Get well soon Rafa.

#itsallaboutmyclay

June 8th, 2013 at 11:28 am

Here we go.

Wait till after Wimbledon and he will leave the stage once again.

June 8th, 2013 at 12:41 pm

Here we go again….

June 8th, 2013 at 1:13 pm

Federer will be pleased, at least he has a chance of winning his first title in 9 months.

Which of the top 4 would volunteer to have Rafa in their Qtr at Wimbledon?

June 8th, 2013 at 1:19 pm

Who cares about Halle?

Vam8s!!

#GiveFedAChanceToWinSomething

June 8th, 2013 at 1:44 pm

Give fed a chance to win something??

Thanks, but no thanks. Rafa got out to kohlschreiber last year. And then rosol. Who knows who would knock him out this time? It’s not clay and its not a best of 5 tourny where he can wear down his opponents. It’s like ”Why lose the finals streak? Let’s leave halle!”

June 8th, 2013 at 2:07 pm

Nah, fed is not winning Halle. Tommy Haas the defending champion will kick his @ss again!

June 8th, 2013 at 2:10 pm

I didn’t know he’d even planned to play. I mean, the man deserves a break once in awhile.

In 2008 after he won the Wimbledon men’s singles final against Roger, he withdrew from Stuttgart. Roger did the same at Halle after RG 2011. If fans want to keep seeing them play over the years, they have to concede a little room for moderation for health maintenance, no?

June 8th, 2013 at 2:36 pm

Good decision. Shouldn’t be playing every tournament. But I do hope he gets enough practice on grass before Wimbledon.

June 8th, 2013 at 3:22 pm

Is Rosol playing Halle? That will explain this decision.

Losing to Haas is better than getting butt-whipped by Rosol on Center Court with the whole world watching when you are in the prime of your career! Oh, Kohlshcreiber who is a 2nd grade German player kicked rafa’s butt in Halle, last year.

June 8th, 2013 at 3:57 pm

“Is Rosol playing Halle? That will explain this decision.”

Simon, by that stupid a*s logic, shouldn’t Federer withdraw from every tournament Rafa Nadal takes part in, no?
You don’t sound so smart, Simon. Even Fed isn’t as afraid of facing Rafa as some fans would like to believe. It’s always a new game when they meet.

June 8th, 2013 at 4:34 pm

Good news. Clay to grass is a difficult enough transition when you are fully fit and healthy.

It makes sense to rest completely after the FO and come back fresh to hopefully win a 3rd Wimbledon title.

Good luck tomorrow, Rafa.

June 8th, 2013 at 4:48 pm

Fed must be really relieved by Rafa’s decision not to play. He still remembers the massacre in Rome! Don’t worry fed ole chap, Haas will kick your @ss again. Lol.

June 8th, 2013 at 4:50 pm

Giles, I doubt Haas will be beating Federer again at Halle. It was an upset win. Upsets don’t happen every time.

June 8th, 2013 at 4:55 pm

Nice decision, Nadal deserves to rest and prepare fully for wimbledon

June 8th, 2013 at 5:24 pm

James. Haas still playing great tennis and playing at home, so who knows. It would be nice though if he did defend his title.

June 8th, 2013 at 5:26 pm

I have read several article wherein the general opinion is that Rafa needed to back off and rest his knees…..some even mentioned surgery….needs to pick and choose his tournaments like Roger does. Rafa has done this very thing and people are still ridiculing him. This guy can’t win for losing……oh, wait a minute, excuse me…..HE IS WINNING AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Good luck tomorrow…..win or lose, you’ve had an amazing year so far.

I am glad he is picking and choosing his tourneys and listening to his body.

Vamos, another bite on a FO trophy.!!!

June 8th, 2013 at 5:27 pm

I hope Haas does well at Halle again, and then well at Wimbledon so he can enter the top 10. He has (250?) points from Halle, but lost in the first round of Wimbledon so the top 10 could happen…

June 8th, 2013 at 5:29 pm

LOL, Simon. Bitter much?

Just … turn off the TV. Nobody is forcing you to watch the final tomorrow.

June 8th, 2013 at 5:35 pm

Won’t be watching it either. What for?

The stadium was empty enough even when Rafa was playing against Djoker. Do you see all the empty seats?

It was a great match, but obviously with Fed not in it the global tennis fans were not that interested in tuning in. Was it even broadcast on the major networks? Nada.

Now he is playing Ferru? You call that entertainment worth watching? ROFL! Have fun with that.

—–

Simon,

lol @ 3:57!

June 8th, 2013 at 5:55 pm

@Simon

Your posts have a familiar edge and humor to them. Of course, I could be wrong; either way, very happy to read you. Please continue.

Had a look at the qualifying round from Halle and it looks and sounds better than the FO final. :D And the draw is great. Gulbis and Jerzy are there – Haas – all kinds of fun.

That is the good thing about Tennis – there are options.

June 8th, 2013 at 6:08 pm

I believe Tommy Haas will kick **** again. Very good chance of him defending his title.

Federer – who knows? only he knows. He lost in the final at Halle last year but it did work as a game plan for Wimbledon.

Whatever the Feds does is gravy; Tommy Haas, too. Really would love to see a new winner in Halle. Halle is such a nice tournament – too bad it isn’t a 500 – the field is strong again.

Have to look see who is at the other ATP grass tournament starting tomorrow.

June 8th, 2013 at 6:21 pm

Thanks Contador! Atleast some of us have a sense of humour. Aren’t these the same rafalings that found Steve27′s racist serbian joke funny?

Please don’t tell me you think I am Grendel! I am young enough to be his grandkid. LOL. just kidding Grendel.

James:

You and your fellow rafalings need to get SOH and a real life. I was responding to some of your mornic rafalings who suggested Fed was given a chance by nadal. If you want logic, please explain to us the whole fake injury drama that rafa and his team enact every year, very conveniently on his lesser favorite slams.

The guy has skipped AO, USO, Wimbledon (multiple times) Year-ends (multiple times). Sounds a little too convenient.

Also, please use your logic to explain Yannick Noah’s allegations on nadal or his spanish hombres and christopher rochus’ comments that nadal was serving a silent doping ban last year. ATP covered it up like they did with Agassi.

Please also explain Mary Carillo explaining on-air how ridiculous toni-nadal’s illegal coaching of Rafa was during the semi-final match yesterday.

Please use your “rafaling” logic to explain.

M:

It is because of people like you that tennis’ popularity has died down in countries like USA/Australia – 2 of the greatest tennis nations of all time. If you encourage cheaters or players who break rules all the time and single-dimensional ball-fetchers, most people will turn off their TVs and go watch other sports. People like you who are too blinded by rafa kool-aid and are ignorant of tennis history and have never played the game are responsible for running tennis into the ground.

The greatness of any sport is not in who wins it but HOW the win was achieved. You can win by hook or crook but you cannot win people’s support and adulation without a game with panache and charisma. Sadly, rafa ranks behind Federer, Djokovic and Murray on that front. Some might argue, even below gulbis, tsonga or berdych. You can talk to any intelligent followers of sport and they will tell you winning is not the sole motto of sport. You must be very juvenile/immature to believe winning is everything and live through another person’s wins.

June 8th, 2013 at 6:33 pm

“Please don’t tell me you think I am Grendel! I am young enough to be his grandkid. LOL. ”

Hey Simon,
Its very clear from your posts that you are a spoilt six yr old kid. No need to accept that explicitly. And most people know that you are the latest handle of skewer.

June 8th, 2013 at 7:59 pm

It is a wise decision by Rafa. Scheduling plays a critical part in lengthening his career. Halle or not, Rafa is one of the favourites at Wimbledon.

June 8th, 2013 at 11:54 pm

You all are so caught up with who you want as your favourite player to win every tournment he plays in…

Federer himself said:

“Apprently, winning tournaments and rewriting history books isn’t the most importance priorities these days for me”

You ask me, sounds like a very smart man….

June 9th, 2013 at 2:36 am

Simon –

Nooooo. You are not Grendel. I will not name who I’d put money on the past pseudo I think you are ;) I wont blow a good cover. Never.

It is doubtful that Grendel could conceal his cover at all. His writing style and penchant for story-telling is too clear. I just hope he is okay, wherever he is. He once wrote, if my own memory serves, that he does not read TX when not posting and I do believe him.

Pretty sure I know who “Alex” is as well and some others. I wish there was a poll and prizes for guessing correct new pseudos for previous posters when they show up, lol. It is a fun game.

June 9th, 2013 at 2:53 am

Great draw and field at Queens aka Aegon championship.

250 grass tournaments are usually good tennis pre-wimbles. but maybe I am just crazy for grass court season and try to catch all of it.

June 9th, 2013 at 2:59 am

simon isn’t skeezer, different syntax and style. he’s steve-o if anybody. he belongs to a contingent of fedfans whose rage and bilge have increased in proportion to every loss suffered at the hands of the majorcan. they are the band of fans who constantly label nadal the ‘doper’, novak the ‘faker’, murray ‘the anti-tennis’ and berdych, well, ‘birdsh!t’. they desperately try to spin
federer’s losses and even his missteps (murray must have deserved the f-bomb in AO if fed hurled it). logic and rational thought abandons them increasingly.

however, my favourite thing about them is their disingenuousness. the ones who cheer for ferrer (because he’s a nice guy) despite condemning the style of play which is the foundation of his game. in other words, they love him because he can’t beat federer. or loving haas because he’s federer’s friend or wawrinka because he’s also swiss. lol, it’s so transparent.

i wish to stress that not all fedfans are like this, but with every forum i visit or tweet i read it is clear that they are a large majority. one thing for certain, they are the GOATs of whining.

June 9th, 2013 at 3:15 am

the “Sherlock Holmes of poster identification of the month goes to…contador” :D I can see it now. I have to win something, since my bracket is such a loser.

June 9th, 2013 at 3:17 am

Nooo. Strike one, volley.

Simon is not skeezer in fact, I doubt skeezer has a double anywhere! skeezer breaks the mold and balances out tennis-x, you have to admit – well you don’t have to admit anything but the scale has tipped in favor of “new” crops of Rafa fans considerably in the past few weeks.

It’s all good.

June 9th, 2013 at 3:23 am

Many praise fed for his “scheduling expertise” in his career, but when Rafa does it after reaching 9 finals in 9 tourneys after a 7 month injury layoff, he is labelled “afraid to play Rosol.” That is so laughable!!!! So snarkeezer, does that mean if fed skips a tourney, we should look to see if anyone he ever lost to is playing and then we can legitimately claim that too??

June 9th, 2013 at 3:26 am

“Strike one, volley.”

i said it wasn’t skeezer. i’m quite fond of skeezer and would recognize his style in a heartbeat.

“the scale has tipped in favor of “new” crops of Rafa fans”

i’m not enamoured of them any more than i am the loopy fedfans.

June 9th, 2013 at 3:40 am

Okay. Erase the strike. volley.

Who do you fancy is Simon? No. don’t answer – then I would be asked to give him/her up and no can do.

June 9th, 2013 at 3:45 am

Ah, volley, you have a live guess going in steve-o. But I have a different idea. And there really is no way to play this game unless moderators and admins are in on it.

I don’t actually know. But sometimes I have it. It is easier to identify a Federer fan than an anti-fed or Nadal fan – too many of those sound alike and write the same rubbish. Pretty certain “Fed is afraid” is here under a new username. :D

It is embarrassing how intolerant I used to be, I confess it. Sorry, Fed is Afraid.

Okiegal is an example of a truly new and genuine poster, however, would you not agree?

June 9th, 2013 at 3:57 am

so you know who simon is? spill it.

“Okiegal is an example of a truly new and genuine poster, however, would you not agree?”

yes, he/she seems to be.

June 9th, 2013 at 4:20 am

No way, volley. Not giving up Simon.

But I am happy to see “Alex” back too.

Cannot give these posters up though. Forget I mentioned anything about it – sorry volley. They have to say who they are if they want. I am more certain with every post I read about Simon, though.

Gotta get some sleep. It after 1:30 am my time. Bon nuit.

June 9th, 2013 at 4:43 am

Roger is playing doubles with Tommy Haas at Halle – that should be great fun to watch! :)

June 9th, 2013 at 5:53 am

^^^

Yes! Roger and Tommy doubles. I agree.

June 9th, 2013 at 6:42 am

And Delpo is back in action at Queens. Benoit Paire at Queens too (should not get my hopes up too high but…)

Andy M. – have missed him in action.

June 9th, 2013 at 6:51 am