Should be another gr8 tourney.. shame some of the others have pulled out but Soderling, Gulbis and Nalby of course are all tough opponents on their day, along with Ferrero, Ferrer, Gonzalez and Andreev, some of the best clay courters in the business will be down there.... bring it on,!

Belucci is tricky, and one to watch. I'm sorry David and Rafa meet up so early, but I am happy to at least see Juanquí in the other half of the draw.

Ricky, you are absolutely right that draw isn't doing Fer any favors. I'm wondering if they're testing his resolve.

GOOD LUCK RAFA!!!!!

VAMOS!!!!!

Rafa is back in full force, he is playing destructive tennis again. But it seems like he's making the same mistake like last year. He plays five tourneys in 7 weeks and he is expected to win them all.That's a lot of pressure for his fragile knees.I think he should have skipped this one or he should skip Madrid at least.

I just read article suggesting Rafa is considering skipping Madrid...I think it all depends on the time he spends on the court during these clay court tournaments...if he is to end his matches within an hour or hour and a half, and if they are not too demanding on him, he expects to be fine...however, although he is defending points in Madrid, this tournament appears to be the last important on his priority list...

These are the excerpts from the Article:
?If needs be, players can move from tournament to tournament by car or by train, in a throwback to the old days. Nadal was planning to go from the Riviera to Barcelona by car, but he tends to prefer to do that journey by road anyway. The danger for Nadal is that he could play too much tennis before Paris, that he could aggravate his knees before he gets to the Bois de Boulogne.
But he seemed to be hinting on Sunday evening that he could give the Madrid tournament a swerve, even though the event at ?La Caja Magica?, ?The Magic Box?, is compulsory. He has complained in the past that it makes little sense for the last Masters before the French Open to be played at relative altitude, with the balls flying through the thinner air in the Spanish capital, as that can cause all sorts of problems when you return to sea level in Paris.
And what does this all mean for the grass-court season? This summer, Nadal should return to Wimbledon for the first time since that near-mythical victory over Federer in the 2008 final. Last summer was all about Federer, with a victory in Paris that ended all argument against the Swiss being the finest player of all time, and then a triumph at Wimbledon that gave him a record 15th slam. This summer, he will have to contend with Rafa again. The ?Pacman? has returned. ?

I think, he can't drop Barcelona easily as he wants his title streak in that tournament continous because, if he wins Barcelona for the 6 consecutive times (most likely) then he has a back up to re-write history again even if he falters at Monte Carlo next year. Record is record no matter how small the tournament is.

if nadal dont skip madrid, then he deserves to lose roland garros again.
stupidity must be punished.
he should only play monte carlo, barcelona, rome and roland garros.
then prepare for queens and wimbledon.

i read somewhere few days ago that although rafa has said that madrid is on his schedule, and it probably does, he hasn't "committed" to it. it may be why tiriac was berrating him. he probably fears rafa may pull out. i also think rafa won't drop barcelona, madrid seems the most logical one to drop.

no point in skipping Barcelona. Too early in the clay-court season. Plus he spent no energy winning Monte-Carlo.

in doubt for Barcelona:

Nalbandian (strained left hamstring)

Beck (volcano)

Luczak (volcano)

I don't think Rafa will make the same mistake again. It all depends on how much time he spent on the courts. If he has easy wins in Barcelona & Rome, resulting in him spending lesser time on courts than say in 2008, and provided that his knees are fine, he may go on and play in Madrid. There is one week break between Rome and Madrid, and a one week break from Madrid to RG. I believe he is wise enough to make his own decision. One thing for sure, he will not make the same mistake and keep complaining about the Madrid tournament like he did last year. By complaining last year, he was inviting trouble only, as any subsequent pulling out from the tournament due to injury or fatigue may lead to suspicion that he was faking them in order to get out of the tournament. He would rather keep quiet this time, see how things go, before making a final decision when the time comes. Should he be playing, I'm sure he'll be more aggressive and get the jobs done asap to avoid that SF scenario of last year.

nobody is talking about Rafa skipping Barcelona, the issue is Madrid..and I do agree that the clay in Madrid does not even fit the description of clay and Rafa does not like it either...it is totally different than the surface in RG and I see no reason for him to play that tournament...it is by no way preparation for RG, it would only be a burden on his knees...

and I feel sorry for Nalby to be injured again...

@natashao , 4/19/10 3:32 PM - excerpt from article posted:

'Last summer was all about Federer, with a victory in Paris that ended all argument against the Swiss being the finest player of all time,'

This is a sweeping statement if ever I heard one. How could a player be the finest player of all time when someone else is the King of Clay.

Is nalby really injured??
and as 4 rafa i believe spending 6 hrs on court in a week should not deter hm from playing in barca..
as 4 madrid, he should try 2 play thr, given that his knees r f9, bcoz that's one place whr he can gain points from fed.
ofcoz if he is not healthy, 4get madrid.. his carrer comes above no.1 ranking..

If he is healthy and his knees are fine he should play Madrid or he'll lose 600 points then it will take him longer to regain his No1 ranking. But of course he is the best judge of all this. If he plays he should commit to it 100%.

Nadal OUT

what do u mean ricky??

his knee, right?

nadline, hi.

i do want to "personally" congratulate you, though you were mentioned as part of "all rafa fans", in another post from me yesterday, as being the second greatest rafa fan on this site, next to vamosrafa, but i also think it is important to try to stay objective (difficult i know, when you are still so excited).so, if you dont mind me saying, it is completely relevant and understandable that the above comment you refer to: (let me post here for you).

'Last summer was all about Federer, with a victory in Paris that ended all argument against the Swiss being the finest player of all time,'

This is a sweeping statement if ever I heard one. How could a player be the finest player of all time when someone else is the King of Clay.


nadline , 4/19/10 5:31 PM

You need to break it down into different tournaments, amount of slams, etc. why shouldnt this be true? you talk about being objective/subjective. we are talking about federer here. and whenever there is a rafa thread, it is mostly you that comes up with comparing rafa to federer, showing that despite to the contrary, you use federer as a benchmark/target to compare rafa too, ALL THE TIME. (please dont take this the inccorect way, though you will), but you keep on saying that nothing is conclusive where federer is concerned (words to that effect), why do you do this? endless, endless, people have said he is the best, the finest, etc., you have also gone on to say its a "dead argument" (words to that effect), okay, so you dont agree he is the "finest". big deal. you are in a minority. (it's NOT a sweeping statement). It's based on FACT. 16 slam fact. I'm a federer fan nadline (in case you didnt know). I can happily say rafa is the best at claycourt), but as for anything else, e.g. hard court? grass court? Be respectful and be real. Rafa is great, but NOT the greatest at hard court OR grass. I dont know why you want to continue this line? It's almost as if you are bored with hearing that federer is the best here or the finest here. He is. Fact. Just accept it and move on.

It would be very hard for Nadal to overcome Fed to the number 1 ranking. He played a phenomenal season in 2008 and into early 2009 to do it, while Federer was below his own par (during most of 2008).

Better to do a lot of things not to get injured and see how he does with the ranking as a result. An uninjured Rafa this year will be a strong number 2 by the end of the year.

@ natashoa,

I was just responding to Ice who suggested earlier that Rafa should have skipped Barcelona or Madrid at least.

Nadal is out of Barcelona

he will be out of Madrid as well

http://tennistalk.com/en/news/20100419/Nadal_pulls_out_of_Barcelona

@chlorostoma..
oh no!! not that tough..
fed has 6000 points to defend from madrid to cincinnati..
and in that period nadal has just 1760 points to defend..
xpect rafa to get atleast 4560 points in those..
fed will certainly lose 800 points at roland garros, 400 possibly at madrid and 400 at cincinnati..
so nadal gains 2800 points while fed loses 1600 points..
nadal covers 4400 points.
and the current gap b/n them is 3710 points..
ad this is a very much possible scenario..
rafa can do better than this or fed can do worse..
so u see rafa has a very good chance to get back to no.1 by august..
hiccups maybe possible, but he should get thr easily..
(of coz he should try to preserve himself, but the schedule is not that demanding if he can see through the current 3 week on clay at stretch.. n ya i 4got queen's in between 250 points thr too..)

that's really bad news...

clayking, I hope you are right. I agree that Federer has his work cut out in the months up to and including Wimbledon, and he hasn't been in the best of forms lately, so you may be right.

Chlo,

are you sure about your points calculation? This is my take on it (which might be right or wrong).

Points to defend:

Federer ? 2,170
Nadal ? 3,780
Djokovic ? 2,840
Murray ? 2,240

Rankings
Federer ? 11,350
Djokovic ? 8,310
Nadal ? 7,370
Murray ? 7,300

Federer is ahead 3,040
I don?t think Federer has to worry about losing #1 spot, right now!


Federer:
Dubai ? didn?t play
IW ? 360
Miami ? 360
Monte Carlo ? 90
Rome ? 360
Total ? 1,170

Djokovic:
Dubai ? 500
IW ? 180
Miami ? 600
Monte Carlo ? 600
Rome ? 600
Total ? 2,480

Murray:
Dubai ? 90
IW ? 600
Miami ? 1,000
Monte Carlo ? 360
Rome ? 10
Total 2,060

Nadal:
IW ? 1,000
Miami 180
Monte Carlo -1,000
Rome ? 1,000
Total ? 3,180

Again, we see how amazing it is that Federer stayed #1 ? with rankings

Add the following points for Madrid:

Federer = 1,170 +1,000 = 2,170
Djokovic ? 360 + 2,480 = 2,840
Nadal ? 600 + 3,180 = 3,780
Murray ? 180 + 2,060 = 2,240

Everyone can see for themselves on the homepage the rankings points and do their math to see the difference. I have yet to see ANYONE that has claimed that Rafa will regain the number one anytime soon. The talk has been about Rafa's points he has to defend for clay (fed doesn't have as much to defend on clay) and the fact that starting from RG on, Rafa doesn't have many points to defend (fed has tons) and people are saying that after RG is when Rafa will start making up points. Most are more concerned that he stays healthy than obsessing about ranking points and who has what points.

fan4tennis,

But you are thinking like a Rafa fan and not a Fed fan! I agree wholeheartedly that the most important thing for Rafa is to stay healthy. He is doing exactly what he has to do to focus on the big picture, namely RG. If he has to drop points in the short run, in order to be fresh and in peak form for RG AND Wimbledon, so be it. He will be able to gain a ton of points.

lol@maxi
clearly u have never done maths.

As far as Rafa should be concerned, there's no use worrying about the rankings, (not sure why Federer fans seem obsessed with it to be honest, it's not like Fed has anything left to prove) because the ranking will come when he's at his best and wins major tourneys. And how will he be at his best? If he paces himself and makes sure those knees are properly looked after. I think Rafa has made his peace with the fact that he will always have problem knees but it doesn' t mean he still can't have a pheneomenal career regardless.