The Fall of Rafael Nadal

[ClayDeath]

There is a very good reason djokovic will take everything under the sun.

He is willing to go work for it. He just won a 5 setter in Davis Cup for instance.

Andy too will do well this year.

Those that are working will win

Those that can't vacation enough and can't stop farting around will win absolutely nothing.

This is not rocket science.

 

[Billie]

Well that 5-setter is not something that I would advertise for the case of Nole winning everything this year, CD. You obviously didn't watch the match, it wasn't all that pretty, I can tell you. It was 5 hours of very hard work, not to mention 5 hours of torture for his fans (although I "just" watched 4 hours of it) and praying that he doesn't really injure himself.

All the while Rafa was resting and working on his game.

 

[ClayDeath]

ha ha. you mean resting, vacationing, and farting around looking for exos to play.

inactivity as it relates to fitness, physical work in the gym, long hard practice on the courts and actual competition has killed Rafa's game.

he has been largely absent from the sport for the last 2 years. and then throw in injuries related time off in 5 of the last 7 years.

he cant even beat a slow moving insect right now. says the insects have evolved and that they are moving too fast these days.

 

[ClayDeath]

as if the fall was not steep enough, it now gets even worse.

he looks like a weak college level player at best in practice. cant get the ball back on serve. cant serve.

and has no concept of how to wage war from the backcourt.

translation: he may be at about 20% capacity at best.

so nearly 80% of his game and 70% of his fitness is gone.

I don't know how you get back from this.


inactivity killed his game and his fitness.

 

[Vince Evert]

Being an antithesis of a Rafa Nadal fan, today I find myself in the unlikely role of defending him.
We shouldn't really be attacking him or his commitment to the game at this stage. Nadal has been a unique champion who brought a lot to the sport for more than a decade - love him or hate him. However if he continues to loose to lesser players that he would have otherwise beaten when he was at his peak, it's going to be fascinating to see over the next 12-18 months how long he will actually remain in the sport.

 

[ClayDeath]

nobody is attacking him. this is the no spin zone.

I call it like it like I see it.

also you cant live in the past. we all know what he did in the past.


nothing is going to happen. I think he was done long ago. people just keep ignoring the trends.

I do the same damn thing myself at times because I keep hoping and praying for that one last RG crown for him.

but it is clear he doesn't care to win anymore. there is just no sufficient body of work on the practice courts and on the fitness front.

he and his coach say the game is too fast now which is just another one of the endless lip service acts.


go out and work very long and very hard like everybody else is doing. those that are doing it are winning.

 

[ClayDeath]

Clay is the wellspring from which he flows. he has to go get on it ASAP after this event which will be short lived obviously. I would forget about the stupid, petty appearance fee in Miami. he does not need the money. more money is coming in with the endorsements than ever before anyway. it is time to try to find the ground game again. and to be competitive again. clay is the only way.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

lets see if the needle on the vamosometer can twitch into life this spring..if not he might not be top8 for too long in future.

 

[ClayDeath]

nalbandian said:

it is clay or the exit.

 

[britbox]

 

[britbox]

Nadal weary of doping rumours.

http://www.menstennisblog.info/2016/03/rafael-nadal-says-weary-of-doping-rumors.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+AtpTennis+(ATP+Tennis)#.VuLLtoV97q4

Nadal said Sharapova deserves to be punished as an example to others.

"It is difficult to imagine that something like this can happen. But mistakes happen," he said. "She should be punished. I want to believe it is a mistake for Maria. She didn't want to do it. But obviously it is negligence. She must pay for it."

 

[isabelle]

According to l'Equipe, Toni Nadal wants to take Roselyne Bachelot (an ex French sport's minister) to the court : she accused Nadal to take some doping stuff without any proof, she made an uproar un France. Toni added "this woman is stupid"....

 

[britbox]

According to l'Equipe, Toni Nadal wants to take Roselyne Bachelot (an ex French sport's minister) to the court : she accused Nadal to take some doping stuff without any proof, she made an uproar un France. Toni added "this woman is stupid"....

Well, it would be a first. Nobody has been taken to court so far, despite various allegations.

 

[ClayDeath]

The plot thickens.

 

[ClayDeath]

the clay image in the middle says it all:

clay is the wellspring from which he flows.


Sampras said that he finds his clay losses shocking. but we do not. we called it ages ago at Camelot.

we knew exactly how this was going to play out. he was doing absolutely nothing to improve his game and his fitness. furthermore he was neglecting clay.

 

[Moxie]

Well, it would be a first. Nobody has been taken to court so far, despite various allegations.

No doubt Nadal is weary of doping rumors. There haven't really been that many allegations from a specific person or publication that name Nadal. Yannick Noah spoke of "Spanish players." I think Christophe Rochus made a slur a few years back. Most of it is just internet innuendo, made anonymously by certain kinds of fans. In retrospect, they should have sued the original French publication that put Nadal and FC Barcelona in their headline when the Fuentes case broke in 2006. It was a completely spurious connection, and the web has been using it as fodder ever since. It's not really a coincidence that all this bile comes from France, (or it's little brother, Belgium.) Neighboring countries are traditional rivals, and the French look down their noses at their southern neighbor, Spain. It's has galled them (forgive the pun) that Spain has outshone France for so many recent years in sports, including Nadal's owning of their Major. I hope they do sue Bachelot. It's outrageous for a former Minister of Sport to make an unfounded accusation about a specific player based on an injury speculation. She is, or has been, in an actual position of power in sport, and if she had concerns, she had more constructive ways to address them.

Nadal is really the last man in tennis who can dope, given the scrutiny he's undergone so much of his career. There's no logical reason to believe he did prior to 2006, when Fuentes got arrested and he was first accused. And no real way he could have after. It might have been worth considering, if you follow logic, in the last 22 or months since the 2014 French Open. But if he did, those drugs don't work.

 

[Carol]

I don't think is worth it to talk about that subject. That woman Bachelot wasn't highly regarded by the French people before and now probably much worse. She is going to pay to talk so 'freely'
The ITF put out a statement that Rafa has never failed a drug test. End of the story

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdRz3WvUkAE3uC7.jpg:large

 

[Moxie]

I don't think is worth it to talk about that subject. That woman Bachelot wasn't highly regarded by the French people before and now probably much worse. She is going to pay to talk so 'freely'
The ITF put out a statement that Rafa has never failed a drug test. End of the story

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdRz3WvUkAE3uC7.jpg:large

Carol, Roselyne Bachelot was regarded well enough to be the Minister of Sport in France. Also, the ITF have proven themselves to be unreliable, as regards drug testing and not revelatory, when it comes to exposing drug test results and bans. So surely you can't say this is "End of story." However, I think that there is an argument that supports Nadal's claims, which is actually more plausible than the opposite. But let's not pretend we win the argument by saying that Bachelot is not a person of stature. I do agree that using her status to call out one particular player makes her look a bit daft and off-kilter, or just prejudiced, like a French ex-player, or a satiristic TV show that takes a swipe at Nadal, with nothing to stand behind it. It is a lot of sour grapes, though, and blowing desperately on smoke, where there really is no fire. The sad thing about the internet is that you can always keep blowing smoke.

 

[Carol]

Carol, Roselyne Bachelot was regarded well enough to be the Minister of Sport in France. Also, the ITF have proven themselves to be unreliable, as regards drug testing and not revelatory, when it comes to exposing drug test results and bans. So surely you can't say this is "End of story." However, I think that there is an argument that supports Nadal's claims, which is actually more plausible than the opposite. But let's not pretend we win the argument by saying that Bachelot is not a person of stature. I do agree that using her status to call out one particular player makes her look a bit daft and off-kilter, or just prejudiced, like a French ex-player, or a satiristic TV show that takes a swipe at Nadal, with nothing to stand behind it. It is a lot of sour grapes, though, and blowing desperately on smoke, where there really is no fire. The sad thing about the internet is that you can always keep blowing smoke.

Then you have different information than I have through a good sources from French people that know her better than you and me and have tell me many things about her
Nadal is taking care about that defamation with the help of his lawyers (it's about time) and yes, this story has not finished yet but I hope she and his friend Noah pay soon their acts. Like someone has said: " hey, I can say that she is a prostiute because I heard it in the subway"
Come on, a public figure should have a lot more careful with what to say and she should know that when you accuse to someone you has to do with a proof. To talk is easy and it not cost any money but this time I think she will have to pay more than a few Euros or will have to retract of all what she has said

 

[Moxie]

I think what you're saying is that Nadal's endless conundrum has been like the old joke: are you still beating your wife? Once it was put out there, he's endlessly defending a position he may have never been in, in the first place.