Spokojnie, w najbliższych turniejach nie będzie ku temu powodów.   Soda by się na bank na boks z Rafą pisał, ale niestety właśnie się z Korolo wycofał.

Nadal: I'm almost back to my best

Rafael Nadal  believes he is close to hitting the form to end his 11-month title drought, no co-incidence given his recent record at the Monte Carlo Masters.

The world number three bids for a record sixth consecutive win in Monte Carlo, happy with his performances so far this year after an injury-hit start.

A recurring knee injury forced Nadal to retire from his Australian Open quarter-final against Andy Murray in January but he has since reached the semi-finals of the Indian Wells and Miami Masters tournaments.

"I have played well in all the tournaments this year. I haven't won yet, but I was in contention all the time," Nadal said after a light training session at the Monte Carlo country club on Monday.

"In Indian Wells, I was playing a very good tournament. I played a terrible match in the semi-final, but I played the rest of the matches at a very high level. And in Miami, too, I played well."

The Spaniard, a six-times Grand Slam winner, said his mindset this year was different to the second half of 2009.

"Last year, the last six months, if I didn't have bad results with semi-finals, one final in Shanghai, quarter-finals in other tournaments... I felt I was not ready to win important tournaments," Nadal said of his injury-blighted season.

"But from the start of the year, I have felt ready."

Back on clay, Nadal senses a first tournament victory since his last in Rome in May 2009.

"I think it's always going to be a little bit more easier on clay for me," he said.

Nadal will start his Monte Carlo Masters campaign with a second-round match against Argentine Eduardo Schwank or Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/12042010/ … -best.html

Warto wspomnieć, że to już 16 turniej Masters wygrany przez Nadala, czym Hiszpan wyrównał osiągnięcie Rogera Federera i jest już tylko 1 tytuł od Andre Agassiego.

Najwięcej wygranych mastersów:
17 - Agassi
16 - Nadal, Federer
11 - Sampras

Warto też dodać, że Nadal to pierwszy zawodnik w erze Open, któremu udało się wygrać ten sam turniej w 6 kolejnych latach. Gratulacje.

Nikt nie umie zatrzymać Nadala w Monte Carlo

Rafael Nadal został pierwszym tenisistą od 1968 roku, który sześć razy z rzędu wygrał jeden turniej. Hiszpan osiągnął to pokonując bez trudu w finale turnieju w Monte Carlo swojego rodaka Fernando Verdasco 6:0, 6:1.

Nadal wysłał do rywali ostrzeżeni, że w majowym French Open będzie bardzo mocny. Turniej na kortach ziemnych w Monte Carlo przeszedł jak burza. - Czuję się tu jak w domu. Od dawna nie miałem tak dobrego tygodnia jak ten ostatni. Ten wynik jest niewiarygodny. Bez dwóch zdań to mój ulubiony turniej - powiedział uradowany Hiszpan, który w poprzednim sezonie zmagał się z uciążliwymi kontuzjami.

Ostatni turniejowy triumf wywalczył aż 11 miesięcy temu, co dla zawodnika tej klasy może być rozczarowujące. Wpływ jednak na taki, a nie inny stan rzeczy miały właśnie owe kontuzje, a zwłaszcza problemy z kolanami. Lepszego momentu na powrót do formy Nadal nie mógł sobie wymarzyć.

W maju rusza French Open, jedyne wielkoszlemowe zawody w sezonie, odbywające się na ceglanej mączce. Hiszpański tenisista na tej nawierzchni czuje się najlepiej. Oprócz tego chciałby zapewne powetować sobie szybkie pożegnanie się z tym turniejem w ubiegłym roku.

http://www.eurosport.pl/tenis/atp-maste … tory.shtml

Nadal odpuszcza

Rafael Nadal wycofał się z rywalizacji w Barcelonie. Jak wyjaśnił, jego organizm potrzebuje odpoczynku. - Jestem przemęczony, nie ma sensu, bym teraz startował. Muszę odpocząć i to jest w tej chwili najważniejsze - powiedział tenisista.

http://www.eurosport.pl/tenis/nadal-odp … news.shtml

Simon znowu atakuje.

Nadal form ominous for rivals

Watching Rafael Nadal at the Monte Carlo Masters was like going back two years when he was unbeatable on clay.

He was the best player in the world then and last week he got way clear of anything anybody could get remotely close to in Monte Carlo.

I have to admit I never thought I'd see him play such dominant tennis again, even on clay. But I'm so pleased he is. Rafa's a great guy and I know the injuries have frustrated him immensely, but to see him playing with such great joy and exuberance was fantastic.

Incredibly, his forehand looked even better than it did two years ago and the damage he was able to do against some of the best performers in the world was awesome.

It seems that even with the likes of Nadal and Federer, confidence plays a big part in their games. Once things began to click for Rafa, he again started to believe in the inevitability of victory. He seemed to be having the time of his life and it was terrific to watch.

That kind of form is hugely ominous for the other players. They cannot afford to think like this, but Rafa's performance in Monte Carlo was so impressive, the clay court season already looked over on Sunday evening.

Indeed, the others' best chance of winning something on clay this season appears to be when Rafa isn't in attendance, like in Barcelona this week.

When I was talking about Kim Clijsters the other week, I said that players need to play as much as they can in the build-up to Grand Slams to get their fitness and form together, but Rafa is an exception to that rule.

Rafa takes so much out of himself even in such ludicrously easy wins as in Monte Carlo. The sheer physicality of his game is of a different dimension to anybody else.

The danger with Nadal is that having played so well in Monte Carlo he would overdo it in Barcelona. He's a fiercely patriotic man, and he would have loved to have played - and given his all - in his home tournament.

His camp have had a long think and they've decided discretion is the best way forward. It's the right decision if it means he will be able to give 100 per cent at Roland Garros.

I seriously hope the decision was taken purely on the basis that he has to rest. If it is anything worse that has ruled him out, it would be a real shame, given his emphatic victory in Monte Carlo.  Let's hope that's not the case.

Let's just wait and see if he plays Rome and Madrid. If he does, it will be great news for anyone who will be watching, but it cannot be good news for his rivals.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/si … icle/2534/


Uciekaj Rafa, uciekaj!

Ostatnio edytowany przez Robertinho (20-04-2010 21:16:53)

Beating Nadal on clay the hardest thing in the history of tennis

If anyone had doubts, Rafael Nadal confirmed at the Monte Carlo Masters what already should have been obvious. He is more dominant on clay than any male player on any surface – ever.

How could you look at his path of destruction last week and draw any other conclusion? His jaw-dropping set scores read 6-1, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1. He lost 14 games in 10 sets, the fewest for anyone in the open era.

Before Monte Carlo, the story on Nadal was his 11-month title drought dating back to the Italian Open in 2009. With that stat in his rearview mirror, the next time the number 11 becomes significant for him might be when he wins Monte Carlo for the 11th year in a row. He already is up to six, another open-era record, and has lost one set there in the last three visits.

His victims this year – including fellow Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarters, David Ferrer in the semis and Fernando Verdasco in the final – hardly constituted a murderer’s row. But they should not have been road kill, either.

A resurgent Ferrero won two tournaments and reached the final of a third on the South American clay-court swing earlier this year. Ferrer has won five career titles on clay. Verdasco was coming off a 6-2, 6-2 semifinal demolition of Novak Djokovic, who had won 37 of his last 39 matches on clay when Rafa was not the opponent. Djokovic blamed allergies for his tepid performance, but he may have been allergic to another beat-down by Nadal.

The numbers are mind-numbing. Nadal won 81 consecutive matches on clay from 2005 to 2007, shattering Guillermo Vilas’ tour record of 53. After losing to Roger Federer in the final of Hamburg, he immediately snapped off another 31-match streak.

Before losing to Robin Soderling last year, he had won his first 31 matches at Roland Garros while dropping only seven sets.

At age 23, he has won 26 clay-court titles – the seventh most all-time – and 23 of the last 27 clay events he has entered.

Never has there been this perfect a marriage between skill set and surface. Nadal’s relentless intensity, his incredible speed and his unprecedented high-bouncing forehand topspin make him impossible to beat on clay when he is playing well and nearly impenetrable when his game is off.

The obvious reply to Nadal’s clay-court brilliance is the grass-court supremacy of Federer, who won an ATP-record 65 consecutive matches on the blades from 2003 to 2008, but it’s not the same.

Federer played Wimbledon five times before becoming champion. His last two Wimbledon-final victories have gone five sets, and he failed to break serve 37 consecutive times before winning his epic final with Roddick last year.

Plus, there’s the sticky issue of whether Federer is even better than Nadal on grass right now. Nadal ended Federer's aura of invincibility in the 2008 Wimbledon final after having break points in the fifth set of their 2007 final before fading at least in part due to a knee injury.

Nadal also won Queen’s Club on grass in 2008, taking down Roddick and Djokovic in straight sets in the semis and final. After skipping the grass in 2009 with another knee injury, he will enter Queen’s Club this June with an 18-1 record in his last 19 matches on the surface – the same as Federer.

If Federer's dominance on grass falls short of Nadal's nastiness on clay, no one else compares.

Pete Sampras on grass? He won Wimbledon seven out of eight years from 1993 to 2000, but he lost at Queen’s Club five times in that span to the likes of Grant Stafford, Jonas Bjorkman and Mark Woodforde. The difference between him and Nadal is Rafa’s all-consuming desire at every clay-court event.

Bjorn Borg on clay? He won Roland Garros six of the eight times he played there, and his scorelines in 1978 and 1980 were Rafa-like, but he won five five-setters in Paris. Nadal has yet to play a five-setter there.

When Nadal burst on the scene, he intimidated his opponents on clay with his endurance and persistence, getting every ball back until their will to win crumbled. These days, he blasts one forehand winner after the other without sacrificing any of the defensive abilities he had as a teenager.

Heaven help the rest of the tour if he stays healthy all spring.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2265 … -of-tennis

Uncle Toni: Top spot not a priority for Rafa

Nadal has dropped to third in the rankings, behind Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, after knee problems disrupted his 2009 season.

The Spaniard looked to have regained his old dominance on clay when he blew away his challengers to win a record sixth consecutive Monte Carlo Masters title earlier this month.

But he pulled out of last week's Barcelona Open to have a rest before defending his title at the Rome Masters this week.

"I suppose we'll play a little less," Nadal's coach and uncle Toni Nadal said before the 23-year-old begins his Rome campaign against Philipp Kohlschreiber on Wednesday.

"(The decision to miss Barcelona) was also related to the need to prepare for the upcoming season, which is hard, and avoid having problems with Wimbledon and Roland Garros."

Nadal, four times a winner in the Paris major, suffered his first ever defeat at the French Open last May and was then forced to miss the entire grass-court season with tendinitis in his knees.

"The important thing for Rafa is not the ranking, but to be in good shape for every tournament he takes part in, to know that he has the chance to win the tournaments he takes part in," said Toni.

"This is more important than the ranking for him. Naturally, if on top of this, he has a good ranking, so much the better."

Toni dismissed the idea that his nephew needed to change his style of play to make it less physical and reduce the demands on his body.

"I don't see this. He doesn't have an excessively physical game," he said.

"This story comes from when Rafa was 17, 18 years old. I don't think his game is just physical. It's a game suited to spin. If you look at the matches, I don't think he runs more than his rivals."

Reuters

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/27042010/58/ … -rafa.html

Mastersy: Nadal wyrównał osiągnięcie Andre Agassiego.



Rafael Nadal, wygrywając, turniej Masters w Madrycie, odniósł swoje 17 turniejowe zwycięstwo w tego typu elitarnych imprezach. Wyrównał tym samym osiągnięcie Andre Agassiego, który do tej pory miał najwięcej wygranych eventów z serii Masters.

Najwięcej wygranych Mastersów w historii:
17 - Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal
16 - Roger Federer
11 - Pete Sampras

Podczas imprezy w Madrycie Nadal stanie przed szansą pobicia rekordu.

Gratulacje.