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#Post#: 6071--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: thetruth Date: December 25, 2013, 12:32 am
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I love these articles, because they confirm what I knew back in
2005 after seeing him for the first time. I've never been swayed
by the opinion of others, neither the majority or the minority.
God gave each of us a brain and we should use them accordingly.
Accepting what comes from others has never appealed to me in the
least.
Now the naysayers are saying what many Rafa fans knew all along.
It's awesome!
#Post#: 6085--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: December 25, 2013, 8:42 pm
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[quote author=thetruth link=topic=272.msg6071#msg6071
date=1387953165]
I love these articles, because they confirm what I knew back in
2005 after seeing him for the first time. I've never been swayed
by the opinion of others, neither the majority or the minority.
God gave each of us a brain and we should use them accordingly.
Accepting what comes from others has never appealed to me in the
least.
Now the naysayers and saying what many Rafa fans knew all along.
It's awesome!
[/quote]
all rafa has ever done is prove the world wrong.
I still think the best is yet to come.
he will show the world something they have never seen before.
#Post#: 6091--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: December 25, 2013, 9:59 pm
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HTML http://www.stevegtennis.com/2013/12/nadal-set-to-play-copa-claro-in-buenos-aires-in-2014/
#Post#: 6092--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: December 25, 2013, 10:01 pm
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HTML http://www.stevegtennis.com/2013/12/reasons-behind-rafael-nadals-remarkable-comeback-in-2013/
#Post#: 6284--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: December 31, 2013, 2:25 am
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HTML http://www.gulf-times.com/sport/192/details/376192/after-a-memorable-2013%2c-nadal-eyes-an-awesome-2014
#Post#: 6409--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: January 1, 2014, 12:01 am
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Rafael Nadal Pre-tournament Press conference at Qatar Open
(Transcript)
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Welcome back to Doha. It feels very good to see you. We
missed you here last year. What an incredible comeback. You had
an amazing year after your injury. Are you happy with your
achievements? You became No. 1 again, two Grand Slams, I don't
know how many titles this year. What would be your goals for
this coming year?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, thank you very much. Yeah, what happened is
the past, so we talk enough of 2013. Happy for everything, but
in one day we are in 2014. Let's talk about 2014.
Excited to be back here in Doha. It's a place I feel very
comfortable. Have good friends here.
Last year was hard not have the chance to start the season from
the beginning. So this year is a special feeling, start again,
and the goals are very similar all the time. Just health, most
important thing. Without health, the rest is impossible.
Going to try to be competitive since the beginning. First two
events are very early for me. I did some treatment on the knee
after the end of the season, so I didn't play ‑‑I
didn't have the chance to play tennis for a while. But the good
thing is that treatment is working really well, so I am feeling
better and better every day. So that's most important thing for
me today. So very happy for that.
But is true that talking about how much I had the chance to
practice before Abu Dhabi and before here, I started two weeks
ago, two weeks and a half, and the first week I didn't move
myself, just practicing from the middle. So realistic, I was
playing for one week or something, no?
I gonna try my best. I start today in doubles. It will help me
for a little bit for a little bit more practice and trying to
practice as hard as I can during these days. I hope to be
competitive tomorrow, but if not, I gonna keep practicing hard
because in two weeks that is important for me.
Q. Just on the treatment on the knee, what was it? Was it
similar to the treatment you have had in the past? In the past,
how quickly did you recover after that treatment?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, seriously, I really felt that this one is the
‑‑I don't know how to say in English, so it's
difficult for me to explain, but I feel that this one really
make me feel more comfortable because I don't have pain like I
had, no?
So even if I was able to play very well this year, you know, is
true that I played a lot of days with anti‑inflammatories.
But anyway, I was able to compete very well during the full
season since I started. That was my goal and idea, so very happy
about everything.
But for the normal life, not talking about playing tennis, with
normal life is true that with that last treatment I feel more
comfortable on my knee during the rest of the day. I feel that I
can do much more normal life than what I did last year and a
half, because at the end I was playing tennis, but for the rest,
I just relaxed.
Is true that I played some golf, but not able to play in other
sports, not able to, you know, to enjoy myself practicing the
sports outside of tennis. For me, that's a very important part
of my life, because I love to practice sport. Is true that I am
professional tennis player, but I feel more happy when I am able
to do different things.
Q. This treatment was the same as...
RAFAEL NADAL: No, it was a little bit different. Yes.
Q. Just following up, we all know you love football. The state
of your knee at the moment, can you kick the football?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah. I did in Argentina. Few penalties. I will
not do it. I will not play a football match. I didn't play
football for the last two years and a half. I love to play
football more than nothing else, but today I feel will not be
the right decision to take risks on that, and especially the
better feeling on the knees is from few weeks ago, so, you know,
I am not confident on that yet.
Q. My other question is the ATP are trying to make a longer
offseason, but you don't seem to have had any offseason because
you went to South America and then you went Madrid and Paris
getting awards. How much time did you actually have in Majorca?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yes, in the end, in my opinion, my opinion about
the calendar and the offseason is ‑‑the problem is
not how many weeks you have offseason. The problem is the
mandatory events that you have to play until the last week of
the season. So for me will not be any problem have tournaments
until 24th of December, but you don't have to be forced to play,
no? You can choose.
If you put until 24th of December events, 1000 Masters Cup, so
you are forced to play, because then if you are not playing
these kind of events, you're gonna lose a lot of chances to be
in the top positions of the rankings. So nobody wants to do it.
So my feeling is sometimes for us, even if we don't rest a lot,
is truly probably you understand very well because in our world
we have sponsors, we need to do things for them. At the end, the
sponsors have the confidence on ourself, so we need to have a
good response for them. That's what they did during December,
because during the rest of the season I didn't have a lot of
time to take care of them, no? So I had to work a little bit
more than usual in December.
Talking about exhibitions, for us sometimes is important to
visit places that you cannot visit during the normal tour, no?
And in the end I have the chance to visit places that I feel
close to them, talking the same language, playing in places that
I didn't play them in that places for a long time ago.
I had the chance to visit some of my friends, have some
holidays, too, and then when you're playing exhibitions, you try
your best when you play the match, but for the rest is a little
bit like holiday for me, no? So I enjoyed when I went there with
friends, so I had fun.
Q. How many days at home in Majorca?
RAFAEL NADAL: I cannot say. I was back on 27th, Majorca, and I
spent since 27th of November until 25th of December I have been
there almost every day. Is true I fly to Prague to play the
tournament one day. I fly to L'Equipe to receive the award, half
day. I arrived there in afternoon and then I come back during
the night. Didn't lose practice.
In Madrid I received award when I was coming back from South
America. So even ‑‑I didn't lose time, no? That's
all. The rest I have been in Majorca.
Q. What attitude will you take to your tournament schedule?
Will it be a little less than before? And will you be prepared
to change it if you don't feel quite right, the number of
tournaments you play? Which tournaments will you be prepared to
change that if you don't feel right?
RAFAEL NADAL: Tennis is you have an idea. You have an idea
before the season start, and you prepare because you have to
prepare your calendar. But in tennis is completely different
than in a sport that not change the calendar. Depends if you are
winning or if you are losing, no? The calendar is not about how
many tournaments you play. It's about how many matches you play.
From beginning I am playing here, I am playing in Australia,
and then I have in my calendar Buenos Aires and Rio that I had
great experience playing last year in clay in February, so I
want to be back there. And then my idea is play Indian Wells and
Miami, but you never know.
Q. You'll see how you feel?
RAFAEL NADAL: Exactly. That's my idea. But you never know
what's going on after Australia. You never know what's going on
after Indian Wells. Depends.
Q. Can you talk a little about the coaching arrangement, new
coaching arrangements in tennis? Novak with Becker and of course
Lendl and Murray is old, but Edberg now with Federer. Can you
talk a little about that? You're not having the former players
coaching. Even Chang with Nishikori.
RAFAEL NADAL: At the end, my opinion, tennis is a simple sport.
I said a few days ago in an Abu Dhabi you don't need to study a
lot to teach tennis, my opinion.
But talking about the tour, is true it's much better if you
have big stars, past stars involved in our sport like Lendl,
like Becker, like Edberg, that they will be around the tour much
more often today because of the new status that they have. So
that will be great news for our tour, for our sport.
So happy to hear this news, because in the end, what makes the
sports big is the combination of history and new events. I think
it's great to combine events with a lot of history, so at the
same time it's great to combine the past champions and they have
a lot of influence on the tour today with the new status. I
think it's great for us.
Q. Kind of on the same theme, but can you talk about
‑‑you have always had a consistent relationship
obviously with Uncle Toni, and that your coaching hasn't
changed. How important is that, do you think, to your success?
RAFAEL NADAL: Today I am working with Toni, with Francis, and
for me, it worked well. Everybody has his feelings. Not for
everybody work the same things. I am a person that 95, 99% of
the times feel that if something is going wrong is because of
me, not because of the others.
When something is going well is because I am doing the right
things, too, with the help of the rest. But if never worked well
for me what I have, maybe you can think on change. But if worked
well for you of any time in the past is because the team is the
right team. If now is not working well is because you are not
doing the right things or you are not that good.
But my idea of life and teamwork is, you know, have
continuation on all the work for so many years, and what says
that is I never fire no one people in my team since I started my
career. That's the real thing. No one in my career. That's the
thing.
I changed physio. Today Rafael is with me, but the other one
that I had before he left because he has kids and he prefers to
be at home, not because I fired nobody, no?
That's the real thing, no? I feel comfortable like this. If I
don't change it until the age of 27 1/2, I probably don't gonna
change.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
#Post#: 6434--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: January 1, 2014, 6:55 pm
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An Interview With Rafael Nadal (Doha, December 31, 2013)
Jan 1
R. NADAL/L. Rosol 6‑2, 7‑6
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Well done. How much did it mean to you to get your revenge?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I never take revenges, first thing.
Thinking about revenge is a bad way to start the match, my
opinion. You have to start with the calm and with the mind very
open to analyze what’s going on in the match.
I was a little bit nervous. I didn’t have a great memory of
the last match playing against him. After that match I didn’t
play not one more match in a tennis court for almost eight
months, so it was a bad feeling in that moment.
Today, first match of the season, always a little bit nervous
playing against a player that I lost last time. Not a lot of
practices on my shoulders yet, but I felt that I should win
before.
I had a lot of chances in the beginning of the second. I
finished the first set playing a little bit better, so the
second set I had a lot of mistakes in that important moments,
too, but in my opinion I should go and make the difference on
the score from the beginning.
So then became very close, everything, and I was close to lose
the set.
Q. He hits the ball flat and his style is difficult.
RAFAEL NADAL: Yes, he hit the ball very hard, very flat. But
at the same time, probably for moments I played too short, no?
If I’m able to play longer, to play a little bit higher or
longer, he takes a lot of risk in every shot.
Playing from more difficult positions, in my opinion, he will
not have that success that he had in the second set, no? So my
opinion was more my fault. But he was in the match until then.
Q. You said yesterday that because you had some treatment on
your knee that you had a bit less time to practice during this
last offseason. Will that make it especially difficult for you
going to the Australian Open this year? Because everyone only
has two weeks of competition, anyway, and you’re saying you had
less time to practice this year.
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t think so, no. Always more difficult for
me here. Starting in Australia, I think I will have two more
weeks practicing with the best players. That makes you feel on
rhythm, and I won a match today. That helps. Always a win is
important, but is more important today because I have another
chance tomorrow I play again.
It is beginning of the season, and without having a lot of time
for practice at home, every match that I will be able to play
will be very important practice for me. That will help me to
get the rhythm faster. So the victory means to me today I gonna
try tomorrow again.
Q. Obviously New Year’s Eve. Wondering if you’re the kind of
guy who makes any kind of declarations about next year, what you
like, any kind of resolutions or New Year’s resolutions.
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, at the end it’s another day. It’s true
that ends a very special season for me, and season 2013, this
year, will be in my heart forever.
Just the same, like everybody says, but is difficult to say
another thing, no? Health for everybody. That’s most important
thing. Without health, the rest of the things are impossible.
So for everybody that’s the most important thing. That’s it.
Then, sure, a lot of things to work in this world to make the
world better for everybody. Don’t have this big disadvantage
between someones and other ones. That’s why I have foundation
that I’m working, and hopefully everybody gonna do it more and
more in the next years and will try to help more people and will
be a more fair and equal world.
Q. Is it easier to come back to play in a year following a year
that you have been out for injury or something? Is it lesser
expectations on you in the new season like it was for you last
year and maybe for ‑‑because if you had a bad year,
the next year, if there is less pressure when you come back like
maybe for Federer this year.
RAFAEL NADAL: No, the pressure ‑‑my feeling, you
know, at the moment of our careers or my career, the pressure is
only the pressure that you put on yourself. The rest of the
pressure today doesn’t exist.
I did more than what I ever thought I ever dreamed, so just the
pressure is try to keep having chances to compete well, keep
chances to enjoy to play in the best stadiums, in the best
matches, and be part of these matches. Then hope to be ready
for the next year.
I feel the same pressure today than one year ago. Just makes
the difference that today I already had one year on my shoulder
playing with my knee, and one year ago, one year before, a
little bit less was everything new for me. I didn’t know what’s
going on after the injury.
So hopefully stay healthy and can play again another full
season.
Q. We all know that you are a big fan of football. You
probably know that two of the most prestigious teams of soccer
will be here, some of your friends of the Real, will be playing
against Paris Saint‑Germain. So will you be going?
RAFAEL NADAL: We are playing tomorrow?
Q. After tomorrow.
RAFAEL NADAL: After tomorrow. I don’t know. If I lose
tomorrow, sure (smiling). Hopefully not.
Q. The game is at 6:00 p.m.
RAFAEL NADAL: Is not the best timing for us if I still in the
tournament. If I’m not on the tournament, then I will have the
chance to practice in the morning and visit the friends and
visit the match on the afternoon.
So we’ll see what’s going on. Hopefully I will not have that
chance. I gonna try my best to not have that chance.
Q. I’m just curious, is this kind of a strange week because
you’re playing next year but it’s still this year? Is it
confusing at all?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, no. It’s fine, I think. Good thing is
next year we start later. Last year that will happen this way.
Next year we start the season around 4th, so that’s better for
everybody, my opinion, because it’s good to start the new season
is really the new season, not when you’re in the last season.
So that’s all, no? As I said before, at the end it’s just
another day, but it’s true that tomorrow we will say we are in
2014, and at the end that’s a good thing.
Q. Andy Murray wins his match today with less efforts. Do you
think this is a good thing, positive thing, or negative thing?
RAFAEL NADAL: What?
Q. With less efforts.
RAFAEL NADAL: Okay.
Q. This is positive or negative for a player coming from
injury?
RAFAEL NADAL: Doesn’t matter. Important thing for him, if I
be in his position, positive thing is if he’s able to play with
no pain, he’s able to compete and to have matches in his
shoulders today. And winning, it’s true that the match, his
match of today, I saw a little bit, and was not ‑‑it
was not real match, because at the end he played against a
wildcard, and even if the wildcard tried hard, you know, was a
hard moment for him, I think, for the wildcard.
Important thing for him is he take a feeling on court, on the
competition again, and now tomorrow will have ‑‑he
will have another opportunity to compete better against a very
serious opponent like Mayer. So I think it’s positive for him.
It cannot be negative.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
#Post#: 6484--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: January 2, 2014, 9:23 pm
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HTML http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/01/doha-nadal-d-gulbis/50120/#.UsYsQmeA2po
Rafa vs Gulbis: Doha 2014
The year was new, but the story was old. That’s the quickest way
to describe Rafael Nadal’s 7-5, 6-4 win over Ernests Gulbis
today in Doha. It happened on the second evening of 2014, but it
could have been played in any season going back to 2008, when
these two players first met. For the seventh time in seven
matches, Nadal survived a Gulbissean onslaught of brilliant
shots, bone-headed choices, and ball-abuse warnings. The only
difference is that, for just the second time, Rafa and Ernie got
it all over with in straight sets.
Last March, after beating Gulbis in three in Indian Wells, Nadal
said, “To play against a player like Ernests, the right thing to
do, in my opinion, is play against his backhand and change to
his forehand quick, no?” But that’s not how Nadal, the newly
minted poker pro, went about his business today. For much of the
match, he used the opposite tactic, working Gulbis’s forehand
over before going quickly to the open court on the backhand
side. Nadal also looked to move forward a little more on
important points, eventually winning 11 of 15 up there. This
wasn’t Rafa at his best or most freewheeling, which shouldn't be
unexpected on January 2nd. But from a focus perspective, Nadal
appeared to be in mid-season form already. Down 1-3 in the
second, he held off four game points to break. Two games later,
he put two passing shots on the line that not only broke Ernie’s
serve again, but his mind as well.
As for Gulbis, the match resided, as it always does when he
plays Rafa, on his racquet. He hit 35 winners and made 38
errors, while Nadal hit 16 and 14, respectively. When Gulbis
made a first serve or put a deep return into the court, the
points were typically his. But once again, he didn't have the
psychological stamina to stay with Nadal the whole way. Gulbis
needs a mental break or two over the course of a match, and
unless your name is Novak Djokovic, mental breaks spell doom
against Nadal. A case in point was Gulbis’s service game at 3-1
in the second. He was up 40-15 and had four chances to end it,
but Nadal never caved. The key point of the game, and the set,
came at deuce, when Gulbis drilled a putaway forehand right back
to Nadal and eventually lost the point. Ernie pounded, but he
couldn't pound long enough to make the wall fall down.
Along with his efficient baseline play, Nadal made 81 percent of
his first serves, and he had Gulbis guessing to the end. On
match point, Rafa hit a rare second serve down the T in the ad
court; it fooled Gulbis and Nadal won the point easily. “Go
quick to his forehand”: Rafa, who always seems to hold the right
cards when he needs them, came back to his old strategy just in
time.
#Post#: 6554--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: January 4, 2014, 6:46 pm
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HTML http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/01/doha-nadal-d-monfils/50140/#.UsirEfRDvxY
#Post#: 7565--------------------------------------------------
Re: Great articles about Rafa
By: Clay Death Date: January 18, 2014, 7:19 pm
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HTML http://2014.ausopen.com/en_AU/news/articles/2014-01-18/nadal_monfils.html?promo=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Australian-Open+%28Australian+Open%29
Easy as 1-2-3 for Nadal
Saturday, 18 January, 2014
By Alexandra Willis
Rafa ran him ragged. That's one way of describing Rafael Nadal's
neat 6-1 6-2 6-3 victory over Gael Monfils, an encounter that
had promised to be a Saturday night gourmet but was more fast
food instead, so good was the world No.1.
Monfils had teed up his 12th meeting with the Australian Open
2009 champion by describing it as "very nice" to be facing
Nadal. Not exactly words of intent. The flexible Frenchman has
the weapons and temperament to play the former champion tough,
and he knows it. But, having lost to him two weeks ago in Doha
for the ninth time, he also knows that he lacks the concept of
what to do when to make that happen.
That is not to say that ‘LaMonf’, as his fan club fondly call
him, played badly or with any lack of effort. He catapulted
himself after balls as best he could, and even sent down a
214km/h second serve ace to show that he was not to be trifled
with.
But Nadal was simply better. While Monfils ran, he ran faster.
While Monfils hit, he hit harder. While Monfils roared, he
roared loader.
"Tonight I think I played a great match," Nadal said. "Very
happy the way that I played against a very tough opponent like
Gael. So that makes the level that I played tonight better,
because was against tough opponent."
Skipping his way into the fourth round in two hours and four
minutes, it was not a wealth of winners that was impressive,
just six, five and 10 set-by-set. It was Nadal's relentless
consistency everywhere else. Making 90 per cent of returns in
set one, and keeping his first serve figures above 65, he
executed as if every point were a match point, no quarter given,
no easy route taken.
Back- to-back breaks to start things off were the product of
Monfils' forehand flying long, followed by a backhand at 5-1 in
Nadal's favour. Two breaks came in set No.2 at 3-2 and 5-2, an
unforced forehand error and a double fault from the former world
No.7 deciding both. And in the third, another forehand error,
this time at 4-3.
The Frenchman had six break points, six chances to take the
match to Nadal, and on every one, he was left unsatisfied.
His 57 unforced errors didn't help either.
The third set presented the potential to turn things around,
Monfils earning two break points at 3-3, the crowd urging him on
with allez's and come on's. But Nadal snuffed them out.
"I just keep fighting, that's tennis, that's always tough. My
spirit was to keep trying," Monfils said about that third set.
"Definitely today he was in great shape, much better than Doha
for sure. Been a while since I play Rafa like that."
Ominous for his opponents, the next of whom is Kei Nishikori,
the 16th seed. Nadal has dropped just one set to Nishikori in
five meetings, and on Saturday night's showing, looks highly
unlikely to add to that number.
"Kei is a great player, he is able to play very aggressive, make
very easy the very difficult things,” Nadal said.
“He is very quick on the movements and will be a very tough
opponent for me. He is playing great, it will be a tough one. I
need to play the way that I played tonight."
In fact, Nadal was unusually complimentary about his level.
"Well, today I think I have to say that I played well from
everywhere," Nadal said. "I think I played very well with my
forehand. Very good control of the ball. Good winners. Movements
were great tonight.
"Backhand very good, I think. If we can add to that, I didn't
lose serve during the whole match. That's another good thing.
But, true to form, he remains circumspect about what comes next.
"Just one very good day," Nadal said. "That makes me feel
confident, but I am in fourth round. That's all.
"At the end, no one is unstoppable."
Monfils and his other conquered opponents might beg to differ.
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