Interesting idea……….

Give it another year and that might change to "He should tailor his season around being physically optimal to compete for RG."

Lol are you guys in a collective bleeding out of your pussies phase now?

Just calling out your unbelievable hypocrisy.

That's a bit premature. While it is going to only get tougher for Nadal as he gets older, and with a resurgent Djokovic, 2018 has been a successful year for him. FO win, Wimbledon Semis (and if not for Djoker, he would have won), US Open Semis, 3 Masters 1000 titles.

So i don't think he will drop off that quickly, although time will tell.

I do think it makes sense though for guys nearing their mid-30s to tailor around slams. Fed should focus on Wimbledon and AO. Nadal, French.

The scary thing is Djokovic. He is strong on all surfaces, and so I really do think in the next 2-3yrs he could reach 20 slams.

The only thing stopping him is if the young guys can finally rise up and start producing. I do think guys like Shapo, Tiafoe, De Minaur, Khachanov and Tsitsipas actually have the ability/confidence to beat the big players, unlike Thiem/Zverev/Dimitrov, who fold under pressure

This.

On a serious note I'm glad they're all still playing. A reduced schedule to peak for their best tournaments and prolong their career is better than having to call it quits.

Right now, I'm most optimistic about Khachanov based on the slugfest he played against nadal at the USO. We'll see, though.

What hypocrisy?

Are you comparing a healthy Federer completely skipping the clay swing to an injured and injury prone Nadal skipping a tournament or two to be optimal for the biggest titles?

Lmao fuk outta here.

You seem to keep forgetting the guy is 37. It doesn't take much to exacerbate injuries and break down at that point, and the end can come quickly. Agassi reached the US Open final at 35 and probably would have won against anyone not named Federer. Exactly one year later he was bowing to the crowd in his final match after losing to a journeyman in the 3rd round.

Federer might not be using injuries as an excuse but that doesn't mean he's not feeling the effects of age and being extra cautious. You make it sound like playing a full schedule at 37 is normal. Of course he could easily cite injuries as an excuse. How would you even know if some of Nadal's injuries are bogus? Are you his doctor? Are you privy to medical reports? Are you part of his coaching team? Just because he says he's injured he could be doing exactly the same thing Federer is doing.

Maybe Federer should start retiring from matches and telling everyone he's injured so he looks more like a "warrior" when he returns and drops only one match in 3 months.

Fuk outta here with this injury excuse nonsense.
They all deal with injuries. Nadal is the only one who has to make sure everyone knows about it. He’s a bit like Serena in that regard. He has to try and taint others wins over him.

Brb healthy during the grueling clay season but "injured" everywhere else just in case.

Because a healthy Nadal is unbeatable. He knows how important that is to his fan base.

Q. That you actually did something inside the knee that hurt it, not just tendinitis?
RAFAEL NADAL: I know what I have. Similar thing than always. Just about do treatment. Is not an injury that tells you three weeks off and you are back. Is not an injury that tells you six months off, you are back. Is maybe an injury that in one week you feel better, is an injury that maybe in six months you don't feel better.

I know what is going on with the knee. But the good thing is I know how I have to work to be better as soon as possible because we have a lot of experience on that.

I am sure will not be the six months off. I was just making a comparation [sic]. Is not an injury like when you break something, something like this. It is an injury that is a tendinitis. Then is a decision about yourself, about if you want to wait till you feel almost nothing or you want to keep going with pain, so…

Right after the match he's telling the press he knows what it is. No scans done but he knows. Seems to be a chronic issue that only shows up when he's losing on hard courts and not clay. And everything hurts more when you're losing.

This year Nadal won 31 out of 32 matches after returning from injury. 31-1. Think about that.

And if he'd converted that BP against Djokovic you know he pummels Anderson in the Wimbledon final. Throw in the Toronto win and his run to the US Open SF and that's 43-1 going into the Delpo match.

43-1 43-1

That's what Novak's 2011 win-loss looked like after the French.

His injury after the Cilic retirement was so bad he couldn't compete in IW/Miami but it just happened to magically clear up a few weeks later for the first week of clay and he was back sprinting around the court and steamrolling everyone in sight.

Lol wow we full cult now.

So, Nadal fakes injuries now?

SeinfieldI’mout.gif

42-2 42-2 from April-September and so close to 43-1. Athletes with a serious injury do not rack up wins like that.

I know you love the guy but you've got to be pretty gullible to believe this stuff.

Nadal's 2013 season from February-July: 43-3 (took 7 months off)

Nadal's 2018 season from April-September: 42-2 (didn't finish a tournament for 5 months and took 2 full months off)

Almost identical results.

I think you've got to belong to a cult to believe this stuff.

Lol…. Nadal plays 5 or 6 straight weeks during clay season without a problem… and suddenly he can’t get through a slam off of clay without his knee hurting? Yeah… not suspicious at all….

Yet the Rafa cult slams Fed for skipping clay so he can play well on grass…. ok.

These are the people who claimed that Nadal faked injury and retired vs Wawrinka to avoid getting humiliated in the AO final, fcking lol.

Also Nadal ducked Federer consistently in his prime to massage a positive H2H.

Is the most physically demanding tennis surface clay? Yes.

Does Nadal win or goes deep in almost every single clay tournament including RG? Yes.

Does Nadal suffer from chronic patellar/ knee tendinitis? Yes.

Will patellar tendinitis worsen following 6 weeks of tennis on the most physically demanding surface and begin to flare to the point of no longer being able to play following said 6 weeks of gruesome physical demands? Yes

2 + 2 = derp. Said the Fed cult.

On one hand you have people in this very thread acknowledging that Nadal picks up most of his points during the clay swing, but can’t fathom that the guy busts his ass to do so with a chronic inflammatory condition which wrecks havoc on his season after such feats.

Fuking lol.

And clay is proven to be much less damaging on his knees than HC and grass when the pounding and constant bending will fuk anyone with Nadal’s condition.

It’s a sad fuking day when people who follow tennis come up with conspiracies about one of the top 2 GOATs to Grace the sport having to fake injuries to maintain a positive H2H with his rivals or whatever the latest CT is.

Sad day.

He didn't need to. Federer gift wrapped a lopsided H2H for him by showing up 15 times on clay.

That would be like Nadal showing up 15 times indoors and on grass so Federer could thrash him. Oh wait, that never happened. You know this man was having none of it.



Nadal still only has 3 career wins over Federer after RG. That tells you all you need to know about why the H2H is the way it is.

Time for a history lesson mate. Nadal didn't retire in that match because he was still holding out hope Wawrinka would choke it away and for a couple of sets it looked like that might happen.

I don't think you can really grasp the significance of the occasion. Nadal had never dropped a set to Wawrinka let alone lost a match. 12-0. No one but Stan's mother would have given him any chance out there in his first slam final as Rafa's #1 pigeon and Pete Sampras was there to watch Nadal tie him with 14.

Nadal moved just fine in the first set on the way to losing it and then went down a break in the second. He left the court for treatment on an unspecified injury and Stan was furious demanding umpire Ramos tell him why Nadal left the court. Stan then proceeded to mock Nadal's routine of sprinting out to the back of the court and stretching. The crowd then booed Nadal when he returned which I have never seen before so they obviously knew something was up.



So why would Nadal make it up? Here's my take. I absolutely believe there was something wrong with his back — lower back spasms from a massive adrenaline rush. If you've never experienced the feeling of shock before then you won't know what I'm talking about. He had never lost in a final to someone not named Federer or Djokovic and this was beyond humiliating for him.

Now if the injury was serious and I'm just a conspiracy nutter answer this question for me: why was he back on clay only 3 weeks later playing and winning an ATP 500 in Brazil? Now if the injury was serious and I'm just a conspiracy nutter answer this question for me: why was he back on clay only 3 weeks later playing and winning an ATP 500 in Brazil?

Citing injury put an asterisk next to Stan's win and also served to stop anyone else on the fringes from believing they could do the same to him. Of course it didn't work. Cilic even said what inspired him to win the US Open later that year was seeing Stan beat Nadal. An "if he can do it why not me?" attitude.

Why does his condition only flare up off clay and when he's losing? If he can play nearly every week for 3 months and not have a problem why does it show up a couple of weeks into a HC season?

Nadal fans conveniently excuse Nadal not facing prime Federer more than a handful of times after RG saying he wasn't good enough on those surfaces yet but it's far more likely he avoided him on Toni's orders.

I mean why show up indoors for beatings like this when he could stay #2 and line him up for 4-5 wins on his favorite surface next season?









Federer took his beatings on clay many times. 13 times if we're keeping score. Far more than he should because he stubbornly believed he'd eventually figure him out and get more chances to even things up later in the year. Only problem is those opportunities after the French were far and few between. Excluding their 3 Wimbledon meetings want to guess how many times they played from 2004-2012?

4 times (0-4) 4 times (0-4)

That is almost criminal. #2 player in the world and he only faced him 4x in 8 years after Wimbledon.

Now his fan base who are either clueless or have short memories want to take cheap shots at him ducking Rafa on clay in his twilight years. Hilarious.

Yeah… he really needs those 250 points from Barcelona. Why kill himself to play 5 weeks straight? He’s not 22 anymore.

You clowns can say what you want but he’ll have to start managing his schedule like Fed does if he wants to prolong his career. Skipping China is just the start.

The problem with that theory that the H2H would be better if Federer had played Nadal more on HC and grass is incorrect.

Federer is 2-1 vs Nadal on grass and 11-9 on HC. Take out last year and Nadal lead their H2H on HC's 9-7 lol.

Beat Federer on his favorite HC surface @ Cincy in 2013 and also indoors at the WTF.

How is it "incorrect?" Nadal has one win over Federer on grass and it took 5 hours. His only win indoors was in 2013 — Rafa's best HC year and Federer's worst. Ditto for Cincy.

Cherry pick away but it's 5-1 Federer indoors and 2-1 on grass. 7-2 . Those numbers suggest Nadal would receive a similar number of beatings if they played 15x there like they did on clay.

It's sad that some Nadal fans can't give Federer his due. Have carried on for years about the H2H basically calling Federer his pigeon ignoring the fact most of their rivalry took place on Nadal's terms. Nadal has only beaten him 3 times after RG. If he owns him then he'd have a lot more than 3 wins in the second half of the year.

"Take out last year" "Take out last year" That's f'ing hilarious. Nadal was the No. 1 player and lost fair and square 0-4. While you're at it feel free to take out Federer's 2013. That's 3 HC losses when every man and his dog was flogging him. What would it be then… 11-6?

Do you count Nadal losses in 2015-2016? You know when Novak went on a 7-0 tear without dropping a set? I'll bet you've got an excuse for that.

"Nadal was on a 16 match winning streak…"

What happened here? Just take it out? FFS this place is a clown show.

Why because it's no longer a Federer circle jerk?

I like how you always mention Federer's indoor HC record vs Nadal, but not outdoor. Not all matches after the French Open would have been indoors and Nadal is positive vs Federer on outdoor HC's.

You forget to mention that the 3 Wimbledon finals were close except the first one. Nadal had early chances in the 5th during their second meeting but couldn't capitalize. Just lol if you think if they met 15 times on grass Nadal wouldn't do better than 2-13.

Federer is clearly beatable on grass. Djokovic beat him in two finals and Nadal in one. He also lost to mugs like Tsonga, Berdych (fcking lol), Raonic, and Anderson.

Cincy and Shanghai are outdoor HC. May as well be indoors because outside 2013 Nadal isn't troubling him there. 2017 was Nadal's chance to pull ahead and he lost all 4.

I find it amusing you conveniently leave out Halle which he won 9 times and conditions are even faster there. Nadal couldn't even beat the mighty Dustin 0-2 Brown.

If they played both Halle and Wimbledon since 2006 excluding the years Nadal skipped grass that's 22 potential meetings. I don't think he'd beat Federer at Halle without the luxury of 5 sets and worn out courts but we'll give him 1. That leaves Wimbledon. Please list the years you believe Nadal would have beaten Federer.

" Please list the years you believe Nadal would have beaten Federer. "



Newsflash: everyone is beatable. What next "lmaolololol Djoker lost to Istomin at the AO"? I'm sure if Nadal didn't withdraw from RG in 2016 some "mug" would have beaten him.

Berdych in 2010 played at a much higher level than anyone hanging around the Top 10 today. Tsonga is such a mug he humiliated Nadal in one of his best seasons. You're pretty green when it comes to tennis history.



There's no shame in losing to Novak in his prime. Not sure why you even wasted your time typing that. Look at his record against Nadal since 2011. Racked up a couple of 7-0 streaks. Interesting how he never did that to Federer.

Nadal would have had the best season of his career in 2011 without Djokovic. Federer beat him at the French and had match points at the US Open. Nadal lost all 6 finals to him. So against peak Novak in 2011 Federer nearly took two slams off him while Nadal was 0-6 roadkill. Think about that.

Lastly Federer never got kicked out of the French 4x in a row to players outside the Top 100 like Nadal at Wimbledon.

2012 Bent over and Rosol'd in five (100)
2013 Steve Darcis (135) and in straight sets
2014 19yo Kyrgios (144)
2015 Qualifier Dustin Brown (102)