Hamburg

Sign of the times that a Nadal event has had no posts and here's the final.

Very ordinary tennis in this first set. Who will be the one who is there when the other loses it?

7-5 to Rafa.

I look at Foggo and just think "what if"

Not another case of wasted talent that many would apply to his name, just that his eccentricity doesn't allow him to be switched on all the time. Clearly this age in sport in general is not one I enjoy to its maximum because free flowing talent just doesn't get enough time in the sun. Extreme professionalism has taken over.

Rafa takes it in straights.  Wasn't great tennis really but when you're out of Nick every win is important.  Theim won gstaad as well.  Is it next week that the American hc's start?

Wish I could say that Rafa's  performance was something to get excited about other than he won the trophy against a potentially dangerous player but at least its an improvement and Im pleased about that but still he dominates the 10ft space behind the base line     and thus showing that nothing much has changed. Hey ho my cup is half full for the time being

Difficult win today, Fognini had 2 set pts serving at 5-4 in the 2nd.
Rafa needs a new coach to be honest, or a separate coach like Djokovic does. Good confidence win though as he's sorely lacking in that department and good win over his 2015 bogeyman who is only the 2nd player ever to beat him twice on clay in same season. Let's see what HC season brings now. Another step to qualifying for WTF too.

Well let's see if this wets Rafas appetite to get that confidence going again.

Rafa stated very clearly (even before Wimby had begun, IIRC) that his objectives for the remainder of the season were twofold : qualify for WTF ; and to stay fit & healthy.

Today's confidence-booster of a win can only help his cause.

Rafa can play better than this. He was brilliant vs Seppi. To me, Rafa always has this problem: when he's facing someone who had beaten him recently, he would get nervous and starts poorly in his match. It's the same story vs Verdasco ( who had beaten him twice in a row before) here in R1, played poorly in set one and lost it before coming back strongly to beat Verdasco 6-1, 6-1 in the next two sets.

Rafa has shoulder problem and that's why he's having so many DFs here,esp vs Versely in R2. I hope he can recover in time for the U.S. HC swing.

His court positioning is all over the place, because he's lacking confidence he's camping further and further behind the baseline which had the added problem of making his FHs drop short which the flat hitters crucify him for. But hey it's a start...a 500 win and now the biggest winner of titles on clay so there are no doubts about calling him clay GOAT at least. But I'd like to see him work on his positioning - each time he won US open or Wimbledon he was stood almost at the baseline, he can do it...but it requires mettle and resolution. If he plays the way he did today at US Open he won't make it past 2nd round. Fingers crossed this win inspires him to become uber aggressive again.

If you've watched his match vs Seppi, you would've noticed that he was hitting with power and precision despite his court position behind the baseline. Seppi was also a flat hitter though not hitting as powerfully as Fog. Rafa's FHDTL was awesome yesterday.

Like I said, Rafa has this problem of 'fearing' an opponent who had beaten him recently, the likes of Verdasco, Fog and Dolgo, more so when it's a final. He was hitting some 'powder puff' FHs today, lacking depth and power, it's a big contrast from those he hit yesterday. It's like he's more tentative, more defensive for fear of making errors. He was playing it safe and hoping for Fog to make errors. Against Seppi, he was dictating play from the get go, today he was defending most of the time. It's his some moments of brilliance, experience and relatively more consistent play plus Fog's erratic play that helped Rafa to the finishing line. It's certainly not a great match imo, full of errors from both players but much more from Fog as he's the more attacking player of the two.

This Rafa had reverted back to pre 2008 times, where he relied more on his running and defending to win on clay; however, he's no longer that young and that quick hence he was struggling to win points. The Rafa from 2008-2013 was more powerful and aggressive and was a pleasure and was awesome to watch. The current Rafa is really hard to watch, for you really don't know which Rafa would turn up to play - his level can be so up and down from match to match.

There had been talk of Rafa having a long lay off after Wimbledon which seemed to make no sense. So it was a good idea to play this clay courter in Hamburg.
Looking at the newly-published rankings, Rafa is up to ninth and is sixth on the year-so-far race to London rankings. The top eight in the race to London are some way clear of everyone else and Rafa should qualify comfortably for the 02.