Broken, take a gander at that highlights video I posted. Do you see any visual sign of impairment for Nadal? I don't ask as a challenge, more curiosity.
By the way, I'm not saying that he wasn't hurting, I just don't see any sign of impairment. If he was in pain that could have impacted his performance, but it just looks like he was moving fine and either playing through the pain and/or not feeling it due to adrenaline, or maybe not even in pain at all.
No that's a fair question, and it at least attempts to start an constructive conversation.
"Impairment" is a term I won't use because the Fedfan police might get on my case but I'll say that yes, I clearly see signs of Nadal not moving like his usual self. Now to clarify, especially when it comes to Nadal, the barometer for me personally, as to how well he's moving, is not the occasional burst of explosiveness when he's chasing down a ball. That's something he still has even today, despite not being nearly the same mover he was in say, 2006 (makes sense, obviously. It's over a decade later). What I look for is how early/late he's getting to balls that aren't stretching him out too much, particularly how he's moving to the forehand side.
Now, the above are merely highlights, so by definition they're nit-picking. I can only do the same, and yes you can claim what I'm about to point towards is only one point, but keep in mind, I am merely selecting that point to better explain what I mean when I say he wasn't moving well, not as some sort of irrefutable evidence.
Take a look at the point which starts at 8:01. On the third shot of the rally Soderling hits a down the line backhand that isn't necessarily meant to be a winner. Nadal has to stretch and put on a defensive slice back. That's the sort of stuff you rarely see with Nadal during his clay court heyday. However, that to me, is actually NOT necessarily a sign of poor movement. I think that actually speaks more to Soderling's shot selection and strategy keeping him guessing and planting doubt in his head, as he was likely anticipating a cross court backhand (nevertheless, I'd still say Nadal was slow to react). Much more telling however, is the final shot of that same rally. Soderling hits a decent down the line forehand, admittedly with some depth, but he wasn't going for a winner and it was simply a rally shot. Nadal isn't even caught off guard, but is so slow getting to the ball that he actually has to slide into it and still gets there very late. Nadal's ensuing forehand isn't even close to going over the net. How Nadal moves to his forehand side is always the main indicator to me personally with regards to his movement.
Now, I actually didn't go through the entire highlights, but I've watched that match enough times to be able to find you other similar examples if you wish. I am fully aware it is ludicrous to use one point as some sort of conclusive evidence. My point is actually that the match was filled with similar points from Nadal's perspective. I had never seen him slide so early to his forehand side on clay up until that point. That's the thing about Nadal at the time -- unless he was just completely chasing the ball trying to hit a squash shot/passing shot/defensive lob from his forehand side, he didn't slide that early for routine forehands.
I said as much at the time (I wish the old forum archive was still around), but I thought Nadal was moving below par dating back to Madrid (the Novak match from that tournament, which I'm sure did Nadal's knees no favors as it was the longest ever best of 3 set match, is a very good example of Nadal's movement being iffy).
