The Nadal Curse

Play the match of your life and beat Nadal at your peril

Soderling - Gone

Rosol - Never reached those lofty heights again

Darcis - Where is he?

Davydenko - Holder of that positive H2H but now in a relentless spiral down the rankings

Zebellos - gone and forgotten

Wawrinka - Pulled of Marseille, pulled out of Rotterdam - ?

Spooky!  

Wasn't Rosol outside the top 100 when he beat Nadal? And didn't he use that momentum to get in (or around) the top 30 for a spell? I'm also pretty sure his ranking is still pretty good. Top 50 or so. So I don't think you could call it a curse. He's gone mostly upwards since!

Darcis, no idea to be honest.

Davydenko, can't really call that spooky. He's just older and past his best. Nothing spooky about aging.

Stan, can't really claim a curse just yet. He only beat Nadal 5 minutes ago!

Any in any case, wasn't Rafa injured in all those matches? He must have been. Surely therefore they don't count.   

 

I shouldn't bite but I can't help it!

1) Rosol - Went onto reach his highest ever ranking of 33 the following year and won his first ever ATP title, beating some good players like Simon, & and also won a doubles title. No curse at all.

2) Darcis - A set up on Muller as we speak . Suffered from injury, big shame for the guy! Won 3 points in Belgium's decisive world group play off against Israel last year to keep them in the world group.

3) Soderling - Craziest of the lot this one. This victory galvanised him to reach his first ever GS final & repeated the feat a year later beating the then world no1 both times int he respective tournaments. Reached the qf's of the US, Wimby and 4th round of Aus for the first time after this win. Won his first masters title in Paris, qualified twice for the WTF's reaching the semi's at his first attempt.
Won numerous other titles as well as 2 500 events and reached a career high of no4 in the world.   

4) Davy - Drew level with nadal on the head to head in 2009, one of his best ever years winning the shanghai masters and a feat nadal is yet to achieve, the WTF's.
Had a wrist injury in 2010 after outplaying feds but then choking away his lead in aus '10 and hasn't been the same since. As Danny says partly down to age. Natural really.

5) Do your thanngg picard!   

Darcis was ranked 44 in 2008 and was on a downward slope well before beating Rafa.

I'm starting to wonder if hawkeye actually follows tennis to any great degree.

I wouldn't say Wawrinka played the match of his life or Davy for that moment.

For the first set and a half I think he did and he said as much.

Poor Rafa & Roger - If they knew hawkeye was writing some of these articles I think they would cringe with embarrassment!

Isn't the argument that you are not as good as the match of your life rather self-defeating?

If you had gone on to be better, it wouldn't be the match of your life.

Wise words Murdoch

Can't say Wawrinka played remarkably... I would say he showed remarkable confidence closing the show against a guy he'd never ever taken a set off - but I think it takes two tango, and you probably havent played the match of your life if you lose a set to a guy serving 140s... first serve.

As an aside Abe Segal, a former Saffer Doubles finalist really laid into Nadal in his weekend column and essentially accused him of throwing the second set to lure Wawrinka into a false sense of security, as evidenced by Nadal winning the third set - it's a fantastic piece

Did Abe Segal have a hissy fit?

it's starts off alright - Congratulating Stan, applauding his serve and volleying (never watched the matched so I don't know if this is indeed how he won), then slowly starts criticizing Nadals history of MTO's, and questions why he was allowed to run off for no reason. Funny enough, Segal doesn't applaud Nadal for continuing with an injury, but rather scolds him for not quitting "if he was really injured", and that Nadals half paced serves and gingerly steps on his way to getting thrashed in the second set were fooling no one, as evidenced by his right-as-rain third set. Finally it reaches a glorious crescendo were he lists and details five of Nadals more questionable MTOs.

It's safe to Abe does not like Nadal... but then again, he hates everyone who doesn't serve and volley... Or have a Singe backhand, or have a Suisse nationality.

@HE… why not include Mayer, Melzer, GGL, Djokovic, Federer, Dodig, Murray, Ferrero,... in your list?

There is no appreciation for a slam champion.

BTW, Wawrinka is no Sidney Wood.

The Nadal Curse closed down that other site in which the Federalists and Anti-Nadalites clung.

hawkeye wrote:Play the match of your life and beat Nadal at your peril

Soderling - Gone

Rosol - Never reached those lofty heights again

Darcis - Where is he?

Davydenko - Holder of that positive H2H but now in a relentless spiral down the rankings

Wawrinka - Pulled of Marseille, pulled out of Rotterdam - ?

Spooky!  

Why did you forget the great Horacio Zebellos win on Rafa Vina Del Mar?   

kingraf wrote:Can't say Wawrinka played remarkably... I would say he showed remarkable confidence closing the show against a guy he'd never ever taken a set off - but I think  it takes two tango, and you probably havent played the match of your life if you lose a set to a guy serving 140s... first serve.

As an aside Abe Segal, a former Saffer Doubles finalist really laid into Nadal in his weekend column and essentially accused him of throwing the second set to lure Wawrinka into a false sense of security, as evidenced by Nadal winning the third set - it's a fantastic piece

Don't suppose you have a link?

I'll have a look - not sure as it was in the paper, not an online read -but I'll look for it.

kingraf wrote: ... As an aside Abe Segal, a former Saffer Doubles finalist really laid into Nadal in his weekend column and essentially accused him of throwing the second set to lure Wawrinka into a false sense of security, as evidenced by Nadal winning the third set ...

That Nadal is a crafty one - he is a bit like me - they call me the wily one, the professor of on court psychology.  Why only the other day I lost the first two sets 6-0 6-0 and while I had my opponent lulled into a false sense of security I proceeded to lose the next set 6-0.  O' how I laughed as my puzzled opponent came over to shake my hand.  I couldn't say anything as I was just convulsed with laughter in having my opponent take the bait so unknowingly.

invisiblecoolers. How could I forget Horacio Zebellos?

Zebellos - gone and forgotten  

 

On the contrary, his victory over Rafa, and the increase in ranking allowed Zeballos to leave the challenger circuit and get onto the main tour on a regular basis, including 4 Masters events and all four slams (for the first time in his career). 2013 was also the most successful year of his career in terms of prize money.

Maybe Zeballos curse works in reverse. He is an Argentine and Rafael has just announced he is pulling out of the upcoming clay court tournament in Argentina,

Buenos Aires is the second tournament (after AO13) that Nadal has had to pull out of because he's suffering from a pooey bum.

Now that's what I call a curse.