Nadal playing Acapulco

Presumably he's playing to try and hang on to #1, seems a little desperate as he's supposed to be injured.

I made a point on a BBC HYS that he wasn't really injured against Cilic, just pulled out because he knew he would lose. I also don't believe that he was injured v Stan in the 2014 AO final as he did what he's doing now, ie. playing a clay tournament so soon afterwards which he incidentally won inn 2014.

After Nadal went for a scan the day after the match, his injury was reported as a muscle tear in the upper leg that would take an estimated 3 weeks for a full recovery.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42799830

It's all part of his "I never lose unless injured" image.

Playing his 8th consecutive tournament after whining about the schedule, how graceless.

Always ready for clay season, whatever has gone before !

In fairness we have to take the scan reports, as revealed in the media, at face value and see how things hold up.

I do much prefer to have all the top guys playing than not. Better for the sport overall.

History tells us Nadal tends to push his body into destruction before giving up.  I think most competitors would not mentally accept they were beaten by the better player, they would look inward and imagine how they would and could have beaten the opponent - including not having various physical niggles and pain that might have been affecting them.  Except for Nadal he does tend to push his body too much and into the red.  He probably is expecting and demanding too much from his own body.

His reported criticism of the hard courts however I don't accept - that to me seems like a form of self-delusion / avoidance.

No name Bertie wrote:After Nadal went for a scan the day after the match, his injury was reported as a muscle tear in the upper leg that would take an estimated 3 weeks for a full recovery.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42799830

"Three weeks doctor?" "Oh that's good!" "I can now say my injury WAS legitimate AND play a clay court tournament so soon to protect my ranking!"

Sorry my mistake, Acapulco has now gone Hard but the point remains his injuries clear up very quickly when they need to.

Nadal’s comments about hard courts - and the ‘demands’ of the ATP Calendar as a whole - are entirely unwarranted.

In January he played the AO - no surprise there ...... any player would wish to contest the Slams if at all possible. So that pretty much took us till the end of the month.

February is actually a very full month if you look at the calendar. BUT ..... here’s the thing : he is not obliged (unless I’m totally mistaken ??) to play ANY of the events in Feb. There is nothing at Masters level.

March then has the first of the year’s Masters : Indian Wells and Miami
He would want to play these. There is nothing else at all during the month.

So ... in short ...... Q1 of the calendar could involve no more than one Slam and two Masters - IF he chooses. The rest of those three months he can spend in whatever resting, training & practise is necessary to keep in shape and match-fit. It’s hardly a brutal schedule.

Rafa was talking in the immediate aftermath of the Cilic match, sure, and there was some emotion involved. But even so, I’d like to think that on calmer reflection he will realise that this (ie his body breaking down constantly in the heat of competition) is all down to him, his choices and his playing style - and NOT the ATP calendar or surface types.

We're being a little bit harsh on Nadal. In his defence, at least it wasn't as bad as Nalbandian complaining about the physical demands of the tour after kicking out and causing an injury to an umpire. That was a hard to watch interview. I had to cover my eyes. Does anyone remember that?

Perhaps we can use this as the race to number 1 thread, add the permutations later, and so on.

Re Number One ‘race’ .......... is this really still a goal for Federer ??? Personally. I’m not at all convinced.

I’d say that (these days) he sees his health, fitness and longevity as far more important ......

lags72 wrote:Re Number One ‘race’ .......... is this really still a goal for Federer ??? Personally. I’m not at all convinced.

I’d say that (these days) he sees his health, fitness and longevity as far more important ......

I think we'll be able to tell if he skips Dubai (Fed is not currently listed on the ATP site as playing it). Having said that, I thought Federer said (last year) that he wasn't actively chasing the #1 ranking, but if it came about because of his performances then he' be happy. Of course, he'd already be #1 if he'd won the WTFs.


As for the race - current gap is 155 points
Nadal is defending 300 from Acapulco, Federer 45 from Dubai.
So to stay #1, if Fed doesn't play Dubai or does no more than defend his points, Rafa needs to reach the Acapulco SF.
If Fed plays Dubai and reaches Q or SF, Rafa needs to at least reach the final.
If Federer reaches the Dubai final, Rafa would have to win Acapulco
If Federer wins Dubai, it doesn't matter what Rafa does

Don't see the fuss about this. The estimate for full recovery was 3 weeks from January 24th and Acapulco doesn't start until February 26th. So even if he plays on day 1 in Acapulco that will be nearly 5 weeks. He played Acapulco last year and was already scheduled to so is not adding a tournament to his schedule in an attempt to stay at number 1.

The only issue for me would be another hard court tournament when he says there are too many. Then again he could have gone to Brazil and played on clay either weeks beginning February 19th (500 point tournament) or 26th (250 pointer) and picked up points if staying number 1 is that important to him but that would not be good preparation for the next two hard court Masters.

Muscle tears in practice take a great deal longer than 3 weeks to fully recover from. Having torn a leg muscle recently playing sports it took about three times longer than this to properly heal and it was only a moderate tear in the calf muscle. 3 weeks is the prognosis for a very minor tear I would say. In fact the very smallest amount of time possible for muscles to fully heal.

Can't help think he made it up to excuse himself for inevitable defeat yet has the benefit of coming back so soon to defend his ranking.

lags72 wrote:Re Number One ‘race’ .......... is this really still a goal for Federer ??? Personally. I’m not at all convinced.

I’d say that (these days) he sees his health, fitness and longevity as far more important ......

I agreed with this sentiment last year - there was no sense killing himself trying - likely in vain - to reach #1.  But I disagree now.  While I still think his primary goal should be to try to do well in the slams - those will define his career, nothing else is even remotely comparable - the No 1 ranking is now so close that I think he should make a push for it - especially since it does not require overloading his schedule.

If Fed plays and wins Dubai, he is No 1.  I think he should give it a go.  He can always skip one (or even both) of IW/Miami and I imagine he is likely to skip clay again.  So he will be able to get plenty of rest after Dubai and before grass.

And being the oldest ever #1 would be cool enough that it is worth a try.

I think he should indeed give it a go.

By the way, 14 years since the no 1 was not one of the big 4. Andy Roddick February 1st, 2004.

Federer also perhaps deserves one more year end no 1 than he has. He has 5, so Nadal on Djokovic, on 4 could tie him for year end with one more even while being well behind on weeks. However he just missed out in 2012 and 2017 and hasn't managed it since 2009.

So Nadal cannot take back the no 1 at Acapulco. He absolutely can over the IW-Miami swing, Federer has two titles to defend.

Yeah and keeping the 300 points or maybe adding to them this week could be critical

The latest news I have heard is that Rafael Nadal is in Mexico and will be playing Acapulco.  He is over his injury and has been working on trying to get back to a match fitness.  He will be playing Feliciano Lopez in the first round.  Also back is AO 2018 semi-finalist Hyeon Chung and Keo Nishikori.  Young guns Shapovalov and Andrey Rublev are also playing.

http://www.protennislive.com/posting/2018/807/mds.pdf
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/nadal-zverev-acapulco-2018-draw-preview

No name Bertie wrote:The latest news I have heard is that Rafael Nadal is in Mexico and will be playing Acapulco.  He is over his injury and has been working on trying to get back to a match fitness.  He will be playing Feliciano Lopez in the first round.  Also back is AO 2018 semi-finalist Hyeon Chung and Keo Nishikori.  Young guns Shapovalov and Andrey Rublev are also playing.

http://www.protennislive.com/posting/2018/807/mds.pdf
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/nadal-zverev-acapulco-2018-draw-preview

Rublev lost to Ferrer.

OK, so Nadal has pulled out.

https://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking has Federer at 10060 vs Nadal at 9460.

But Federer is dropping 1000 at IW, so 9060.
Nadal is dropping only 90 so, 9370.

Nadal is ahead by 310.

W-1000
F-600
SF-360
QF-180
R16-90
R32-45

So if Federer wins the tournament he definately stays as no 1.
If Rafa loses in the SF, Fed must win the tournament.
If Rafa loses in the QF or R16, Fed must get to the F.
If Rafa loses in R32, the first round, or does not play IW, Fed must get to the SF.

There's a fair possibility that the no 1 could change hands a few times this season:

IW/Miami - Rafa will likely get it back if he is able to play both tournaments
Clay season - Roger has a chance to get it back as he didn't play last year
Wimbledon - Rafa ought to have a chance to get it back as Fed has to defend the full points

On the other hand, if Federer doesn't play the clay season again, he may just start to fall behind and never see it again

On the other hand, if Rafa is not fit and has to take a prolonged absence and Roger can defend one of IW/Miami, he could even end up keeping it a while

So this is a last minute withdrawal by Rafael Nadal: according to Rafael Nadal everything was going fine but in his last training session before his actual first round match with Lopez he felt a sharp pain in his leg in the same place that caused him to withdraw from the Australian Open during his QF match with Cilic.   He says that it has been scanned and there seems to be a bursa - a small pocket of fluid - that has appeared in his muscle, and this is causing the sharp pain. Further investigations are to follow to see if the medics can identify why this is happening.  Everything else seems fine - he is currently fit and raring to go, but for this issue, which is acting as a set-back.  At least this is how I interpret and understand the matter given the information available.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/nadal-withdraws-acapulco-2018