Nadal Beats Ferrer for 5th Rome Title

Vamos Rafa

May 2nd, 2010 at 10:42 pm

Trully remarkable Nadal’s clay dominance over the years.
If we think that a year ago he was undefeated in RG, just shows he is one of a kind. He already achieve his small goals for clay: winning 2 Masters, as he have being doing since 2005. This year he has a real good shot at winning 3 masters on clay in the same year, something that has never being done before.

Madrid will be very exciting, and of course Roland Garros: Will Nadal reclaim his title or Fed will defend his title (defending at leats once all Grand Slams crown)?!

May 2nd, 2010 at 10:51 pm

By th way, Nadal can be seeded 2 in RG.

Todays ranking:
– Djoko: 6970 pts
– Nadal: 6480 pts

Djoko will be playing Belgrade this week, where he defends title, 250 pts. Assuming he will defend his title holding the same rankings when Madid comes.

If Nadal wins Madrid: 6480-600 (final 09)+1000(wins 10)= 6880 pts

If Djoko heaches quarters: 6970-360(semis 09)+180(quarters 10)= 6790 pts

This means that for Djoko to be seeded n.2 in RG, he needs to defend his title in Belgrade and make semis points in Madrid, defending last year poitns. This way, even if Nadal wins Madrid the rankings won’t shift.

But if Djoko doesn’t defend Belgrade, he will have to reach finals in Madrid.

May 2nd, 2010 at 11:13 pm

man oh man. another clay season, another pile of trophies for nadal.

but, you can see with the likes of a gulbis or what have you, he’s not totally invincible.

May 2nd, 2010 at 11:23 pm

Rafa’s not invincible, but even his “B” game can be pretty daunting. I’m not sure what to expect in Madrid. Winning back to back ms1000 tournaments has to be exhausting, even with a week in between. Kind of wish he’d save himself for RG.

May 3rd, 2010 at 12:37 am

Anna,

I have mixed feelings about Madrid. There are so many bad memories from last year. However, we know now that Rafa was in no condition to play there. The high altitude and a clay court that is more like a hard court, aren’t ideal conditions for him.

I know that Rafa and his team are thinking primarily of the health of his knees and that’s a good thing. It sounds like Rafa wants to play at Madrid. This is the last chunk of points he has to defend from last year. I would love to see him do well and get to the final. He could make history if he wins the third clay Masters, but the most important thing is that he is healthy, fit and in peak form for RG. The King needs to take back his crown!

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:32 am

Kudos to Rafa! What a great milestone at 17 Masters, and to do it by the age of 23 is remarkable. In many ways it seems appropriate that he should be seeded number 2 at Roland Garros, and that, I think, will probably come to pass. Besides, it doesn’t make that much difference if Djoko is number 2 or 3 there, in my opinion, as long as he goes deeper than last year!! Rafa too. : ) Thanks Daniel, for the points update.

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:37 am

lol, Boy! you sure can tell how depressed tennis-x “Staff” are whenever Nadal wins a title and is close to breaking records. If this were Federer the tennis-x fanboy “Staff” would breathlessly report on the royal Swiss supreme greatness for pages and pages and we’d be up to 200 comments by now.

Well I for one am thrilled to see a healthy and confident Rafa back in action! Tennis desperately needs him. so congratulations to Rafa and his lovely fans here. Here’s hoping his knees hold up and he reclaims his Roland Garros crown from the Swiss pretender. :)

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:40 am

LOL at the ranking points. Federer loses early in both Monte Carlo and Rome but widens his lead over his rivals.

fantastic system!

May 3rd, 2010 at 7:51 am

Oh my bad, Fed didn’t play Monte Carlo, but still lost his points from the year before. All the same.

Me thinks he is afraid of Nadal on clay. Dodging him in these early events. Knew Nadal is strongest earlier in the clay court season (namely Monte Carlo).

Good thing for Fed to play Estoril, No Nadal there. Maybe he can gain some confidence beating the 2nd rate clay court players.

I think Nadal will overtake Fed for #1 after Wimbledon. A healthy Nadal will win Madrid, the French and Wimbledon. Fed will lose those pts and Nadal will add them.

Watch and see, things are going to change quickly.

May 3rd, 2010 at 8:02 am

andrea Says:-

“but, you can see with the likes of a gulbis or what have you, he’s not totally invincible.”

He lost a set to Gulbis, not the match. He also lost a set to Hewitt in Hamburg 2007 and a set to Davydenko in Rome 2007. I believe he also lost a set to Djokovic and 1 to Federer in Hamburg 2008 and we all know what he went on to achieve. Why is he suddenly not totally invincible because he lost one set to Gulbis, who I think he also lost one to at Wimbledon 2008. As Rafa himself said,
“I was happy because when I go on court I don’t think about invincibility or these things – you think much more about these things than me “–

May 3rd, 2010 at 8:07 am

I also believe that Nadal will overtake Fed for #1 after Wimbledon. All the signs are there.

May 3rd, 2010 at 8:34 am

yes nadal is looking good to take back no.1.

fed to defend madrid, rg and wimbledon and halle[i think he played last year]

at this point, no guarantee fed can even make madrid final. rg is out of the question if nadal plays, and a final berth is no gimme, although likely given injuries and form issues in the top ten. still, does anyone back him over verdasco or even ferrer at rg right now?

nadal almost assured to pick up madrid and rg. at least QF or SF at wimbledon, and don’t forget queens which is a 500.

May 3rd, 2010 at 9:18 am

Federer must defend 5000 points (1000 from Madrid and 2000 a piece at the FO and Wimbledon).

Nadal only has to defend 780 points (600 from Madrid, and 180 from the FO, and zero from Wimbledon)

I think the writing is on the wall for “in form motivated” Nadal and an “aging non confident” Federer.

Not saying Federer can’t turn it around. He has shown great resiliency in the past, but something seems different with him. Losing to the likes of an Earnest Gulbis in the “early” rounds of a big event, after Federer has rested, doesn’t say confidence to me. It says, his days may be numbered as the top dog.

May 3rd, 2010 at 10:55 am

Queens is a 250 pts and Fed did not play Halle last year.

May 3rd, 2010 at 10:56 am

rafa is lord, master and king to his compatriots. but the aura of invinciblity? not at all rock solid. it’s what a rafa fan dreams, sure. the fact is: ernie is #35, inexperienced, and just finding his form. but he’s “plucky”, as margot says, and he’s cocky. he had no problem taking a set off rafa. he’s the player any draw needs to make tennis exciting and competitive, at the moment. this is 2010, not 2007, 2008, or….point is: it’s a new slate for a newer competitor and a chance for an inspired old one, one not in awe of nadal.

does rafa really gain so much confidence by a win in any final on any surface over verdasco or ferrer? the last time he had a sincere battle with another spaniard was AO 09 against verdasco. after that loss, forget it, for nando. almagro ….all of them, only play a supporting role in any draw with rafa.

missing an in-form delpo, davy and nalby very badly here.

ernie gained in confidence taking an easy set off nadal on clay and beating a rusty federer. maybe the latvian has inspired some of the non-spanish competitors, like bellucci, deBakko, maybe giraldo….don’t laugh, and re-inspired soderling. soda might be saving his best pop for RG. nole or federer could shake rafa up at madrid. who knows, this is tennis.

a trophy is a trophy though, so congrats to rafa fans.

maybe madrid and RG are a lock for rafa. and if he does win those two, i imagine he’ll go deep, if not win wimbledon and take #1. i can see it.

but first, madrid. we’ll wee. the altitude there is said to be tough on rafa. it’s BS, but an excuse used last year, and this year if necessary.

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:03 am

To have 17 masters titles at 23 is truly amazing, Agassi played until he was over 30 and only has 17. If Rafa stays healthy, who knows what he’ll achieve. He is truly amazing.

Vamos!

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:04 am

nadal, my idol. he has nothing to prove to anyone. at 23 he has already achieved more than the great tennis players have . the best is yet come. he play for trophies not position . i hope injuries will not destruct him

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:09 am

@contador: that post couldn’t have been laced with bitterness and begrudging congrats if your tried any harder. Why do you have to congratulate him, if you’re gonna put a lot of “clauses” behind why he won?? No one is forcing you to, it’s the internet, DON’T congratulate him if you don’t want to.

And, congrats to Nadal fans??? What did they do, Nadal won the title, not them.

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:41 am

It’s simply nonsense tha say that Ferrer or Verdasco did not want to win their 1st Masters title but would rather bow down to Nadal.

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 am

@Bryan, touche’.

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:55 am

ah well, bryan. my apologies to you. i am not “against” nadal, he and his fans deserve their congratulations and celebration, even if ia am “begrudging” and wanted gulbis to knock him a good one.

it’s my own problem if i am feeling blah about nadal ruling the clay.

fact is: he does. but i can speculate as to whether or not rafa takes away as much confidence as people think with a win over verdasco at MC and a win over ferrer in rome.

May 3rd, 2010 at 11:55 am

I would like to congratulate all Nadal fans for his win yesterday in Rome.

I hope Federer wins Estoril so I can congratulate him and all his fans also.

May 3rd, 2010 at 12:06 pm

Contador – Just like to comment on a few of your points.

Madrid – I’m not an athlete, but I understand the body requires more (or a different kind of)conditioning when performing at higher altitudes.
Next year Madrid will be played right after the American hardcourt tour which makes alot more sense than coming off hardcourt, training for clay for two tournaments and then heading up to Madrid (where the air and clay is quite different) before heading to RG. Rafa isn’t the only one who complained about that schedule, he’s just the only one anyone bothered to quote.

Davy, Delpo, Nalby – Yep, they probably won’t play this year, but even if they do they won’t beat Rafa on clay. I haven’t heard anything about Davy’s recovery, but Delpo is out for a while supposedly and Nalby stills trying to get in form.
He might be at Madrid but I doubt he’ll go very deep.

About those Spanish boys – You are REALLY not giving Verdasco and Ferrer the credit they deserve. They are playing like they have never played before and between Monaco and Rome they’ve beat a ton of top 10 players. Fer beat Nole TWICE and Soderling for the Barcelona title and yet you just wave those results away as if it was nothing. Here’s the thing. This year Fer and David are playing deep into every tournament just as Rafa USE to, and exhaustion will probably take it’s toll as they make there way to RG, but if that’s not the case you can look for both of them to do plenty of damage to the field. Rafa, not so much. Not because they don’t want to beat him as badly as anybody else, but because they’ve played for years and years and he knows their game inside and out, and because he’s the best clay court player in the field. Actually it is kind of a nice cushion having the Armada.

May 3rd, 2010 at 12:52 pm

I completely agree with your last paragraph, Anna. Ferrer and Verdasco are playing some of the best tennis they possibly can and they’re only losing to each or Nadal.

About Madrid, where did you hear it’s moving its place on the schedule? That’s an interesting bit of information.

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm

Ben,

The 2011 provisional calender shows the clay tournaments order is

Monte-carlo, Barcelona, Estroil/Belgrade/Munich, Madrid, Rome..

They are changing the order of Estoril/Belgrade/Munich, Madrid and Rome..

Good change for Rafa.. he can play Monte-Carlo and Barcelona take a break and play back to back masters..

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:26 pm

Ben – ATP provisional calendar for 2011. Thought Madrid was first, but maybe Monte Carlo. For sure Rome is last, so the players won’t have to jump from Spain to Italy and then back to Spain before RG. It’ll be good for all the players, but especially Rafa because he may feel like he can work Barcelona back into his schedule.

May 3rd, 2010 at 1:49 pm

I see. I think, based on surface, the best order would be Madrid, Rome, then Monte Carlo. MC is most like the French. Madrid is most like a hard court. And Rome is fairly slick too but not as extreme as Madrid.

May 3rd, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Mindy: „I have mixed feelings about Madrid. There are so many bad memories from last year.“

I disagree. If for nothing, then those 2 MPs which Nadal saved in that thrilling semifinal vs Djokovic should be more than enough of a reason for a Nadal fan to hold the last year’s edition in good memory. The way he saved them – with STONE COLD WINNERS – that was certainly the highlight of the tournament!

—————

„LOL at the ranking points. Federer loses early in both Monte Carlo and Rome but widens his lead over his rivals. fantastic system!“

Don’t worry, Cindy_Brady. Should Federer continue with this dismal form, this same system will soon make him pay for his failures, BIG TIME!

—————

contador: „missing an in-form delpo, davy and nalby very badly here.“

Do you really think any of these 3 would currently have had a chance against Nadal on clay? I don’t. 2 sets or 3 sets – it doesn’t matter. The winner is always the same: Nadal

May 3rd, 2010 at 2:29 pm

I agree Ben, but can you imagine facilitating a meeting of the minds with the people who run those tournaments. It seems to be mostly about the money grab and to heck with the players. So what’s new?

May 3rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm

Skorocel,

Yes, he saved those mp’s, but at what cost? That was the nail in the coffin for his knees. We now know that he was taking anti-inflammatories and infiltrations in order to even be able to compete. Rafa had no business playing at Madrid. That semifinal match with Djoko cost Rafa RG and Wimbledon.

That’s why it’s a bad memory for me. It’s true that Rafa won the battle against Djoko that day, but in the end he lost the war.

Anna,

All I can say is bravo to your post at 12:52 pm. You said it all!

May 4th, 2010 at 12:49 am