let the rafa boring monologue begin

Boring? Nothing can be more boring than Fed's 2006, boredom throughout the whole year except the clay season!

let the rafa boring monologue begin

Emiliano55 , 4/11/11 3:02 AM


If you find it boring, there are plenty of Challenger tournaments going on that you can watch, and you could even just watch the girls at MC.

I hope the 'monologue' as you call it lives for as long as Rafa is on the tour.


Vaaaaaaaammmmmmmmooooooossssssss!

Here we go!!

Best time of the year for Rafans.
Nothing less than a repeat of 2010 will satisfy us

Vamos!!

nadline and luckstar,

Cheers to both of you! As has been said but bears repeating, no is forcing anyone to watch MC. Tune to reality shows or other sports.

It's Rafa time!!!

If Tsonga survives Monaco and Berdych, he could give an interesting match to Rafa. So can Andy Murray in Semi-finals, notwithstanding his fallibility on clay. Andy Murray is doubtful for Semi-finals though. In the finals, Federer or Ferrer or Verdasco will test him. It may not be as easy as it was last year, but Rafa is indeed the favourite to keep his winning streak at MC.

Why would it be less easy necessarily than last year?

Last year Rafa had been 11 months without a title. He had started playing better earlier but did not regain a good chunk of his confidence until he won the MC title. He has a lot more confidence coming into it this year, having played one of his best early hard court seasons.

Agree with you chloro. What has Tsonga done. He can't even get past Dolgo on the hard courts twice, and hard court is Tsonga's favorite surface. What chance has he got against Rafa on clay? I don't think he can get past Monaco even. Monaco was giving Fed a though match at Miami and hard court wasn't Monaco's favorite surface.

Murray was having problems on the hard courts, again what can we expect from him on clay? I see Berdych getting to the QF to meet Rafa but will be beaten there. Maybe Monfils will fare better than Murray on the clay court and meets Rafa in the semi.

I was going to contend what eskay said but all of it is so without justification that I thought it wasn't worth the effort, where do I start.

Tsonga has played 32 claycourt matches in his entire career and he is a year older than Rafa, out of the 32 he's only won 20, whilst Rafa has played 219 and lost 16, so where is the rationale behind eskay's thinking? Rafa played Verdasco in the final at MC last year and Nando only won 1 game. I can't be bothered to go trough the rest. The fact that Tsonga has played so few matches is because he hasn't gone very far in amy claycourt tournament.

Tsonga will be a dangerous opponent for Rafa on clay...haha thats a joke for sure
Tsonga cannot beat rafa on any surface let alone clay.

I do not see anyway by which Rafa can lose in MC. winning MC is even more of a certainty than winning FO. Barring some strange injury, nothing cannot stop Rafa.

Only person capable of competing with Rafa on clay in Djokovic who is not playing in this tourney.

A bit of trivia for real tennis officionados:

Rafa is going for a 7th title in a row..........absolutely ridiculous, no? And he has lost only 3 sets in the last 6 years. To me, Nadal's streak in MC is among the best ever tennis records. So please, excuse me if I am a little nonplussed when people bandy other "records" around.


Roll the dice........VAAAAAAAAAMOS!

Rafa's "monologue" may be boring to some, but for me watching Rafa play and dominate on clay is one of the most spectacular sights in all sports. The intensity, the long rallies, the powerful forehands, that topspin, those cross-court backhands to the line, leaving the opponent dumbfounded and the spectators on their feet... It's watching true genius and true raw power all rolled into one and battered in red clay. Generations from now people will wish they had the chance to watch the legendary Rafael Nadal play on clay. In sports sometimes there are close contests, and some time there is total domination. We get enough of the first with Rafa on Hard courts. It's time for a bit of the second on clay.
Vamos!!

So sorry if I;m breaking the house rules by posting this link, but I am in full-blown Rafa adulation mode today:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/tennis/2011/04/rafael_nadal_on_cl ay_the_greatest_run_ever_continues.html

Official Rafa autobiography n the way, movie deal can't be far off:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/sphere-serves-nadal-life-sto ry.html

The article about the greatest run.... astounding ... I didn't know most of the details about Borg's clay career mentioned there, and hadn't thought enough about the clay field in Rafa's early days of domination.... this really closes the debate about how these two compare.

Rafa?s matches with Federer were interesting for many reasons, one being both have different styles of play. Tsonga too has a different style of play and can give a good spectacle. Andy Murray plays a similar game and can run miles with Rafa. Tsonga has defeated Monaco. If one were looking for interesting matches, these two can give if they play at their best. They have had victories over Rafa on hard courts and that would have a different feeling from those who would stand defeatists even at the time of toss against Rafa. One would like to see Rafa win in memorable matches than a lop sided ones.

benneteau v niemnen was a slugfest......clay court tennis is so much more entertaining

eagerly waiting for rafa to get on court

VAAAMOS!!!

With Rafa on clay, matches are lopsided more often than not. So for interesting and exciting matches, please look forward to hard court matches. Grass court matches may be exciting too depending on the opponents.

luckystar (10:22 AM), it sounds like you agree with Emiliano after all:)))

VAMOS!

nice one gorofago :)
- They're only boring if you are a Nadal-hater or just simply don't like his style of play.
Me, I love to see him on clay and I'm eagerly waiting to see him :)

Well lopsided or not, I enjoy Rafa's matches on clay. Three of his clay tournaments that I like best:: FO 2008 and MC 2010 for his master class clay court tennis; Rome 2010 for his chess master performance. Rafa played some beautiful tactically spot on tennis at Rome last year. I really love how he played there despite his performance being affected, as he was suffering some knee pain after his knee treatment. I think that explains why he didn't continue with his master class performance at Rome but instead relied on strategic and tactical play to win his matches. I can see that Rafa plays a thinking man's game, especially on clay where it is more apparent. Loves that Hanescu match and also the final against Ferrer, how he worked his way to trap Ferrer and intercept his shots at the net to hit winners.

I don't mind matches being lop sided as long as both players are playing well. Rafa is so good that he can break a player even when they are playing spectacular tennis. Remember Fernando at the MC finals last year? He was playing some of his best tennis and even had to fall on his knees when he was able to manage to win a very spectacular and hard-fought point.
I just hate it when both players play badly, and they are constantly losing their serve simply because of UE and DF, so no one pulls ahead and the "error-fest" goes on forever. It drives me nuts, no matter how close the score is.

Been watching again the highlights of Nadal Vs Hanescu MC 2010
I think this is probably one the best performances on clay ever... period.
If Nadal can replicate this sort of game this year on the dirt, it really doesn't matter who's in front... period.

There will be eventually a time when Rafa slows down on clay.. probably not this year but maybe in 2-3 years Rafa will be a normal clay court player and guys as good as Nicolas Almagro can have a shot at him... At the moment, it's like default win...

In two to three years time Rafa will of course slow down a bit. However by then, he should have already developed his game even further, so much so that he can rely more on skills and strategies than physical power and athletism to win on clay. He can look to Fed for example, how at 29 Fed is still winning his matches against most players. Even if Rafa can't be Rafa on clay by then, he still can be Fed on clay, which is still very good and can beat almost all on clay, except the clay king; and I don't foresee another clay king who can be as good as Rafa, appearing in two to three years time.