US Open- Week 1

We're already half way through the last grand slam of the year. Hasn't it gone fast?! So far the tournament has been pretty interesting. I can't feel like I can totally enjoy the open this year for me, due to Rafa not being here. The tournament is defiantly lacking that excitement that he brings. However, i'm sure there are some excellent matches to come.

The top mens seeds are playing well. Novak seems to have snapped out of whatever was causing his earlier struggles in Toronto and Cincinnati. Roger is playing very well, I'm impressed by Berdych too, he did well to come through a very tough 2nd round with Klizan.

Dimitrov is playing very comfortably this week, he's into the 4th Round with good wins so far. All straight sets apart from his 3rd Round with Goffin.

I'm feeling very proud of Robredo this week too. 32 years old and still hanging around, proving that experience prevails over young gun Kygrios. Tommy is now into the 4th Round, after fighting through 3, 4 and 5 set matches.

Raonic survives so far, after a very tough match against Estrella Burgos in Round 3. He won in straights, but needed 3 tiebreaks to pick up the win. He will play Nishikori next, who has been playing well.

David Ferrer was beaten by Gilles Simon in a 4 setter in the 3rd Round. David had been struggling all week and it seemed like his body finally got the better of him. His back was taped, and he looked unwell to me. Unfortunate.

Andy Murray is still in the running, he has had a few struggles so far, especially in his 4 set match vs Haase in Round 1. He's still here though, and playing with determination.

Thiem played Gulbis, who he beat in 5 sets. Ernests was not in a good physical condition, he needed treatment on his back, and his knee was feeling the pressure as well as his head. Dominic Thiem was great though, he kept plugging away and was rewarded in the end. He beat Lopez in straight sets in Round 3.

After this first week on the men's side, we know that Novak is back to normal, and will most likely have a very good run in New York. He's winning easily in straight sets, and the doubts seem to have floated away. It's not a confirmed win yet though. The draw is becoming interesting…

When it comes to the women's draw, it's been a little more interesting. The first top seed to go, was Radwanska. Simona Halep is also out. She's battled hard this week, but Lucic-Baroni prevailed in Round 3, only to be beaten by Sara Errani in the next round.

Wozniacki is looking very good, she had a very comfortable win over Petkovic in the 3rd round. She also beat Sharapova to reach the QFs. She has been playing excellently this week.

Serena is playing fabulously again, having comfortable straight sets wins over all American opponents! Venus was not so happy however, she lost her 3rd Round match to Sara Errani.

The young women's players are really impressing at this grand slam. 15 year old Cici Bellis famously knocked out Cibulkova in round 1, but couldn't back up the victory.

Belinda Bencic, another rising star took out Kerber and Jankovic.

Aleksandra Krunic, the 21 year old Serbian, has taken out Madison Keys and Petra Kvitova so far. Her play is impressive, and we're likely to see a lot more of her in the future.

I'm interested to see how the rest of the tournament goes, who knows what else will happen?! If I've missed any players- sorry! Have a wonderful week everyone, enjoy the open.

@rafanadaladdict

A Timeline: Rafa's Injuries

As we await Rafa's return to the tour, I thought it would be interesting to recap. Let's go through all of his injuries from the start of his career. What I think one of the most admirable things about Rafa is his passion to compete after and during injuries. It makes his accomplishments even more fantastic, as he plays (and wins) through pain.


2003- Elbow injury forces him to skip the French Open.

2004- Rafa suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle, which caused him to miss the spring clay court season, including Roland Garros.

2005- Foot injury meant he couldn't play the Tennis Masters Cup (Now the ATP Finals). He also missed the Australian Open in 2006.

2006- Shoulder injury occurred during a match at Queens Club again Lleyton Hewitt. Rafa had to retire.

2007- A right knee injury occurred during a Wimbledon match. This caused difficulty in the second half of the year. Rumours emerged that the foot injury he suffered in 2005 was more serious than expected, but luckily, they were false.

2008- Tendinitis of the right knee forced Rafa to withdraw from the Masters Cup again. The injury flared up during a match at Paris Masters, where he had to retire. Rafa also had to withdraw from the Davis Cup.

2009- During the final of Rotterdam against Murray, Rafa called a trainer on court to assist with a right knee tendon injury. This affected his play in the final set. It was not related to the previous knee injury, but he still had to withdraw from Dubai. Right after his only French Open defeat he withdrew from Queens, Wimbledon and the Davis Cup. Rafa was now suffering from tendinitis in both knees.

2010- Rafa retired during his QF match at the Australian Open, as his knees were causing pain. He then took 2 weeks of rest.

2011- He suffered a foot injury during Wimbledon and rested for a month before returning to the tour for the Rogers Cup. During the US Open, Rafa had his infamous muscle cramp drama in a press conference.

2012 to 2013- He withdrew from the Miami Masters once he reached the semi finals, with knee problems. After the 2nd round exit at Wimbledon, Rafa withdrew from the 2012 Olympics. He then continued to withdraw from competitions for 7 months, his longest ever injury break. He dropped out of the top 4 in the rankings for the first time since 2005.

2013- Rafa made his return to the tour at the VTR Open in Chile, where he lost in the final. He then won a title in Acapulco, the start of his incredible comeback. He went on to win 10 tournaments in 2013, including the French and US Open.

2014- Rafa injured his back during the warm up to the Australian Open Final, against Stan Wawrinka. The match was agonising to watch, but Rafa carried on to the end, refusing to retire. What a guy. The back injury forced all sorts of losses. He was not completely tape free or pain free until later on in the year. He still had tape on in the early rounds of Roland Garros, which he went on to win. In July, Rafa injured his right wrist in practice. He withdrew from Toronto and Cincinnati immediately, and then went on to withdraw from the US Open. He was defending champion is all three North American tournaments. Rafa was diagnosed with appendicitis in Shanghai, we are waiting to see exactly what the illness entails, a appendix removal is a possibility.

Well, that definitely brought back memories. Rafa has suffered with injuries throughout his entire career, thats what makes his achievements so mind-blowing. I hope you found this interesting. Thank you for reading.


@rafanadaladdict

US Open Preview

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a great week.

Obviously I was reluctant to writing this blog post. Writing a pre tournament preview is always interesting, but with Rafa gone, it suddenly becomes more of a chore. However, I'm still going to give my verdict to all of the non Rafa fans out there (probably not many that follow me!).

The US Open is less than a week to go. I've already spilled out all my thoughts about Rafa's absence (see my previous post) but I'm going to try and enjoy it the best I can. It's still the last grand slam of the year, and a huge tournament.

I should probably add, for a few days I will be in New York. Unfortunately I'm not visiting the open, but I'll not be posting any blog posts for those 5 days. Apologies in advance.

Let's get on with the post! Time to analyse some players…!

Djokovic

Toronto and Cincinnati were incredibly disappointing tournaments for Novak. Out in the 3rd Round in BOTH. That's early exits in hard court masters… not something we see very often from Djokovic. I think the main issue was with his mental state. What he wanted to do with his body, his mind didn't let him. It was a very strange thing to watch. Obviously we're not sure what the issue is, but Novak's confidence will surely have plummeted. Having said that, we're used to top players making comebacks, so who knows what will happen. But Novak is no Rafa, can he snap out of it quick enough? With many rounds to play and 5 set matches, I would be surprised if he had another early exit in this slam. He'll either drop out early or go far.

Federer

Finalist of Toronto and winner of Cincinnati, Fed's having a good hard court season. With no Rafa or Novak to stop him, Rog got lucky. Having said that, he's still playing well. He isn't playing consistently in some matches, such as the Cincy final and that wash over 2nd set, but when he's playing well, he is really good. I'm interested to see how he performs at the US Open. I defiantly think that top contenders would be Novak, Rafa and Roger (before the injury), so with Rafa out and Novak questionable, Roger has a big chance, defiantly.

To be honest with you, I'm pretty confident either one of them will win, but there are still some underdogs.

Tsonga

We can't rule out Jo! He's showed us he has what it takes to succeed on hard courts, after winning Toronto, but can he rise up to the challenge on the big stage? He can succeed and knock out top players at slams. If his body and mind are perfect, I wouldn't put it past him. He could really give the top guys a challenge.

Dimitrov

Grigor has a lot of potential, there's no doubt about that. He's determined to succeed, and that could give him a boost in this slam. Personally, I'm not sure if he will be up there with winning a slam yet, but he's on the right track. With Rafa out, his path does open up. A quick gush of wind can pick Dimi up and whisk him right on track… can he handle it?

Ferrer

I love David, I really do. He was a finalist in Cincinnati and gave Roger a tough time out there. He has incredible mental stability and never gives up, not on the same par as Rafa, but similar. You wouldn't think of David to win a hard court slam, but again with Nadal gone, another opportunity opens. Let's see what happens!


You can see the trend here, right? Our Rafa is injured, so thats a big top guy out. If Rafa wasn't injured, I could see him grabbing the title, defiantly. I'm actually quite intrigued to see what happens. There isn't a standout top guy for me at the moment… I think Roger and Novak are on par. It all depends on whether Novak can sort himself out before next week. We'll see…

Enjoy the tournament, Rafans. (Well try to anyway.) I'm sending out support to you all during this injury break, we've got through it once, we can do it again.

Grace x

Rafa out of US Open

Sorry that I'm releasing this news late. It's taken me a while to get my head around this. Today at 2pm GMT, Rafa announced via Facebook his decision to withdraw from the US Open 2014. The full statement is below.

I am very sorry to announce I won’t be able to play at this year’s US Open a tournament on which I’ve played 3 consecutive finals in my last participations. I am sure you understand that it is a very tough moment for me since it is a tournament I love and where I have great memories from fans, the night matches, so many things… Not much more I can do right now, other than accept the situation and, as always in my case, work hard in order to be able to compete at the highest level once I am back.

The news is obviously very disappointing for Rafa fans. However, I had a feeling that this news was coming. First he postponed the decision further, which I presume was due to unsatisfactory test results, and then he was still practicing with a splint even today. 

No Rafa = No tennis.

The news was not a shock, but it still hit me harder than I though it would. The North American hard court masters withdrawals were bad enough, but having to withdraw from the USO was devastating. Rafa will lose 2,000 points as he was defending champion.

This affects the rankings. Over the last 3 tournaments, Rafa was defending champion in all of them, so he will lose 4,000 points overall. This closes the gap between Rafa and Roger. 

The number 1 priority is health, of course. I do not want him playing until he is pain free, and he doesn't want to either. It's been a very unlucky year, first we had the issue with the back at the start of the year. Then, around RG and Wimbledon, his health was getting to a point where it wasn't an issue. All of a sudden the wrist injury occurred. 

The return has not yet been assigned a date, the only thing we can go by is 'soon'. I am confident that he will return for the Asian Hardcourt Swing. However, we cannot predict. I'm not saying that this injury is on the same scale as the knee, but its the same kind of issue. The recovery looks quick at first but there are complications, and more tournaments can get cancelled as time goes on. Rafa is still practising hard, so i doubt the injury layoff will be that long. 

Rafans reacted today, and the feeling is mutual. We are all disappointed, but we agree that health is the most important thing. 

For me personally this is disappointing because I am due to fly out to NYC this weekend. Unfortunately I will not be visiting the Open, but I did my research, and it turns out Rafa and I would be staying in the same hotel (well, very likely to be.) A selfish part of me is disappointed about that, but the whole picture shows that it is not the thing to focus on. 

We now have to wait for Rafa's return… once again. We know that injury makes Rafa stronger, 2013 anyone? The back injury earlier this year was an exception, but that is likely because it occurred in the middle of a slam final… 

Keep strong Rafans, its not an easy time for us, but together we will support each other and come through it stronger, just like Rafa.

Love to you all. 

Grace x

@rafanadaladdict

Cincinnati Masters Preview

Toronto was an entertaining tournament with an unexpected winner. Tsonga played an incredible tournament, beating Djokovic, Murray, Dimitrov and Federer back to back. I was blown away with how well he was playing, a well deserved win.

Out with the old, In with the new.

I feel almost upset writing this preview. The emptiness I feel is almost unbearable. Rafa is still on injury break, and there's a minimum of 2 weeks to go until we see him on court again. However, the tournaments still go on, now it's time for the Western and Southern Open.

Djokovic had a very poor run this tournament. Out in the 3rd round to Tsonga, and not just beaten, thrashed. He struggled to win his opener against Monfils too. Critics put the flop down to the overwhelming effect of his wedding, but lets be honest, the world number 1 should have still been able to cope. His chances of winning in Cincinnati may be slightly lowered now, but he has the experience to fight back. It'll be interesting to see how he copes.

Federer had a good run in Toronto, reaching the final. He played well all tournament, but not brilliant. The final was messy, and it's not the usual Federer I'm used to seeing. Let's not count him out though, he has the talent and experience to improve just in time. This time though, I'm not picturing a win.

Murray was another victim of Jo's. He played well in my opinion, Jo just played out of this world. With Rafa not involved and Novak's form questioned, he could very much be a contender for the title.

Tsonga! Last week I didn't expect to be featuring him in this preview, but he surprised us. I've always been a fan of Jo, and this win was incredibly well deserved. Who knows what more he can do? Jo is in the running for a follow up title. Maybe this time the others will be a little more cautious though…

Dimitrov had a good run too. He reached the semi finals in Toronto, but was another victim of Tsonga. (By the way, I can't believe what I'm writing!) I thought he played well this tournament, he fought well. His difficult match with Anderson in the QF left him physically and mentally fatigued, so with a few days rest, he could potentially be a title winner. However, he's just missing the touch that sets him apart from the top guys.


They're my picks! Novak, Roger, Andy, Jo and Dimitrov are my selection for potential Cincinnati winners.



Stay strong Rafans, remember the big decision whether he will play US Open or not will be made on Tuesday. I will be glued to my twitter, so if you want to hear the news first, follow me @rafanadaladdict. Blog posts will be updated as soon as the news is out.

The Decision! Rafael Nadal Wrist Injury Update- 8th August

Hope you all are having a lovely day, we have news!

Rafa has been practicing this week with his splint on, and has been practicing an increasing number of serves and one handed backhands- good news.

After his practice with Dusan Lajovic in Manacor today, he did a quick interview for IB3. He said that he has another medical test in Barcelona with Dr Cotorro next week, said to be on Tuesday. They will then make the decision whether to play at the US Open. If Dr Cotorro is satisfied with the progress of the wrist's recovery, he will be playing at the last grand slam of the year at the end of the month!

Exciting news, fingers crossed until Tuesday! Any other important updates will be displayed here on my blog, and on my twitter @rafanadaladdict.

Rafael Nadal Wrist Injury- Updates 31st July- 4th August

31st July- Rafa was doing a light practice this morning in Manacor. He only practiced forehands slowly, hitting with Toni. Although this shows he cannot yet play, it tells us that he is working hard to be ready as soon as possible. He is now wearing a black splint over his right wrist. His fingers are still able to move around. Rafa posted on his Facebook today telling fans about his splint. He said 'For two weeks I'm changing my watch for this splint.'

3rd August- Toni announced, 'I am optimistic and I believe Rafa will be able to play the US Open.' This is good news, it gives us a little more hope. He also said that they will make the decision whether to play the US Open or not in 10 days time. That's the Wednesday of Cincinnati, 5 days before the US Open. It's going to be a long 10 days, but we will have to wait until then. Rafa is practicing now and then, although not all the time. I am confident he is getting the recovery he needs.

4th August- Today Rafa practiced again. It was mostly footwork and forehands, but he did practice some very slow serves. Big thank you to @bluemathilde for attending the practices and letting us know what's going on! 

Rafa posted on Facebook: 'Taking advantage of these days to continue training, always with enthusiasm and optimism.' 

Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer: A Statistical Comparison

(This article was written on the 1st August 2014. All statistics are as of this time.)

My last comparison proved to be successful, so I'm continuing this series with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. It seems that these two are the ones to choose between in the GOAT debate, so I thought it would be interesting to compare. As you know, I'm a Rafa fan, but I am blown away by Roger, and what he has achieved. Many critics say his tennis is an art, and I agree. And Rafa, well, what else is there to say?

At the moment you'll see that Federer has achieved more in terms of weeks at number 1, grand slam titles and ATP titles, but you have to remember that the men are 5 years apart. Also, when Roger was at his prime, Rafa wasn't there. It is harder for Roger to be successful when Rafa is there, than it is for Rafa when Roger is there. (Hope that makes sense??)

Grand Slam Titles

Rafa: 14
Roger: 17

Interestingly, if Rafa wins at least 1 grand slam title per year, in 3 years time he will equal Roger's record (he would be 31, two years less than Roger.)

Rafa won his first slam at the French Open in 2005.
Roger won his first slam at Wimbledon in 2003.
Two years apart in first slams, Rafa was younger.

Roger won the next 6 slam finals after his first Wimbledon victory, beating the likes of Hewitt and Roddick. Let's be honest, they're no Rafa or Novak. The person who stopped this grand slam final winning streak was (yes, you guessed it), Rafa.

Rafa's next slam final was again, the French Open which he won against Federer.
In Wimbledon 2006 and 2007 though, Roger beat him. After the crushing Wimbledon defeats in 06 and 07, Rafa beat Roger in the next 3 slam finals, Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the Australian Open.

Basically, to summarise, Roger and Rafa were virtually the only people who could beat each other. This started to change around 2010. (That's where Novak came along.)

ATP Titles

Rafa: 64
Roger: 79

On Clay
Rafa: 45
Roger:  10

On Grass
Rafa: 3
Roger: 14

On Hard
Rafa: 16
Roger: 53

First ATP Title

Rafa: Orange Prokom Open, August, 2004
Roger: Milan Indoor, February, 2001

The Rankings

Rafa first turned number 1 in 2008, beating Roger Federer in the Wimbledon Final before a Rogers Cup Title. He was only 21 years old.

Roger first turned number 1 in 2004, after his 1st Australian Open title. He remained there for 4 years, before Rafa took his place for the first time.

Weeks at No.1

Rafa: 141
Roger: 302 (the most ever)

Masters 1000

Rafa has won 27 masters, runner up to 13 of them.
Roger has won 21 masters, runner up to 15 of them.

Rafa has the highest amount of masters finals appearances (40). Federer is next.
Rafa has the highest amount of masters semi final appearances too. (55) Federer is also next.

As far as masters are concerned, Rafa takes it, hands down.

Olympics

Rafa: Gold in 2008.
Roger: Bronze in 2000, Silver in 2012.

ATP Finals

Rafa: Final (2010, 2013)
Roger: Winner (2010, 2011.) (Previously, the finals were the year end championships, he has won them 4 times.)

Davis Cup

Rafa: Win (2004, 2008, 2009, 2011)
Roger: No Swiss wins.

Win/Loss Record

Rafa: 702-137
Roger: 963- 223

Winning Streak

Rafa: 81 on Clay. From April 2005 to May 2007. Ended by Roger Federer.
Roger: 65 on Grass. From 2003 to 2008. Ended by Rafael Nadal.

Winning Percentage

Rafa has a winning percentage against every active player in the top 30.

Rafa leads Roger 23-10. 

Rafa has a winning percentage over Roger: 69.7%

I find these statistics fascinating, I hope you enjoyed them too. It's easy to see that Roger and Rafa are the two best players in the last decade. (Obviously in my opinion.) 

The greatest of all time debate is one that is hard to conclude, and I would honestly say they're quite equal in my eyes at the moment. What's so interesting is that because the two are 5 years apart, the records are almost similar, but Rafa is much younger. What will he have achieved by the time he's Roger's age? If injury doesn't prevent him, he could be onto something here…

Also, as Roger was at his 'prime' earlier, he played very different players. The game is a lot more physical now, and maybe it's harder to succeed. The rivalry is very interesting, especially in the early days. I can't wait to see it unfold further.

Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it! 

@rafanadaladdict