Been out of it for a while.... on holidays, but been checking Rafa's progress after Wimby.. after seeing this match one can only think about next season for him.... I hope he can start with a fresh mentality..

I can only hope that Rafa will get thru the 3rd and 4th rounds coz I have tickets. Vamos Rafa!

C'mon guys, give him a break.............but Shireling I must admit Im already looking ahead to next season!!!

jayhu, am sooooo envious! Have a fab time!

It was such a roller coaster but the good thing is that Rafa held his nerves at crucial moments, a lot of crucial moments, to overcome Golubev; so at least he was able to control his nerves.

There is a good deal of doom and gloom here. I am not writing Rafa off for this year. I expected him to come out not playing his best. Golubev came out playing aggressive tennis. It was his only chance. Rafa was standing way behind the baseline and didn't play aggressively.

I learn a lot from Rafa's post-match press conferences. He pointed out that the problem with his cc backhand was not his burned fingers, which have healed now, but his court positioning. I recorded the match and watched some of it again today. I saw that he was several feet behind the baseline when he was hitting his cc backhands. Then Golubev would jump all over them for big forehand winners down He usually stands inside the baseline when he goes for that shot.

Rafa has had ugly wins before in the first week of slam tournaments. He came into the USO with less match preparation than last year. The good thing is that he played the crucial points better than Golubev. He got lucky in the latter part of the second set, when Golubev lost his cool after he argued a call about Rafa not getting to his drop shot and the ball bouncing twice. The replay showed that Rafa got to that shot. But Golubev couldn't seem to get it together after that.

The best part of the match was Rafa's comeback from 2-5 in the third set. Rafa started hitting some great passing shots and finally showed some life and aggressive play. He won that third set, rather than Golubev losing it.

When it counted, Rafa got the job done. He got the win and can now work on what is not working now and build on the things that are working. He showed that USO serve in the first set, but couldn't keep it up.

One match at a time, Rafa!

Sorry, there was a typo in my previous post. In the second paragraph, I meant to say that Golubev would jump all over Rafa's cc backhand shots for big forehand winners down the line. For some reason, the sentence wasn't complete.

In his ater match presser Rafa said that it was difficult to get into any sort of rythm because Golubev was going for winners most of the time.
Rafa needs to realise that the reason his adversaries go for winners all the time is simply because they are given easy balls to attack on, as simpy as that.
Why is it so instinctively incompatible for him to not shy away from the baseline and be more aggresive? Does anyone know of an (ex) number 1 who might have had the same problem?

Exactly my thoughts, shireling. I'm actually sick of hearing what Rafa said after his matches, that he had to play more aggressive and more inside the court, how many times must we hear that, and yet he did nothing to play aggressive. What's the point of knowing it, saying it and yet not going to do it? Rafa also has an effective aggressive game, whether on clay, grass or hard courts, as evident by how aggressively he played against Berdych in Miami this year, against Monfils on clay at Barcelona. Why against a low ranked player, he started to play defensively from the get go? Why not impose his game, his stature or whatever he has on his low ranked opponent? Instead he allowed a no. 98 player to boss him around the whole match! Golubev is not the only player playing this way and won't be the last that Rafa will meet in his matches; is he going to wait out a match for errors from his opponents for all his matches?

I'm also getting sick of Rafa keep talking about his five final losses, on and on in practically every after match presss conference. Stop thinking about the losses and concentrate on the work on hand. Why not watch how Fed or Murray deal with Nole and learn something out of it, if he himself has not worked out a gameplan yet.

I also don't like uncle Toni keep putting Rafa down by saying that other players are more talented than Rafa. It seems that now Toni has shown some regrets for doing so and started telling Rafa that he's already a somebody and should behave like one. I hope it's not too late for Rafa to start building his confidence now knowing he is as talented if not more talented than some of the top players. He's already 25 now, it's time that he make his own decisions, especially on court; stop looking at Toni for any encouragement or 'coaching' or whatever when on court, just decide for himself what shots to make, where to serve, what court positions to take and what game to play! Be the hunter and then happily be the hunted as well. Enjoy your days at the top instead of feeling pressurized about defending all those ranking points!

In short, please play with confidence and with an aggressive, fearless mindset. I'm sure Rafa you can do it. Stop letting Toni telling you what to do always on the tennis court, make your own decision!

Easy Luckystar, easy........lol!!!!

it's so frustrating to see our guy strugling and fiting dome demonds that nobody really sees but himself.
The fact that he is able to play aggresively and dominate on all surfaces only makes it worse - it would be different if we knew he couldn't do it, then we would just sulk and wait... I hope he finds his mojo and enjoys playing on court again.. right now it's just painful to watch (maybe we're being a little bit too sour, lol)

I'm was never convinced that Rafa was always getting the best advice from those around him anyway,
He plays too much given his game style, his lack of success (comparable!) is tied to this fact I think,
His game has not progressed either, in fact it has regressed to a certain extent, it might be time for a change but also a rest (ie less 500 tournaments etc going on despite the fines)
And he needs to stop hogging the baseline as clearly Novie has his number there and a few others might do soon.
Good grief, even Mr what's is name from uzbekhistan or wherever showed him what's what a lot, he was lucky his opponent lacked consistency I would say.

Actually it's not luck that Rafa beats Golubev. Rafa can play better than this, it's just that he's not willing to take more risk and attack more. I'm sure that if Golubev had won the second set, Rafa won't play the same way that he played in the third set. This boy loves to be pushed to the limit before getting all fire up, unless he's playing against those top players where he knows he has no choice but to fight hard right from the start.

Against Nole at IW and Miami this year, he was playing aggressively right from the start. He lost not because he didn't fight, but because of certain parts of his game not functioning well, besides Nole's good play. Come Madrid, we saw him playing so tentatively in the final until he was 0-4 down in the first set, then he started fighting, more to save his face than to win, for I believe by that time he didn't believe that he could beat Nole. He was playing not to lose that's why he played tentatively and defensively. I think his not finding his good movement on clay this year contributed to his lack of confidence even on clay, when facing Nole.

As I've mentioned, Rafa can play aggressively and beat players like Berdych on the hard courts, and Berdych is so much a better player than Golubev, and that's why during the match, I wasn't worried that Rafa would lose to Golubev, knowing Golubev. I'm just frustrated with the way Rafa played. In fact I thought Rafa had improved early this year at the hard court season, reaching two finals even after coming back from injury break and still rusty, with some parts of his game still not functioning properly. However, his clay court game, even his grass court game, had all gone backwards. I think I can say the same about his hard court game this NA season. I really don't expect him to defend his title here, but I hope at least he can reach the semifinal. I'll be happy if he does reach the SF, and I don't care who he'll lose to there; anything beyond the SF will be bonus for this fan here.

Lucky I've no doubt that Puss n Boots can reclaim the number 1 spot again,
For a time,
But really it's back to the drawing board for now as Novie B has sucked the life out of him.
It might just come down to a holiday or something but he has to process what has happened to him this year and come up with a plan about what to do next..

It is frustrating to see Rafa struggling, but it has happened in the past and he worked it out. I think it's easier for us to say that Rafa should stop saying he has to be aggressive and just do it. We are not out there on the court. I also don't know that Uncle Toni should be blamed for it. I would prefer that he not make public comments disparaging Rafa's form and just leave that for private discussion. However, he has been there with Rafa since he was a child and has helped to mold him into the great champion that he is now.

I don't like to see Rafa struggling against the likes of Golubev, but it has happened before in the early rounds of slams. In the first week of RG, Rafa was struggling like he never has before in his favorite slam. He was playing defensively behind the baseline and had to battle back against Isner and Andujar. Yet he ended up winning the tournament.

I am hoping that Rafa can find his aggressive game here once again. He never quits and always keeps on fighting. It was ugly against Golubev, but in that third set he seemed to remember how to play his game and went for his shots. He closed the match out strong and hopefully that will help him going forward.

Well,
At least he doesn't mysteriously implode like a certain Brit I could mention.
He's made of sterner stuff than that...