Rafael Nadal Trains for Wimbledon, on Red Clay! [Video]

Hahaha…Clay and Grass…just goes to show how the two surfaces have gotten to play more a like than not.

June 14th, 2011 at 11:10 am

Here is a pseudo- translation, I don’t know what I am worse at, engligs or catalonian(majorican, in fact)

R. Nadal trains for W. in Club de tenis Manacor. On wednesday he’ll travel London, full of energy looking for his 11th GS.
“Speaking, people understand themselves”; Rafa and Toni do like this 100%. Opinions’ exchange in order to improve his serve, very important in grass competition.

Rafa: “…it’s not easy, but at the slighest it goes a little by the middle…”

Too, intense series to improve backhand:
Toni: “look at the ball, not where you’re throwing”

World nº1 isn’t happy with recent Queen’s tourney; this said, that surface wasn’t the best for experiments.
Rafa: ???

Anyway, the feelings for Wimb are very nice; the week at Queen’s has been very useful.

Rafa: “Obviously, 3 matches on grass are positives, same that these days training here..???

-… be aware of the discussion he has with Miguel Angel (Nadal?) about golf…
Rafa: “you got 16, you got 16, I did the account. Doble at the 1, triple at the 2, par at 3, they’re 15. Me boogey at the 4, they are 16. It’s ok with the account?”

You see that you can’t cheat on him, as competitive as he is.

June 14th, 2011 at 11:37 am

thanks gonzo.
i was wondering what all that 16 business was about in the midst of tennis.
rafa and his golf!

June 14th, 2011 at 1:23 pm

If thats not a red flag for WIMBLEDON, I dont know what they need! They have become the green clay, we have already a very large part of the season played in clay, lets have our only grass tournament played in grass please! Queen´s its a real grass court thats why for Nadal is hard to played there, Wimbledon is a slow court nowadays.

June 14th, 2011 at 1:28 pm

yes, how boring for all courts to be the same. watching the agassi/ivanesivic match highlights and even roger/pete makes you miss “real” grass. how boring for all surfaces to be the same!!!!!

June 14th, 2011 at 1:37 pm

by the second week wimbledon is essentially clay. The first week it is faster and nadal generally struggles.

June 14th, 2011 at 2:49 pm

Crazy stuff. Wimbly is still the fastest slam in tennis. Roger said it himselfafter his defeat last year.

June 14th, 2011 at 3:32 pm

Hold your collective horses, he’s not “training for Wimbledon on red clay”; he’s just having a short stationary hit plus a few serves, merely to keep his muscle memory intact after the long weekend of leisure & golfing without touching his racquets.

From tomorrow on he’s at Wimbledon, practicing on grass.

June 14th, 2011 at 5:40 pm

Dunno why the Wimbles surface is being associated with, or referred to as clay as there never was any clay to begin with. Grass is laid or grown on soil, which is mud or dirt, but clay is a special process, which is a mixture or blend of ground up stone and/or bricks and then treated with other ingredients in a firing process. It’s impossible for grass to grow on clay. That said, Wimbles cannot or never will be essentially clay

June 14th, 2011 at 7:28 pm

I have been working abroad for the past three years and returned home last month. Last year, I was transferred to London, and was at Wimbles right up front. I can say, without a doubt, that I only saw dirt under the grass, and no clay.

June 14th, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Thx for the heads up on ESPN classic, scoreboard.
I think everyone gets the composition of the different surfaces and of course no one means literal clay, but Rafa himself says the back of the court plays like clay by the end, and he would know. They don’t call it the red “dirt” for nothing ;)
But hey, that’s nobody’s fault, see what happens when thousands and thousand of footsteps trod through your lawn.
There’s gotta be some technological/horticultural advancement in our lifetimes, though, no?

June 14th, 2011 at 8:17 pm

I think Rafa was making a joke of sorts when he said the second week was like playing on clay. All the pundits made a big deal out of it. If you run over a grass court all day for a week, it will eventually wear down to dirt. But that’s the way it’s been forever at Wimbledon, right?

June 14th, 2011 at 9:53 pm

[…] Nadal had been practicing on the red clay in Mallorca after losing at Queen’s last week. Also Check Out:En Route to Toronto, Rafael Nadal Practices Forehand at Airport [Video]Roger Federer Plays Chauffeur, Picks Up Rafael Nadal From the Airport! [Pictures/Video]Juan Martin Del Potro All Smiles at Airport [Video]Roger Federer Lindt Chocolate “Airport” Commercial [Video]Caroline Wozniacki Arrives in Thailand [Video] […]

June 15th, 2011 at 5:21 pm