Article

  • Nadal admits he's in scheduling pressure cooker

    1/12/09 8:26 AM | Johan Lindahl
    Nadal admits he's in scheduling pressure cooker After winning eight titles in a huge physical grind of a 2008 season with honors which included Paris and Wimbledon success, Rafael Nadal can only look ahead to more of the same starting now.

    "There is no solution to this," the four-time French Open winner said of a workload which eventually forced him to end his season early last November with knee problems. "I can't think of another formula to keep me in the top position. I just have to keep playing."

    Nadal won eight of 18 events he played in 2008 and took over No. 1 from Roger Federer in August. "You can't have everything your way so I am expecting the same things again in 2009," he said of his personal pressure cooker.

    The Spaniard has loads of points to defend and will now wear the special pressure unique to the No. 1 player. And there is no realistic way that his crowded schedule can be reduced.

    "Tell me one tournament that I don't have to play," he added. "These things happen if you win a lot of matches, and I won a lot of matches last year."

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Comments

i can't understand this issue. last year,his schedule was more or less the same as roger's or nole's,if not exactly the same. then why and why do people ask HIM (and not somebody else) about this schedule thing? I don't get it.

sisterofnight12 , 1/12/09 1:20 PM


Interesting question, sisterofnight. Perhaps because Nadal WON so many of those tournaments. Or maybe it's just because his style of play looks exhausting, so people assume that he is killing himself out there.

cherylmurray , 1/12/09 1:25 PM


Not to mention the guy's injuries forced him to miss the close of last season.

It will be very interesting to see if he can defend all his grass and hard court points, since another clay sweep is certainly still in the cards.

JohnnyM , 1/12/09 3:24 PM


Last year he played at Roterdam which I believe wsa redundant...He should take some rest after OZ open concludes.As cheryl mentiond..his style of play and the fact that he WON so many matches contributed to damage being done to his body..but not only victories..COSECUTIVE VICTORIES!!!He started at montecarlo..won it..then barca where he also won aftr an exhuasting final..then thnks to olympics the compressed schedule meant rome was looming large..his body cudnt tolerate 3rd week of relentless baseline tennis where rafa runs runs and runs..and u cant blame him for this becoz this is the best strategy on clay.Then came hamburg the next wee..a smal brk but then SLAM at paris..no brk before the headed to queens and started his preperation for wimby...won queens and a short break leads to wimby which he also won...again unsusually compressed schedule ,,meant playing toronto a week later ..cincy ...bejing and so on.....08 ws brutal for players as mentioned by rodik and many others..Federer last tear made an interesting comment in which he hilited the fact that when rafa wins 6-4 and I win 6-4...the energy loss for rafa is much greater....i hope 09 will b better !

vamosrafa , 1/12/09 10:47 PM


People can talk only, the fact is, he's great player, so what if he loose sometimes, he's just human being, what some people expect over here, to win all the time, some of you, are really peace of work, go Nadal, you're the greatest...

gordana , 1/13/09 9:45 AM



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