Roland Garros 2018, Paris, France, ATP GRAND SLAM

[herios]

Nicky withdraws too.

He may show up in doubles

 

[Carol]

My question is if all those players will be ready for the grass season or day by day they will withdraw too. Incredible how many injured there are

 

[kskate2]

My question is if all those players will be ready for the grass season or day by day they will withdraw too. Incredible how many injured there are

Most have been carrying an injury for weeks. With the new rule in place, they don't even have to play and get 1/2 of their R1 prize $$

 

[the AntiPusher]

He may show up in doubles

That doesn’t make sense..he is too injured to play singles but may risk further injury by playing doubles..herios this isn’t directed at you, but it seems that only Carol and I are true nonbelievers in wacky Nicky

 

[kskate2]

He may show up in doubles

He might since he was just playing doubs yesterday in a warmup tourney

 

[brokenshoelace]

That is true but surface means a great deal in the draws. Certainly if Nadal had these same guys at Wimbledon my reaction would be different. He won't even be tested in a set until the final. By that point his opponent will probably have exhausted themselves. It is a draw made in heaven. I will cede that even with a draw that would have been far more complicated he still would have won it.

Again, I'll ask the same thing I've asked everyone:

Please give me a hypothetical tough Roland Garros draw for Nadal, and tell me how many of the guys you'll name would actually challenge him... Keep seedings in mind so you can't say something like Zverev in the quarter final...

Other than Novak being in his half, what's a tough draw for Nadal?

 

[herios]

That doesn’t make sense..he is too injured to play singles but may risk further injury by playing doubles..herios this isn’t directed at you, but it seems that only Carol and I are true nonbelievers in wacky Nicky

You know he just won a doubles title in Lyon with Sock on Saturday.
Also, he did type of thing before, pulling out of singles and stay in for doubles.

 

[Front242]

That doesn’t make sense..he is too injured to play singles but may risk further injury by playing doubles..herios this isn’t directed at you, but it seems that only Carol and I are true nonbelievers in wacky Nicky

Doubles isn't taking on the body at all so no problem really playing that. Mostly gonna be winning points with his serve and volleys at the net. There won't be any running along the baseline to aggravate any injury.

 

[Front242]

My question is if all those players will be ready for the grass season or day by day they will withdraw too. Incredible how many injured there are

Even carrying an injury you could still win a good few rounds with just a decent serve on grass so I expect many will. Not like he only has a great serve, but a certain Swiss guy made it to the 5th set of the semi final at Wimbledon 2016 with an injured knee so it can be done. Had he not slipped and fell flat on his face and aggravated it further, he may well have made the final with a bad knee too.

 

[herios]

Nick actually is recovering from an elbow injury.

 

[Front242]

Nick actually is recovering from an elbow injury.

Ah right. Hadn't read into it to be honest but he's had that before and it didn't take that long to heal up. Make it harder for him to hit hard serves so but the accuracy on his serve would still win some free points and, unless it's really hurting badly, it may just be a case of him not feeling competitive enough for singles but not injured enough to not play doubles.

 

[Moxie]

That is true but surface means a great deal in the draws. Certainly if Nadal had these same guys at Wimbledon my reaction would be different. He won't even be tested in a set until the final. By that point his opponent will probably have exhausted themselves. It is a draw made in heaven. I will cede that even with a draw that would have been far more complicated he still would have won it.

The response was to Busted, and more about draws in general. I agree with Broken in his above and earlier as to there not really being a difficult draw on offer to Nadal, what with all the injuries, not playing, recovering from injury and coming back onto form, etc. But most importantly because Nadal is the best on clay, he's healthy and on good form.

I also agree with you that it didn't need to be THIS easy. He could have had Djokovic and Thiem in his half. But my point is there is only so much complaining we can do about a draw. (OK, whinging and complaining is part of what we do here, I get that.) What bugs me most is when folks hang onto it, keep complaining in retrospect, or decide that someone was a terrible opponent, because they didn't win or do better. I remember last year folks saying that Wawrinka was a weak opponent for Nadal in the RG final '17, because of the final score. However, with Roger not in and Novak not playing well, everyone would have been hoping for Stan in that final as the best option to beat Rafa, before the tournament started. There are those who have said that "weak-headed Stan" showed up, rather than credit Nadal for being acres ahead of him in terms of clay talent.

There have been plenty of tournaments when you could ask the same question re: Roger or Novak...what draw would be rough for them? Sometimes the answer is 'there pretty much isn't one.'

Still, I think Shapo is going to cause Rafa some trouble.

 

[Moxie]

Most have been carrying an injury for weeks. With the new rule in place, they don't even have to play and get 1/2 of their R1 prize $$

I wonder if this has been good or bad. Certainly it seems that a lot of players have kept themselves in and then withdrawn at the last minute. I guess it's better than playing one crappy match lame, or retiring in it. Must be a lot of folks hanging around that few extra days now. Is this only in Majors, or across the board? Also, is it the same on the women's side?

 

[kskate2]

Results from the French Open, Men's Singles R1 matches on Sunday

 

[kskate2]

I wonder if this has been good or bad. Certainly it seems that a lot of players have kept themselves in and then withdrawn at the last minute. I guess it's better than playing one crappy match lame, or retiring in it. Must be a lot of folks hanging around that few extra days now. Is this only in Majors, or across the board? Also, is it the same on the women's side?

I believe it is only the slams and don't think it's relevant on the women's side. It was so bad on the ATP w/ retirements in R1 that they had to do something. Some people do hang around. They actually ran out of LL this morning. One guy didn't win qualies so he entered a challenger event in Italy. Another guy they showed was traveling by car from Spain. It was going to take 9 hours in the car so he could be ready for tomorrow's match.

 

[Carol]

Wow, this really looks very bad, what that physio has against Haase?

 

[Moxie]

I believe it is only the slams and don't think it's relevant on the women's side. It was so bad on the ATP w/ retirements in R1 that they had to do something. Some people do hang around. They actually ran out of LL this morning. One guy didn't win qualies so he entered a challenger event in Italy. Another guy they showed was traveling by car from Spain. It was going to take 9 hours in the car so he could be ready for tomorrow's match.

OMG, this is kind of a joke. It's a Major, and yet the machinations seem as fugazy as a challenger.

 

[Moxie]

Wow, this really looks very bad, what that physio has against Haase?

No idea about this story. Anyone can elucidate?

 

[Carol]

No idea about this story. Anyone can elucidate?

When Haase playing vs Goffin called the Physio this one refused to assist him claiming that Haase didn't have any medical problem and it happened in the last USOpen too

 

[Moxie]

I'll have to check it out. But there is such a thing as something being a conditioning issue and not medical. Perhaps that?