Horrific blisters rule Nadal out of contention at AO

Julia Santamaria wrote:

laverfan wrote:Amri… no excuses. If you are not ready, do not take your racquet and balls to the court.

So what do you want him to do, not come out on court at all?
Just because his left hand has detonated to the extent he can't compete against anyone in the top 20?

Yep! I have never been a fan of those made up sport etiquette. Almost all athletes have niggles certainly and probably all have them at some point during their career but they do not affect the game the same way.

Only fans do not want to hear about excuses....or even use the word excuse for or against their players.

For me it's simply reasons possibly impacting the outcome of a match. I can live with those reasons...call them excuses even ...if you wish. It does not bother me but I'd rather be aware of them than not.

Tenez there are a few things we agree on, and this is one of them.

Julia Santamaria wrote:Tenez there are a few things we agree on, and this is one of them.

I think we also agree that Nadal's game is physical and that Fed is immensely more talented.....don't we?

Can't remember every saying that.

Julia Santamaria wrote:Nadal is a total mess. Wihtout the tape, he is in serious serious pain gripping the racket (not surprising... that blister looks seriously painful); and with the tape he can barely feel his racket.

You ignore the video of him practicing without the tape--  he's swinging freely and smiling with his coaches...  Espn showed it.. Brad Gilber and Cahill talked about it for several minutes. Cahill showed how Nadal holds the butt of the racquet higher up then most.    So how can you say he is in serious pain gripping it? He says he's not. Says he doesn't even feel it on forehands, just a little bit on serves.  The video of him practicing with it show him in no discomfort-- Yet YOU say he is in serious pain. Based on what evidence?

What tells me it's not a big deal is even in the practice footage, when he's not hitting the ball but just walking around the court- he's still holding the racquet tightly in his left hand,  twirling the racquet around in his hand sometimes....   someone with a cut or blister that is horribly painful would be holding the racquet in their other hand when they not actually playing. That's just common sense. He has to hold it when playing, but when not playing- if it was bothering him, he wouldn't be holding the racquet..   it's that common sense and actual evidence that nadal fanatics always ignore.

truffin1 wrote:

You ignore the video of him practicing without the tape-- 

He had a plaster on the blister itself, check the link HN posted on 606v2.

he's swinging freely and smiling with his coaches...

Nadal loves Federer, the possibility of him losing to his hero is probably keeping him happy.

truffin1 wrote:
What tells me it's not a big deal is even in the practice footage, when he's not hitting the ball but just walking around the court- he's still holding the racquet tightly in his left hand,  twirling the racquet around in his hand sometimes....  

There is a difference between holding a racket and playing some low intensity practice, and a full on match. He will grip the racket much tighter during the match... and then it will hurt.

Julia Santamaria wrote:

truffin1 wrote:

You ignore the video of him practicing without the tape-- 

He had a plaster on the blister itself, check the link HN posted on 606v2.

he's swinging freely and smiling with his coaches...

Nadal loves Federer, the possibility of him losing to his hero is probably keeping him happy.

truffin1 wrote:
What tells me it's not a big deal is even in the practice footage, when he's not hitting the ball but just walking around the court- he's still holding the racquet tightly in his left hand,  twirling the racquet around in his hand sometimes....  

There is a difference between holding a racket and playing some low intensity practice, and a full on match. He will grip the racket much tighter during the match... and then it will hurt.

"He will grip the racket much tighter during the match... and then it will hurt."

Nadal says it does not hurt... and even his most ardent fans must admit he's not shy about complaining about the slightest niggle   So why are we to believe you over Nadal that he will be in pain?

Nadal went even further, he said there were times when he 'lost feeling' on the racket.
I have had blisters on both feet and hand before, and I can tell you the latter is significantly worse to deal with when playing tennis. (and my blister was minor compared to the one nadal has by the images i have seen)

Nothing better than a Fedal match to keep the emotion high!

Julia Santamaria wrote:Nadal went even further, he said there were times when he 'lost feeling' on the racket.
I have had blisters on both feet and hand before, and I can tell you the latter is significantly worse to deal with when playing tennis. (and my blister was minor compared to the one nadal has by the images i have seen)

oh, okay-- now that you explain you've had blisters before and know what Nadal is feeling- it all makes sense now.. You convinced me.  Federer's got it in the bag!! YES!!

Julia Santamaria wrote:Nadal went even further, he said there were times when he 'lost feeling' on the racket.

That's so laughably ambiguous.  You have got to be trolling, surely?

truffin1 wrote:

Julia Santamaria wrote:Nadal went even further, he said there were times when he 'lost feeling' on the racket.
I have had blisters on both feet and hand before, and I can tell you the latter is significantly worse to deal with when playing tennis. (and my blister was minor compared to the one nadal has by the images i have seen)

oh, okay-- now that you explain you've had blisters before and know what Nadal is feeling- it all makes sense now.. You convinced me.  Federer's got it in the bag!! YES!!

  it all makes sense now....glad we have Amri here!

I  am seriously beginning to think that all this blister palaver has been a well thought out PR plan from the start of this tournament.
Who in the right mind would have his hand photographed in such a state?
Imagine if all players took their socks off and offered the sight of their feet to us every time they had a blister (and they all do all the time)!

In fact, I remember Wimbledon 2006 when Nole was playing Nadal and retired with really bad blisters from a winning position. His trainers were actually cutout just so he could feel less pain.

The knees must have been deemed "passe" on social networks...anyone remembers him bumping into a chair in the lobby a few AOs ago?

noleisthebest wrote:
Who in the right mind would have his hand photographed in such a state?

Oh for crying out loud NITB...
The picture is a screenshot taken during his match with Dimitrov. What's he mean to do, stand up and punch the cameraman?

I am pretty sure the camera showed his hand during his match with Nishikori, in fact. After that fall....

He came into the Nishikori match with his hand already taped up, and the image is from his match with Dimitrov.

I don't remember his hand being taped at all in Nishikori match. How many DFs did he serve against Nishi, then?

noleisthebest wrote:I don't remember his hand being taped at all in Nishikori match. How many DFs did he serve against Nishi, then?

It was taped.
I can't remember how many DFs he served against Kei, he certainly played quite poorly, and his condition deteriorated even more for the Dimitrov game.

Yes, but how many DFs did he serve against Nishikori?

noleisthebest wrote:Yes, but how many DFs did he serve against Nishikori?

I don't know exactly, but certainly his condition got much worse by the time he played Dimitrov.

Julia Santamaria wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Yes, but how many DFs did he serve against Nishikori?

I don't know exactly, but certainly his condition got much worse by the time he played Dimitrov.

Why don't you find out then, you are good with digging out stats. Try now, even though it doesn't suit hour agenda.
See also if he had his hand taped against Dimitrov.

I can't find it, not on the ATP website yet.

He definitely had his hand taped against Dimitrov, did you watch the match? The camera was on his hand for a lot of the time, same against Nishikori.

http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/stats/day13/1401ms.html#summary

It is.  And he made 1.

I checked ATP, not AO- thanks for the link.

Dear me, that shows his hand is detoriating.
1 against Nisikori, 7 against Dimitrov.

Ah, I was redirected from ATP.  It links to it.

Also, having 7 against Dimi doesn't prove anything has deteriorated.  That's a bogus extrapolation.  With just one match as your reference, it makes 0 sense.  Much more likely is that Dimi was schooling him for much of the match and making him nervous.  Pressure is a big factor in sport.  Why does it have to be something other than Nadal is not perfect?  How you you see all those variables and magically extrapolate only that which supports your flawed argument and position?  Well, I'm done arguing with you anyway.  It's clear no-one will ever get anywhere with you.  

That means a min of 49 against Fed

I checked here:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=N552&oId=N409

And it didn't show the AO match yet.

noleisthebest wrote:That means a min of 49 against Fed

No I don't think he will serve any double faults against Fed, because he will serve safely.

It's not just double faults, Nadal's whole game is collapsing. Double faults are avoided with safe first serves, but could cost him the match.

Julia Santamaria wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:That means a min of 49 against Fed

No I don't think he will serve any double faults against Fed, because he will serve safely.

It's not just double faults, Nadal's whole game is collapsing. Double faults are avoided with safe first serves, but could cost him the match.

You see, you are just pulling things out of your ass to support your position.  You have all bases covered by moving the goal posts and making stuff up.  Surely you can see that??

Nadal himself said in an interview that he had to serve much slower to avoid double faults.

It's common sense, highering your first serve percentage with slower 1st serves will reduce doubles- but still mean Nadal has next to no chance.