Get Well Soon, Rafa.



Vamos

That's odd to announce an injury break in advance.

What's odd? Rafa has a shoulder problem but he will take a break for it in Feb. Fail to see what's odd unless you think planning in advance is odd.

which shoulder is affected? right or left?

"which shoulder is affected? right or left?"

None, most likely.

odd is that February does not have any mandatory ATP tournament !!

There is no need to announce it before a slam

There's a need to announce it now, as Rafa does not want to be pressurized into playing DC in Feb. He does not want to run the risk of reinjuring his shoulder before IW begins. If there's no AO in Jan, who knows, he may even take the whole of Jan off!

PS. With Ferrer and Feli opting out of DC and Verdasco in a slump, Corretja may want Rafa in the
DC team even for the Feb tie, especially if Rafa lose early at the AO.

but he has been already said that he will not play this year DC ..atleast for earlier stages!

As I've mentioned, the Spanish player(s) may be pressurized by Corretja for the DC so Rafa can excuse himself now with this injury worry. If he doesn't say anything now and then comes up with this reason when called upon to play DC, that really sounded like he's not cooperating with Corretja or not wanting to help.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1003977-nadals-lame-shoulder-or-lam e-excuse-rafa-hedges-his-bets-with-latest-injury

Not going to read any bleachers reports. People can say and believe whar they choose to believe, only Rafa knows his reasons. People like to talk up some controversies and that's their problems. I prefer concentrating on Rafa's tennis and see how good or how bad he plays this year. To me knowing how to win and actually winning titles are more important, especially the big titles. If he can continue to win at least a slam this year and make it eight consecutive years winning slams then I'm happy for him; will be extremely happy if he can win more than one slam this year.

I find the Bleacher article hilarious. It only confirms my opinion that the Bleacher Report exists only for bigging Roger up and dissing everyone else except if they can't help it.

Lliev is being the devil's advocate here and is inviting everyone to make up their own mind. Well bleck, there are two sides to every argument and you are always on the wrong side.

Thankfully, Rafa doesn't have to convince anyone of his injury people can or cannot believe it just like Roger has had problems convincing everyone that he really did have mono.

If Roger can play with mono for over a year making finals and winning titles why can't Rafa play with a sore shoulder?

Branimir Iliev is a Fedfan, nuff said.

Bleck, you are sooooooo naive to expect Rafa's fans to buy into this very biased article dissing Rafa by a self confessed fan of Federer's. This is proof without doubt that Iliev is writing from the perspective of a Fed worshipper:

'I think the charge that Federer is arrogant seems popular amongst some. And that's alright with me; just like I don't say the most flattering things about Nadal, I don't expect or 'require' that non-fans of Federer must say flattering things about him. I appreciate the difference of opinion.'

Nadal is without a doubt right now the best, or 2nd best, player on the planet. I am sure Nadal really is a bit injured, but everyone plays with issues, they just don't announce it. I think it takes away from his opponents - if Murray or Djokovic beats him, they only beat a 'hurt' Nadal, whereas if Nadal wins, he's a hero. Federer has used injuries as an excuse a few times (say Berdych, Wimbledon 2010) but he tends to do it AFTER a loss. Another time Fed's legs were strapped up but he never mentioned it and the TV commentators were surprised when they noticed it. If your opponent thinks you are injured he will play you differently and out of his standard mindset. It changes your opponent's preparation and strategy and throws him off.

As Nadal said himself before this exhibition event, he doesn't even expect to beat any of the top guys with his injury, but just plays for the practice. I mean if it was a serious injury, he could have gone and just signed autographs and make an appearance. So basically he gets to deflect any pressure that comes with being expected to beat everyone except Djokovic.

In the US Open final it was Djokovic whose shoulder was totally gone in the 4th set. He was serving far slower by the end. Yet he still handled Nadal with great courage and strategy, and this was all after a mentally draining match where he faced match points vs Federer.

Many of the true Nadal fans on this site have discussed how Nadal could change his own strategy to beat Djokovic. I think that's a better approach than just blaming every loss on an injury (he played pretty well vs Argentina, and his match vs Fed in Abu Dhabi was a reverse of the London match, one beatdown set, and one close set with just a one-break difference).

I don't get where Rafa blame every loss on an injury. Did he blame his loss at Madrid and Rome on an injury? Funny isn't it, when on his favorite surface he didn't blame his losses on injuries but on other surfaces, he does, according to some here. Don't you think he needs more excuses for his losses on clay than on any other surfaces? He's not supposed to lose on clay, I thought!

Fed fans refuse to think Rafa may be injured simply because Rafa was able to beat Fed fairly easy even with the shoulder injury...I am not surprised at all that even having an injury Rafa won the match against Fed...Fed was playing bad tennis, made numerous UEs and so did Rafa...The way Nole played that exo he would have beaten Rafa in an easy way...and it would have been because Nole played great tennis not because Rafa was injured...

Rafa will never blame it on injury...he never did in the past...all his loses to Nole in 2011 and to Fed at WTF have never been excused by any type of injury...did anyone know that Rafa had shoulder problems at the WTF: he never brought it up to make any kind of excuses...Rafa only said he would fight and at the end he gracefully congratulated Fed and Tsonga for their wins...so, it is rather pathetic to listen to some Fed fans blaming Rafa for being injured...I sure would much more like for Rafa to be healthy, but it seems too much to ask...I hope Rafa gets better and that his shoulder heals, because I want to see Rafa play his injury-free tennis...and the Fedfans hype around Fed beating everyone in 2012 was a little premature and it is not Rafa's or Nole's fault that they were able to beat him...after all, it was only an exhibition event...

VAMOS RAFA!!!