The Fall of Rafael Nadal

[ClayDeath]

nothing new about rafa's decline. it is over 8 years in the making.

that is more than enough time for people to have spotted the trends.

now incredibly enough that is how long djokovic has been climbing.

I said years ago at MTF that djokovic was an all time great and those imbeciles there did not take me seriously.

 

 

 

[Billie]

He is almost 30 years old and had been playing great for so many years, he really started very early.  All the miles and all the effort might be catching up with him.  I think you are sometimes too harsh on Rafa, CD.

Every player will enter this stage in their career, there is no escaping it for anybody, ever!!!

 

[ClayDeath]

how are you doing Billie?

I just see certain realities on the ground and I call it like I see it.

the truth is sometimes harsh. the truth does hurt at times.

hell it hurts me the most.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I have watched Rafa play live in tournaments throughout the world.I was live at Roland Garos when Rafa first won his maiden Grand Slam title.A match I will never forget.I knew then he would be a Champion Player and would be a future No 1 player.In 2008 Rafa took his clay game to another level,again I was live at Roland Garos,Federer had no answer full stop.I was also live at the AO in 2009 when Rafa became the first Spanish player ever to win the title,another match I will never forget.Borg is still my tennis idol.When Rafa appeared on the tennis tour at first it wasn't his game that attracted me,it was his presence.I have watched the game of tennis well over thirty years,not many champions have a presence like Nadal,he takes your hand and you play every point with him,sometimes good other times not so good.Roger,Graf,S.Williams are other players that come to mind when I talk about a 'presence on court'.Rafa will turn 30 years old in June this year,I dont expect him to win GS titles,still apart from Borg,he has been a player that kind of awakened me when my idol Borg retired at 25.

 

[ClayDeath]

he was special to be sure. I just want to remember him as the game's gladiator he once was.

he and roger changed the sport forever. they made it more of a global sport than ever before for one thing.

the world wanted to watch Rafa and Roger. Nobody could get enough of their tennis and their fighting spirit.

more on this tomorrow.

 

[ClayDeath]

Sampras was right but we called it long ago at Camelot.

this is not rocket science. we employ 2 very simple techniques that even the most clueless color blind circus clowns of the world can use and understand:

1. simple observation. just open up your eyes and see over a course of time
2. content analysis. whatever is going to happen is happening already. you just have to look and study the dynamics

 

Rafa is done. he was done long ago. he sealed his own doom by not taking better care of his fitness and his physical work in the gym. he took a lot of that for granted in his youth. his failure to take better care of himself led to a multitude of injuries.

secondly he brought about his untimely doom by absolute and steadfast refusal to change a damn thing. he failed to innovate, progress, and continuously improve. he only just talked about it which was more than good enough for his fans and his sponsors.

thirdly, as Agassi pointed out years ago, he failed to make the optimal changes in his training and scheduling. it would ultimately be a factor in bringing about his untimely and premature decline.

he also neglected clay which was one of his biggest mistakes. he basically lost his ground game by not embracing clay. he took it for granted for too long. it had always saved him. he still cant get off the hard courts. there was time to back off the hard courts and pay extra attention to clay.

clay is the wellspring from which he flows. now he has nothing because he does not have clay.

one thing he does have plenty of is global popularity which means endless endorsement deals. 14 majors will do that for you. so he does have plenty of money. he made over $41 million in 2014. 2015 numbers should be higher.

and he will make even more in 2016.

 

so now he finds himself in a spot where it is nearly impossible to stage a comeback. there is no way to climb this mountain. he allowed himself to fall to dangerous lows. and now he is also in a race against the time.

his decision is to call it a career but hang around for the money and the spotlight. the world loves him so why not enjoy that a little longer.

there is absolutely no improvement in his game and his fitness from last year. in fact it is now even worse.

and there is a reason for that. he doesn't care to win anymore. he is done.

remember that he walked into RG last year and said that  it was ok if he lost since he had won it so many times. he also said he did not want to win "15 French Opens".

what was he really saying? he was saying that he did not bother to prepare since he did not care about winning anymore.

which is exactly the same thing he said prior to the Australian Open at the start of 2015. he said he was not prepared.

and you saw what berdych did to him. rafa would win just 10% of the points from the baseline against berdych. berdych decimated him to pieces.

he even said a few weeks ago that he was not prepared for the Australian open in 2016. he just does not care to win. there is no way to get around that.

the reason the mountain is so steep to climb now is that he has allowed himself to drop dramatically in every single aspect of his game and his fitness.

no way in hell can he win anything in this state. even rio and hamburg will become tests of a sort for him in 2016.

 

more later.

 

 

[ClayDeath]

I have watched Rafa play live in tournaments throughout the world.I was live at Roland Garos when Rafa first won his maiden Grand Slam title.A match I will never forget.I knew then he would be a Champion Player and would be a future No 1 player.In 2008 Rafa took his clay game to another level,again I was live at Roland Garos,Federer had no answer full stop.I was also live at the AO in 2009 when Rafa became the first Spanish player ever to win the title,another match I will never forget.Borg is still my tennis idol.When Rafa appeared on the tennis tour at first it wasn’t his game that attracted me,it was his presence.I have watched the game of tennis well over thirty years,not many champions have a presence like Nadal,he takes your hand and you play every point with him,sometimes good other times not so good.Roger,Graf,S.Williams are other players that come to mind when I talk about a ‘presence on court’.Rafa will turn 30 years old in June this year,I dont expect him to win GS titles,still apart from Borg,he has been a player that kind of awakened me when my idol Borg retired at 25.

great post.

 

[ClayDeath]

this is so much horse crap from rafa and tony. no wonder fans like broken shoe lace and moxie live in state of near permanent darkness when it comes to rafa.

check this out. this is what they are saying:

 

"I understand that in sport results come first and if you have to make a change, you have to do it," Toni Nadal told Spanish radio station Cadena Cope on Wednesday."To lose so early in Australia is one of the biggest disappointments we have had because in the last four months we had been playing well."I hope it is only a blip and we move forward."
"Everybody hits the ball hard and try to go for the winners in any position," he said."The game has become a little bit more crazy in this aspect."
And Toni admitted it is difficult for his nephew to change style after so much success throughout his career.
"The strategy he has played with his whole life matters less now. It isn't easy to change style after 15 years."

 

 

what horse crap. who the bloody hell is keeping you from getting as fit and healthy and strong as the other top players? who is stopping you from getting your fitness and your physicality back? go work on your bloody fitness and log in long hours in the gym.

why did you fart around with endless outside activities. was that exo garbage in new delhi and manila more important than this slam when you knew very clearly that your fitness was garbage and you had little or no real consistency off the ground.

and when you knew you could not get the ball back on returns and also when you knew so clearly that your serve was garbage.

go feed that crap to somebody else. you cant get rafa to work like djokovic, Federer, andy, stan, and ferru and the others.

why is the whole world winning but you? why is everybody on the tour fit but you are not?

the world is not moving that fast. suddenly the whole planet is not better than you. you just wont work and you don't care to.

that is why you cant win.

nobody is this stupid. nobody can be this stupid: rafa and tony both know that his game is very heavily dependent on supreme fitness and absolutely optimal physicality.

you cant win unless you have both these things. that is where it has to start and it is not starting there.

so stop telling the bloody world that the game has changed or that it is too fast. and that Rafa cant change.

how about just changing on the fitness and the physicality work worst.

simon and few others who have seen rafa up close are not wrong. simon was quite blunt. he said rafa looks like crap now that he is not fit and has lost considerable amount of muscle mass.

 

and we can all just see that. he was spent in Doha. he complained about heat after just 20 minutes of practice. he was going to the net every few minutes just to lean on it with both hands.

the movement is just horrible. you cant hit the ball deep and you cant fight for a point with this fitness.

that is why verdasco hit 90 winners on you.

and he gave up 91 unforced errors and he still ran over you in the end.

 

 

 

[ClayDeath]

what about Simon uncle Tony? was the game too fast then too when he hit no less than 60 winners on Rafa in Rome in a best of 3 sets match?

that was clay by the way uncle tony.

there is nobody on the tour that wont blast winner after winner if you keep leaving it short.

and if you can barely get the ball back on the serve.

 

 

 

[Carol]

My goodness Clay Death, take a break , you seem to be very upset!

 

[Denis]

Clay Death: Simon said that Nadal did not look fit? That's interesting, how do you know this? Quite unusual to make such statements although not that surprising coming from Simon.

 

[ClayDeath]

Clay Death: Simon said that Nadal did not look fit? That’s interesting, how do you know this? Quite unusual to make such statements although not that surprising coming from Simon.

perhaps it was in 2013 if I am not mistaken. I recall reading some remarks by simon. interesting thing is that he was right of course.

rafa has just beaten him in straight sets.

it had to be 2013 or 2014. not that it is that important but one of those years rafa must have gunned him down in straight sets.

simon usually doesn't say much. perhaps he likes rafa and was concerned about his fitness.

 

I tend to remember what they say. what I forget is the year at times. it may have been in 2014.

but it doesn't matter. it does not take a rocket scientist to see that he has substandard fitness and has lost considerable amount of his upper body muscle mass.

 

it was at RG. simon got a close look at Rafa.

I would say that his fitness has been on a definitive and steady decline since the end of 2010. it simply accelerated after his loss to Stan in the finals at the Australian Open.

 

 

 

[Denis]

Yes the loss against Stan was the turning point with hindsight.

I wouldn't gather Simon as being concerned about Rafa, lol, the guy had just beaten him on top off that Rafa has everything going for him.

 

[Mastoor]

Probably. He has the best 5th set record and suddenly he loses one by losing 6 games in a row. There must be reason why beside Verdasco playing awesome.

 

[ClayDeath]

dustin brown was ranked around #105 at the time he destroyed Rafa at Wimbledon last year.

 

was he playing awesome too?

verdasco has not beaten rafa in 3 out of their last 4 matches.

 

fognini ran over rafa 3 times in 2015.

are they all playing awesome tennis? the answer is NO.

Rafa is just a mere shadow of what he used to be.

Rafa doesn't have the will and the fitness and the energy and the focus to fight them to the death anymore.

again this is not by accident. it is by design. he wont win unless he gets back to his roots and starts logging in 6-7 hours a day on the practice courts.

 

he needs clay.

wilander just said that rafa will be dangerous on clay this year. right wilander.

don't these clowns know anything about the sport. now wilander should know a few things.

rafa aint got the fitness or the will or the game to beat anybody right now any surface wilander. and he is not going to get all that back in a couple of months.

he has to go get on clay for very long practice sessions. he has to start stringing together some matches. rio and Buenos aires will help.

give it your best shot at indian wells and then go get on clay. forget about Miami. take in another small clay event before monte carlo.

 

[ClayDeath]

breaking thoughts:

if both tony and rafa are crying about the game being too fast and that players are hitting winners from anywhere anytime they feel like then why not get off the bloody hard courts.

go get on clay. get on clay and stay on clay.

go where you have 46 titles. go where you dominated the sport for a decade.

get the hell off the hard courts if even clowns are hitting 100 winners on you in a single match.

never mind the fact that you owned these clowns all your life on all surfaces.

 

go where you have a significant competitive edge: heavy topspin.

 

 

all you need is to be fit and you will be good to go. get fit and get on clay. it cant get any simpler than that.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

As we have seen soo many times in tennis when a top seed falls early,like Rafa at the AO in 2016,Verdasco who played great offensive tennis in the 5th set to defeat Nadal,loses to Dudi Sela 46 63 63 76(4)......

 

[EdbergsGhost]

breaking thoughts: if both tony and rafa are crying about the game being too fast and that players are hitting winners from anywhere anytime they feel like then why not get off the bloody hard courts. go get on clay. get on clay and stay on clay. go where you have 46 titles. go where you dominated the sport for a decade. get the hell off the hard courts if even clowns are hitting 100 winners on you in a single match. never mind the fact that you owned these clowns all your life on all surfaces. go where you have a significant competitive edge: heavy topspin. all you need is to be fit and you will be good to go. get fit and get on clay. it cant get any simpler than that.

Clay is no longer a refuge for him.  Players are learning to hit through him there as well.  That's going to happen more often going forward.  The same problems he's having on hard courts will follow him onto the clay, albeit to a lesser extent.  I agree he needs to find a way to get the confidence, back, get the juices flowing again.  Complaining how hard everyone hits the balls these days means he's been standing still while everyone else's game has advanced.

 

[ClayDeath]

Clay Death wrote:
breaking thoughts: if both tony and rafa are crying about the game being too fast and that players are hitting winners from anywhere anytime they feel like then why not get off the bloody hard courts. go get on clay. get on clay and stay on clay. go where you have 46 titles. go where you dominated the sport for a decade. get the hell off the hard courts if even clowns are hitting 100 winners on you in a single match. never mind the fact that you owned these clowns all your life on all surfaces. go where you have a significant competitive edge: heavy topspin. all you need is to be fit and you will be good to go. get fit and get on clay. it cant get any simpler than that.

Clay is no longer a refuge for him. Players are learning to hit through him there as well. That’s going to happen more often going forward. The same problems he’s having on hard courts will follow him onto the clay, albeit to a lesser extent. I agree he needs to find a way to get the confidence, back, get the juices flowing again. Complaining how hard everyone hits the balls these days means he’s been standing still while everyone else’s game has advanced.

 

great post.

 

I agree 100%. the mountain is too hard to climb now even on clay.

but that is where it has to start. he needs fitness, endurance, mental and emotional staying power. and he needs clay.

 

he is just a laughing stock on the hard courts now. no titles on the hard courts since 2013.

and there will be exactly zero titles on the hard courts this year also.

 

 

mostly he needs to stop farting around and actually work rather than just talking about work.

get the fire back in the belly and then go fight.

 

[Carol]

Rafa was playing well at the end of 2015, he even beat Wawrinka and Muzz like he always was doing before, he stared well the beginning of this year until the final against Novak where he clearly didn't play well, starting with a bad  serve and losing incredible badly. And with Verdasco even that he was close to win, two points made the difference for Verdasco to get more confidence and motivation and for Rafa to get nervous and playing worse . Both know each other for loooong time