Losing on Purpose , Nadal cultivating the Habit?

Nadal went down to Lopez on Queen's to raise a false alarm that he is not ready for Wimbledon but just when the GS kickstarted Nadal showed enormous guts ,stamina and fighting display to win two 5 setters en-route to the title.

Now again he lost to Tsonga, against whom he just lost 1 match in 6 previous meeting [every body knows when tat elusive win came], is Nadal now making an habit to lose on Queen's purposefully so that he would have ample rest before Wimbledon as well he made sure contractual obligations are fulfilled with his appearance in the tournament?

I neither watched the Lopez match nor Tsonga match, but something seems fishy that Nadal didn't give his 100% in either of the match, Is this becoming a habit coz of excess dose of Tennis?

Queen's looks meaningless Tournament inspite of so many high profile players taking part in it.

Did Tsonga played great or is this clearly a false alert from Nadal?

I don't know if its is a false alert these two guys lopez and Tsonga are dangerous players on grass because they have big serves and are comfortable at net. I don't know if he would purposely tank in order to play psychological games on his opposition. I think that it would be fair to say that Nadal would exert much more tenacity and fight in a grandslam to stay in the tournament than he would at a 250 event right before wimbeldon. I just think all the top guys are similar, they will fight their guts out for the grandslam events and be a little bit more careful in pushing themselves too hard in lower level events, especially one right before a grand slam. I don't think he tanked on purpose but I don't think that he would exert the same kind of fight if he fell behind in 250 event to a player with a hot hand that he would in a grandslam. But I think the same could be said of all the top guys.

.Nadal went down to Lopez on Queen's to raise a false alarm that he is not ready for Wimbledon but just when the GS kickstarted Nadal showed enormous guts ,stamina and fighting display to win two 5 setters en-route to the title.
------------------------
Tsonga couldl always beat Nadal, on form or not. Lopez we know he can't. So it is a different matter.

And Petchner could have beaten Nadal in a best of 3 match too last year.

But surely after te second set Nadal did not try too hard and was just happy to have his break.

But Nadal says it himself, he struggles most when grass is fresh and aplenty. If he gets past the first week,he stands a much better chance.

Tsonga's serve was brutal in the bits that I watched. 140mph and I think the stat was that he was winning 93% of points when the first serve went in. He was also getting aces off the second serve. Besides that he didn't appear to be playing brilliantly, but I think the serve wore Rafa down. If he keeps serving like that he could trouble anyone.

I agree on that Droogle, I have always wondered with his huge serve and good volleys why Tsonga never made a deep run at wimbeldon, any of the top guys could fall victim to a big server who gets hot at wimbeldon. That is my big fear for Novak as Nole fan i am quite worried that he withdrew and did not give himself the chance of a grass court warmup. All of sudden he could get a hot server in the first or second round on his day and be out of the tourney.

i watched tht nadal-tsonga match
in first set,,tsonga has lot of aces,,but lost in tiebreak,,

2nd set,,i think tsonga serves were still good,,but nadal started to read the pattern of tsongas serves,,but after returning the serve,,hes not into the rally match,,kind of just letting the angle balls passed him.

nadal not playing much,,not chasing balls much,,but the weird thing was,,how could tsonga lost that first set,,,he should win by straight coz i think nadal seem not really want to play tht match ..probably just lika a practice match

invisiblecoolers wrote:Nadal went down to Lopez on Queen's to raise a false alarm that he is not ready for Wimbledon but just when the GS kickstarted Nadal showed enormous guts ,stamina and fighting display to win two 5 setters en-route to the title.

Now again he lost to Tsonga, against whom he just lost 1 match in 6 previous meeting [every body knows when tat elusive win came], is Nadal now making an habit to lose on Queen's purposefully so that he would have ample rest before Wimbledon as well he made sure contractual obligations are fulfilled with his appearance in the tournament?

I neither watched the Lopez match nor Tsonga match, but something seems fishy that Nadal didn't give his 100% in either of the match, Is this becoming a habit coz of excess dose of Tennis?

Queen's looks meaningless Tournament inspite of so many high profile players taking part in it.

Did Tsonga played great or is this clearly a false alert from Nadal?

Good point however I don't think anyone is too worried, with Rafa acclimatising to the grass conditions whilst trying to recuperate from the FO. For those attending Queens I don't think they would say it was meaningless. And it is a good means for players, like Nadal, to make the clay - grass transition in friendly surroundings (and recognising the fact that a few might be tired from the French Open).

He sort of pulled out of the doubles too so it's clear he did not wanted to stay for the weekend.
I watched the match too and found that he saw this match as a test for Wimbledon. After the first set he knew enough.

Its more than clear than Queens and Halle are treated just as appearance stage tournament coz of lack of interest by top players, its time ATP award one of them as masters and extend the gap slightly between French and WImbledon, but then again it raises the old debate of Grass court masters [& two tournaments of equal value cannot be given masters reputation at the same time]and the time gap btw the two GS.

The ATP have no desire or interest in creating a grass Masters...why should they? Their emphasis in the last 20-30 years has been in building up the clay and hard-court seasons to the extent that the short grass season is now regarded as an anomaly.

In any case, there is no current venue remotely capable of meeting the standards/criteria which the ATP lay down in order to be considered for Masters status. Halle can only cater for 28 entrants, and Queens is a quaint anachronism which doesn't even have a stadium (the most basic requirement).

Talk of a grass Masters is futile, since it would require a multi-court complex to be built on a new site, and at enormous cost. I can't ever see this happening.

Michael there would be enough money in it, And I think the tour would be better off for it. But I think the biggest obstacle would not be the stadium but the time taken away from the US hardcourt season.

Why couldn't the LTA convert one of the numerous newly
built Olympic sites into a multi=grass arena after
the event ?

They have enough money for heavens sake.

Rafa seemed very disinterested in the match. 6-1 in the third set clearly states that. Good for him to get some rest.

Despite all the negative press on Fed and Nole withdrawing from Halle and Queens respectively, it just shows that the current tennis calendar is very flawed. Players made it worse for themselves by asking for two additional week's break in Nov-Dec.

The calendar needs to be cut short. Re Grass masters, clay has three masters (MC, Madrid, Rome), one of which can be dropped and RG moved, to provide sufficient gap between grass and clay.

Despite many similar discussions, ATP does not want a repeat of Hamburg-like lawsuits.

Olympics 2012 in London and W 2012 will make this situation much worse.

Masters should be more evenly spread across the calendar. Currently the spread is March (2 - IW/Miami), April (MC), May (2 - Madrid/Rome), August (2 - Canada/Cincy), October (Shanghai), November (Paris). Perhaps Slams and Masters should be in alternate months, but it causes logistical issues.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tournaments/Event-Calendar.aspx

I know we're straying from the subject of this post, but has anyone on here been to Eastbourne? Looking at the plan, it appears more spacious than I realised and similar in some respecte to the Monte Carlo venue.

http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/AEGON-British-Tennis-Series/AEGON-International/About/Venue-Information/

The event next week is now a joint ATP-WTA tournament so they obviously have the facilities to cater for 32 entrants in both the Men's and Women's draw. The site seems to me to have far more potential for development than Queens. Does anyone know what the limit is on spectator numbers?

From the web:

Eastbourne's AEGON International Tennis Championships are held every June at Devonshire Park. The world's best professional tennis players, from the ATP and WTA tours, will compete on grass courts for the titles and prize money of over $1,000,000. Crowds of over 35,000 people watch on each year, with the event rated as one of the top 30 tournaments in world tennis.

Originally a women's tennis championship, the tennis tournament became a joint men's and women's event in 2009. The move has increased the profile of the tournament as it jointly attracts some of the top men and women's tennis players preparing their build-up to the Wimbledon championships. Appearing at the 2011 event will be female tennis stars such as Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams. Scheduled to appear in the men's draw are stars such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Lleyton Hewitt.

The main stadium capacity is 8000:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devonshire_Park_Lawn_Tennis_Club

Great Stat Nore Staat, but the problem is it starts just a week before Wimbledon and I don't think so big stars will be interested to play a tournament a day before [if the reach finals] the biggest Grandslam of the year kickstarts, so again it falls to poor scheduling of ATP.

They need to move wimby back two weeks, and maybe drop cincy from its master's designation. That is the real problem that to give us a grass court master's we most likely have to drop one and the most likely victim would be cincy.

He entered, he played, he lost. Wow !!!
Fed was tired didn´t enter Halle. So was Nole didnt enter either.
Rafa was tired.. see the connection ??? I dont think he is "cultivating" anything.

I'm with you there socal !

3 tourneys in as many weeks is just ridiculous