Wimbledon Day 2: Tuesday, June 24 - Order of Play

[El Dude]

Uh-oh, Klizan up a break.

 

[Riotbeard]

Klizan serving for the first?!

 

[tenisplayrla08]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

 

[Riotbeard]

Klizan takes the first set!

 

[El Dude]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is only the first set. What I see from Rafa so far is that he's a bit rusty and maybe distracted. He hasn't exactly had a good run at Wimbledon in recent years, so perhaps that's in his head. But he's still Rafa Frickin Nadal. Give him a chance.

Also, I don't think Klizan has the chops to beat him. He's a solid player, but he's got to play out of his mind to beat Rafa, even on grass.

 

[herios]

Raonic - Ebden 6-2, 6-4. Milos looks a lo better than in Halle.

 

[DarthFed]

^ No surprise there. Wafa proving once again it is a catastrophe he has managed to bite 2 of these trophies. I promise this will be one of the last times I bit** about the change in the grass this fortnight but it's clear for everyone to see how worthless he is on the "old grass" before it gets worn out to a ridiculous level.

 

[El Dude]

Here's an interesting stat:

Nadal on grass, 2002-2011: 48-10 (83%)
Nadal on grass, 2012-2014: 2-4 (33%)

Obviously that's a small sample size but it certainly is worrisome.

 

[atttomole]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

His knees can not be hurting if he won RG two weeks ago. It is only the first set after all.

 

[herios]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is only the first set. What I see from Rafa so far is that he's a bit rusty and maybe distracted. He hasn't exactly had a good run at Wimbledon in recent years, so perhaps that's in his head. But he's still Rafa Frickin Nadal. Give him a chance.

Also, I don't think Klizan has the chops to beat him. He's a solid player, but he's got to play out of his mind to beat Rafa, even on grass.

Common now, we know that deep down you are hoping for the upset. You don't fool us easily

 

[El Dude]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is only the first set. What I see from Rafa so far is that he's a bit rusty and maybe distracted. He hasn't exactly had a good run at Wimbledon in recent years, so perhaps that's in his head. But he's still Rafa Frickin Nadal. Give him a chance.

Also, I don't think Klizan has the chops to beat him. He's a solid player, but he's got to play out of his mind to beat Rafa, even on grass.

Common now, we know that deep down you are hoping for the upset. You don't fool us easily

OF COURSE I'm hoping for the upset, did I say otherwise? I just don't think it will happen.

Plus, to be honest, I feel torn as it just doesn't seem like Grand Slam tennis without Rafa in the second week.

 

[DarthFed]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

His knees can not be hurting if he won RG two weeks ago. It is only the first set after all.

Apparently they were hurting in 2012 (death foretold) and he was seen limping around in set 3 near the end of that embarrassment last year. Of course his knees are hurting him.

 

[herios]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

Don't start again the "knees" topic. Are you representing the press?

 

[tenisplayrla08]

I mean, it's funny. After the last two years, none of us (maybe just me) are surprised Nadal's just lost the first set. I was basically expecting it.

 

[herios]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is only the first set. What I see from Rafa so far is that he's a bit rusty and maybe distracted. He hasn't exactly had a good run at Wimbledon in recent years, so perhaps that's in his head. But he's still Rafa Frickin Nadal. Give him a chance.

Also, I don't think Klizan has the chops to beat him. He's a solid player, but he's got to play out of his mind to beat Rafa, even on grass.

Common now, we know that deep down you are hoping for the upset. You don't fool us easily

OF COURSE I'm hoping for the upset, did I say otherwise? I just don't think it will happen.

Plus, to be honest, I feel torn as it just doesn't seem like Grand Slam tennis without Rafa in the second week.

For you buddy. I am in the same camp as Darthfed, I would not mind if Rafa doesn't win one single match anymore.

 

[atttomole]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

His knees can not be hurting if he won RG two weeks ago. It is only the first set after all.

Apparently they were hurting in 2012 (death foretold) and he was seen limping around in set 3 near the end of that embarrassment last year. Of course his knees are hurting him.

But they seem to hurt when he loses!!

 

[El Dude]

One thing's for certain - Rafa's looking pretty bald out there!

 

[kskate2]

This has nothing to do w/ knees or back problems and more to do w/ that powder puff serve and returning from Ireland. He will continue to struggle on grass until he rectifies those 2 things.

 

[tenisplayrla08]

And there's the break for Klizan. I just don't get it. I know he's put a ton of effort into RG. I know the grass in the first week is slicker and bounces lower. And I get that this fact helps these guys ball even more. They know how to have that ball skidding around and they have big serves. But Nadal has double faulted a number of times today. I've seen at least two. And he just did it to hand Klizan the break. I think that's about as close as Rafa gets to showing that he doesn't want to be somewhere. And his body language isn't great out there today. I just don't get it. It's a completely different Rafa Nadal out there. Is he just resigned to the fact that his knees are shot at this point and they hurt and it distracts him or he can't play as well so if he loses it's ok...? I just.... it's so odd.

His knees can not be hurting if he won RG two weeks ago. It is only the first set after all.

Apparently they were hurting in 2012 (death foretold) and he was seen limping around in set 3 near the end of that embarrassment last year. Of course his knees are hurting him.

No I definitely think it's part of it, if not all of it. I heard earlier this week that he said something about having to have anti-inflammatory shots every day or something like that between RG and Wimbledon or something last year. I don't remember exactly. I hate it for him because I don't want to see him go down because of injury. I want to see him go down. But it doesn't count as much if he's injured. And this year he's got this back injury on top of all that. I mean, the RG final was just awful. You had Novak sick with something and by the end of the match Nadal was hurting real bad from the back.

 

[DarthFed]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is only the first set. What I see from Rafa so far is that he's a bit rusty and maybe distracted. He hasn't exactly had a good run at Wimbledon in recent years, so perhaps that's in his head. But he's still Rafa Frickin Nadal. Give him a chance.

Also, I don't think Klizan has the chops to beat him. He's a solid player, but he's got to play out of his mind to beat Rafa, even on grass.

Common now, we know that deep down you are hoping for the upset. You don't fool us easily

OF COURSE I'm hoping for the upset, did I say otherwise? I just don't think it will happen.

Plus, to be honest, I feel torn as it just doesn't seem like Grand Slam tennis without Rafa in the second week.

For you buddy. I am in the same camp as Darthfed, I would not mind if Rafa doesn't win one single match anymore.

Ah, we are finally on the same team :clap The day that dude is out of tennis is the day I become a much bigger fan of the game again.