Good 'old' Andy,

'a fancy term for overuse' - you got to love americans (no pun intended, I mean it :)
His opinion is pretty valid considering he also has tendinitis, isn't it?

i like Andy.... i also believe that Rafa will play.this time he will be the underdog i believe and no one will expect him to win.
Sometimes i think that Rafa likes to be the underdog.
i just hope that Rafa will only play if he is absolutely sure he is fit to play.
just curious...Shireling,what was it that Andy said that was so American?

I agree with you, alik. I think Rafa thrives on being the underdog and plays his best tennis when he's the hungry pursuer. He's trying to keep everyone's expectations low--including his own. He does that alot. I'm not entirely convinced he'll show. Beyond the injury, he's seems genuinely tired. Tennis looks easy, but it sure "ain't". I'm from New York.

Alik
Hope you didn't feel offended by my comment.
I'm not one to say but I like the way americans tend to make things sound easy. e.g: overuse instead of insertion tendonitis. But, maybe this is not something characteristic of americans... I just liked the way Roddick put it. I do not want to imply anything bad about americans I assure you, sometimes words don't come easy (like F.R David would say, lol)

Rafe thrives being the underdog you say (spingirl).
This is a typical strategy in sports, you see it all the time and not only in tennis. It sort of takes pressure off a bit before the match - during the match is another story :). I don't think Nadal does it more or less than anybody else.
Federer also says that Nadal is favourite on clay prior to RG, doesn't he? (Maybe not anymore..)

After watching Rafa lose to Soderling, nothing is impossible anymore. I sure hope the strengthening of the muscles around the knee will help, but you never know. Saying someone has teninitis is not saying much. It's a general term to say that there is inflammation of a tendon, but its severity could vary from person to person. Roddick's may not be as severe or as painful. The body of each person could also react differently to the anti-inflammatory medicine.
Anyway, I sure hope Andy is right.

thank you for explaining shireling.

Andy give sum bangin to the other andy with u r boomin serves....

grafight,

Good point about the range of severity of tendinitis. I thought the same when I read Roddick's comments.

When Rafa skips or retires from an important tournament I usually assume it's pretty serious, especially when they announce he's played through pain since Miami. I believe that they mean 'through a lot of pain'. From time to time players will skip a tournament out of precaution or to rest a bit more and probably Nadal has done this some times, but this time I am kinda worried. He rarely seemed to be really playing at his level since Miami, and we're talking the clay season. The Nadal on clay of 2008 would have certainly beaten the Nadal on clay of 2009.

If I could turn back time and that lousy tendinitis, I would have loved to see Soderling play his heart out the way he did ... against the Rafa on clay I was looking forward to after last year's clay season and after Wimbledon, Toronto, Beijing, the Australian Open etc. I fully expected him to drop even fewer games. But since Miami something seemed to be up. Not to take anything away from Robin, he played so strongly in this tournament...

You could say, well, all athletes struggle with injuries or their potential. But there is also some luck involved: your body's predisposition for tendinitis for example. Some people can punish their joints all they want for an entire sports career and get few inflammations. In Rafa's case I don't think it's all up to the number of matches he plays and the physicality of his game.

Not that I Andy R's tantrum at RG made me proud, but I still have to like him. Honestly can't imagine him getting to another Wimby final, not with the competition lining up.

So right not to underestimate Rafa. I get what he's saying dismissively about Rafa's knees but it's not meant in any negative way. I doubt he'd be terribly sad to have either Rafa or Roger, Muzz or Nole sort of 'withdraw' or 'retire' from Wimby. hehee

However, I still am worried about Rafa's knees. For Rafa to come right out and admit he could not take it any longer, the pain was effecting his movement and bothering his mental game is something new, isn't RAFANs? I mean the report did not sound too serious, except for a couple details and one never really knows.

One thing I believe about Rafa, the sweetie would not say his knees hurt like he did , if it was not true.

chlorostoma , ...thats an xcellent pnt that u made...i also think luck is alwasy there..rafa's playing style can b blamed but sumtimes tennis players get injured for doing almost nuthing..for e.g twisting ankles while simply chashing a ball/changing direction and teh surface(clay for e.g) has a rough/dry patch and u end up twisting ur ankle...not the player's fault at all...i have always beleived roger federer is one of the best champions of all time but at the same time one of the luckiest champions of al time..2001 groin injury..2008 small bout of mono...otherwise nuthng...he and his fans shud feel very lucky =)

Staying injury free definitely helps but so does maintaining focus and motivation, which is not easy especially after staying at the pinnacle of rankings for a long time. There will always be question marks on how many more titles this and that tennis legend could have won if they didn't have this and that injury/illness, eg. Agassi, I believed would have won many more grand slams and kept up his rivalry with Sampras at his peak, if he had been more disciplined during his younger brashier days, and who knows what Borg could have done if he didn't end his career prematurely. It's all history now and we won't ever know.

There is a bit of luck involved, sure, such as take a really bad step... but what I was writing about is something that boils down to genetics. Some people's genetic predisposition is such that they are very very unlikely to get inflammations etc in their first half of life or even later.

(On a different note, Bord used to have an extremely low heart rate, and that was definitely not down to only a lot of training. They measured his heart rate during major matches and it was ridiculously low then too. Lower than when the rest of us take a walk. That certainly helped his wins.)

Well, Fed may seem lucky because he always win and more than often win without effort because of his superior skills. Take RG for example. Nadal fans got what they wanted. In-form Djoker is in Fed's half.

But in the end, Nadal got bundled out by Sod, Murray got beaten by Gonzalez and Djoker got beaten by Phillip. And difference between Fed and the rest of the top 4 is he managed to overturn the tide when it seemed is going against him against Haas and Delpo. That's why he's 20 semis in a row and in 19 finals. He always have an alternative route to turn things around.

Hey Torres,
The thread here was discussing the potential seriousness of Rafa's knee injury. This time when I wrote about luck it was referring to "genetical luck" to put it crudely. I am musing as to whether Rafa's knee problems over the years have a lot to do with that, and not only to what some criticize as playing too hard or too often.

Bjorn Borg was born with a ridiculously low heart rate. Nothing to do with the hard work he did training, with coaching, or anything else. A gift from biology. That did not hurt him in his matches.

vamosfama: don't agree that Fed is just "lucky." The way he moves and shot makes is special. At times he seems to float through the air. This style must make things easier for his joints. I am very surprised that he now has back problems, but just shows, I suppose, that the schedule is so tough nobody is immune to injury.

Pardon me, good people, but isn't this about Rafa?

Thanks!

Andy Roddick is right - he will show up for Wimbledon next week - but I would not call Rafa the underdog by any manner or means. He will be RAVENOUS to show not only what he can do on this surface, but also that he can defend his ranking beyond twelve months while he's at it. No slip-ups this time out. He'd never allow that, two slams running.

Of course, that's my tuppence-worth. Whether Rafa himself feels the need to be the underdog is another matter entirely. Whatever turns you on.

beware everyone becoz i feel that a rejuvinated rafa is gona come like a gale storm..pn fire on rampage ...though he lacks match practice but last year also wid hardly ant practice on grass he won queens by beating wordclass opposition handily...i just hope the draw isnt too harsh for him ..he'l manage !!!