year"

It never fails, Rafa dominates a surface and it suddenly becomes slow or now somewhat fast. Most people have no idea what a fast court actually is. Both Montreal and Cinci are really fast for outdoors hards and the UO it's the same it has ever been since Roggy won 5 consecutive Slams on it.

Anyways, when it come to schedule, Rafa is a moron and he will make the same mistakes that took him out of the game in 2009 and 2012. That guy is not that brilliant or loves money too much...take your pick.

Rafa schedule should look like this:

AO
Golden Swing (three events)

skip both IW and Miami (slow courts......no point when the next slam is RG-SW19)

MC-Barcelona
Skip Madrid
Rome

RG-Queens-SW19 (by skipping both IW-Miami and Madrid, his knees should be in better shape to pull off the double)

Canada
skip cinci IF he goes deep in Canada
UO

skip Shangai
Paris
WTF

The aim is to maximize his chances at the Slams, specially at RG-SW19 where another double would elevate Rafa as the greatest that ever play the game.

Skipping Indian Wells and Cincy would lose him 2000 points.

 

[huntingyou]

point are irrelevant.....he could win SW19 and get those 2000 points back

 

[Kieran]

Some people said he should skip IW this year, but that worked out just fine...

 

[huntingyou]

Some people said he should skip IW this year, but that worked out just fine...

Nadal knee condition is compounding, the more he plays, the faster he will reach that "breaking" point.

And I'm not sure it worked ok, Rafa looked like a chump in his first round lost at SW19. We are talking Slams here bro

 

[brokenshoelace]

masterclass lacks class when it comes to Rafa "In the somewhat faster North American DecoTurf hard court season this year"

It never fails, Rafa dominates a surface and it suddenly becomes slow or now somewhat fast. Most people have no idea what a fast court actually is. Both Montreal and Cinci are really fast for outdoors hards and the UO it's the same it has ever been since Roggy won 5 consecutive Slams on it.

Anyways, when it come to schedule, Rafa is a moron and he will make the same mistakes that took him out of the game in 2009 and 2012. That guy is not that brilliant or loves money too much...take your pick.

Rafa schedule should look like this:

AO
Golden Swing (three events)

skip both IW and Miami (slow courts......no point when the next slam is RG-SW19)

MC-Barcelona
Skip Madrid
Rome

RG-Queens-SW19 (by skipping both IW-Miami and Madrid, his knees should be in better shape to pull off the double)

Canada
skip cinci IF he goes deep in Canada
UO

skip Shangai
Paris
WTF

The aim is to maximize his chances at the Slams, specially at RG-SW19 where another double would elevate Rafa as the greatest that ever play the game.

It wouldn't make sense for Nadal to play 3 events in the golden swing. You're playing three back to back tournaments. That's potentially far more harmful than just playing Indian Wells, even if the latter is hards (again, just because it's clay doesn't mean he can play as he pleases).

Honestly, why not play one AO warm up (to make sure he's sharp), play the AO, skip the South American clay season altogether, play Indian Wells, skip Miami, and just move on to the clay season? That would make more sense, IMO. Hopefully, he ditches Barcelona, plays a grass warm-up tourney instead (Halle) before moving to Wimbledon.

It makes no sense to skip two back-to-back masters tournaments.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I think this should be Nadal's schedule:

Doha

Australian Open

Either do Indian Wells or Miami (He should only play one of these)

Monte Carlo

Barcelona OR Madrid (He should only play one of these)

Rome

French Open

Grass tune up

Wimbledon

Canada

Cincinnati

US Open

A 500 event

World Tour Finals

So, it should give him 14 or 15 tournaments a year. In my opinion, it should be enough to preserve his knees.

This.

 

[huntingyou]

masterclass lacks class when it comes to Rafa "In the somewhat faster North American DecoTurf hard court season this year"

It never fails, Rafa dominates a surface and it suddenly becomes slow or now somewhat fast. Most people have no idea what a fast court actually is. Both Montreal and Cinci are really fast for outdoors hards and the UO it's the same it has ever been since Roggy won 5 consecutive Slams on it.

Anyways, when it come to schedule, Rafa is a moron and he will make the same mistakes that took him out of the game in 2009 and 2012. That guy is not that brilliant or loves money too much...take your pick.

Rafa schedule should look like this:

AO
Golden Swing (three events)

skip both IW and Miami (slow courts......no point when the next slam is RG-SW19)

MC-Barcelona
Skip Madrid
Rome

RG-Queens-SW19 (by skipping both IW-Miami and Madrid, his knees should be in better shape to pull off the double)

Canada
skip cinci IF he goes deep in Canada
UO

skip Shangai
Paris
WTF

The aim is to maximize his chances at the Slams, specially at RG-SW19 where another double would elevate Rafa as the greatest that ever play the game.

It wouldn't make sense for Nadal to play 3 events in the golden swing. You're playing three back to back tournaments. That's potentially far more harmful that just playing Indian Wells, even if the latter is hards (again, just because it's clay doesn't mean he can play as he pleases).

Honestly, why not play one AO warm up (to make sure he's sharp), play the AO, skip the South American clay season altogether, play Indian Wells, skip Miami, and just move on to the clay season? That would make more sense, IMO. Hopefully, he ditches Barcelona, plays a grass warm-up tourney instead (Halle) before moving to Wimbledon.

It makes no sense to skip two back-to-back masters tournaments.

The clay swing is not back to back to back...there is a couple weeks off.

One HC tournament like IW put more stress on his knees than three no name events where he can sleep walk through the competition.

HC are not good for him, period and the more tournaments he can avoid the better for his long term health at the Slams.

 

[Kieran]

Some people said he should skip IW this year, but that worked out just fine...

Nadal knee condition is compounding, the more he plays, the faster he will reach that "breaking" point.

And I'm not sure it worked ok, Rafa looked like a chump in his first round lost at SW19. We are talking Slams here bro

IW was a long time before Wimbledon, and he had a few weeks off after it. You really think playing IW affected him at Wimbo? More likely he should skip Barcelona and even Madrid and space himself across the year better, than to bottle-neck everything into the natural summer surfaces...

 

[huntingyou]

Some people said he should skip IW this year, but that worked out just fine...

Nadal knee condition is compounding, the more he plays, the faster he will reach that "breaking" point.

And I'm not sure it worked ok, Rafa looked like a chump in his first round lost at SW19. We are talking Slams here bro

IW was a long time before Wimbledon, and he had a few weeks off after it. You really think playing IW affected him at Wimbo? More likely he should skip Barcelona and even Madrid and space himself across the year better, than to bottle-neck everything into the natural summer surfaces...

You know what the word compounding means.

Agree about the clay schedule, skipping Madrid will give him two weeks off......not sure about Barcelona because Rafa needs his ground game sharp as he enters RG-SW19. Its all a balance

 

[ClayDeath]

there is also such a thing as situational scheduling.

you step back and take close look at the situation and make proper/optimal adjustments.

I took a look at his wins in Montreal, cinci, and flushing meadows.

it took monumental effort. it was not easy given his demanding style of play.


it all worked for the best for him. now the time is right call the dogs off just a little bit try to minimize hard court activity as much as possible.

I would let Basel and shanghai go. I would skip any hard court exos that he is entertaining in December.

no need to press his luck at this time. it is just too critical and too important to be healthy, fresh, fit, and be ready to go in 2014. he is in a position right now nobody has ever been in history.

why take too much risk in the name of greed and blow this opportunity.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

Did you notice that he'll play double in DC (with Marc Lopez) this afternoon ??
If his knees aren't painful after that..I can understand him to play singles but doubles.....not very careful after such a long season, he's not a reasonnable guy at all. Tony asked him to take care of his body but he has always the same "extreme" attitude...he plays till the pain is too strong to stand then he has another long injury pause..don't understand why he brutalizes his body like that, he's a kind of masochist

Its hard to argue with the only man in history to have won slams for 9 years in a row (and clearly on the way to 10+). Nadal is the last player anyone should ever question when it comes to scheduling. He's done it to perfection. No player is in a better position to dominate the remainder of the 2013 season. And Nadal is better placed to dominate the slams beyond age 27, than Federer was at age 27. The public sure misread things, when it came to forecasting his physical demise. All it took was a vacation. No surgery required even. Enjoy the show.....records are tumbling.

 

[ClayDeath]

did I mention that I am not happy with the clay warrior?

 

[huntingyou]

Did you notice that he'll play double in DC (with Marc Lopez) this afternoon ??
If his knees aren't painful after that..I can understand him to play singles but doubles.....not very careful after such a long season, he's not a reasonnable guy at all. Tony asked him to take care of his body but he has always the same "extreme" attitude...he plays till the pain is too strong to stand then he has another long injury pause..don't understand why he brutalizes his body like that, he's a kind of masochist

Its hard to argue with the only man in history to have won slams for 9 years in a row (and clearly on the way to 10+). Nadal is the last player anyone should ever question when it comes to scheduling. He's done it to perfection. No player is in a better position to dominate the remainder of the 2013 season. And Nadal is better placed to dominate the slams beyond age 27, than Federer was at age 27. The public sure misread things, when it came to forecasting his physical demise. All it took was a vacation. No surgery required even. Enjoy the show.....records are tumbling.

people like you its the reason I don't even bother much with tennis forums

the only reason Nadal has won slams in 9 years it's because he is a virtual lock for the FO. It has nothing to do with smart scheduling.......stick around though, it won't be long until we see rafito griming face as balls go by him.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

Did you notice that he'll play double in DC (with Marc Lopez) this afternoon ??
If his knees aren't painful after that..I can understand him to play singles but doubles.....not very careful after such a long season, he's not a reasonnable guy at all. Tony asked him to take care of his body but he has always the same "extreme" attitude...he plays till the pain is too strong to stand then he has another long injury pause..don't understand why he brutalizes his body like that, he's a kind of masochist

Its hard to argue with the only man in history to have won slams for 9 years in a row (and clearly on the way to 10+). Nadal is the last player anyone should ever question when it comes to scheduling. He's done it to perfection. No player is in a better position to dominate the remainder of the 2013 season. And Nadal is better placed to dominate the slams beyond age 27, than Federer was at age 27. The public sure misread things, when it came to forecasting his physical demise. All it took was a vacation. No surgery required even. Enjoy the show.....records are tumbling.

people like you its the reason I don't even bother much with tennis forums

the only reason Nadal has won slams in 9 years it's because he is a virtual lock for the FO. It has nothing to do with smart scheduling.......stick around though, it won't be long until we see rafito griming face as balls go by him.

And now he's even better at the US Open than at the French Open.

 

[brokenshoelace]

did I mention that I am not happy with the clay warrior?

Once or twice.

 

[brokenshoelace]

And now he's even better at the US Open than at the French Open.

LOL no.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

And now he's even better at the US Open than at the French Open.

LOL no.

This year, absolutely. 2010 too.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

did I mention that I am not happy with the clay warrior?

That's ok, at least you have Murray

 

[zalvar]

First of all, I love Rafa. Woo hoo.

I don't think he should reduce his tennis to 14-15 tournaments, personally. Imo, that's too extreme for his situation, which, I gather, a lot of people think is dire. 17-18 is perfect!

I don't see the point of extending his career up to the age of 33 or more just to win 250pt titles, if that. Well, except we'll get to watch him slowly drift into irrelevance.

What I think he needs to sustain his knees:

- Rest! Try to avoid playing 3 tournaments in a row. Basel, Paris and then London WTF ... Why, rafa, why!? (this includes davis cup)

- If given a choice, pick a clay tournament over a hard court. For example, this year, Acapulco over Dubai, which he did, bravo. Next year, he should play the new Brazil tournament in-between Aussie Open and Indian Wells.

- continue to play more aggressive, even on clay especially against lower tier opponents. he shouldn't be grinding against those guys if he can.

- Take a mini break mid season. Between wimbledon and the canadian masters is perfect.

- Oh. And stop playing doubles already.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

One thing we know for sure, Nadal will do whatever it takes to reach 200-300 weeks of the #1 ranking. It is obvious by all his statements that he cares dearly about the #1 ranking. And as the world knows by now, whatever Nadal wants he receives. The slams are probably more important to him, but he has always cared about the rankings. His schedule will be as hectic as is necessary. Let's not forget, Nadal doesn't have back problems. Federer, Murray and Djokovic all have back problems. So now that Nadal's knees are bandage-free and tendons 100% healthy, there is nothing standing in the way of complete global domination.