What does Nadal need to do to recover some form? Or have we seen the last of him?

Can Nadal actually play better without having to double his muscle mass and stamina?

Well we know the answer to that more or less. However I think he can still improve from previous years. Contrary to former popular belief, it is clear nowadays that players reach their peak after 28 in most cases. To start with the average top 5 and top 10 players is officially now over 29 as of Monday! Stan clearly played one of the best match of his life at 30....and at 30 was "still fresh enough" to go all the way and win a slam in gruelling conditions...and if Djoko lost it's not because he declined..it's more to do with Stan peaking at the right time.

So going back to Nadal who just turned 29, there shoudl be in theory no reason why he can't improve from now. We thought (and me the first one) that his days were gone after 2011...yet he came back in 2013 with his best tennis ever.

His shot making should still be as good as ever and improving. We can actually see patches of those this year but it doesn't last much. Is that due to the stricter 25s rule? "training diet" not being as efficient on him as before as Truff says?

Is he going to be happy hovering around the #10 ranking for the next year or so before slipping further down or is he going to launch a last assault to the top? More importantly, what can he do to improve now?

Killing time at the airport between the flights....and what better to do than ponder Nadal's shiny future

I've no idea what he can do to improve his game, but we'll find out pretty soon how talented he is.

Dare we hope he has exhausted the muscle option?

He'll need to keep his sponsors happy.

...ooooor!

He can hire a celebrity coach?

Edberg helped Fed, Boris is helping Nole, Goran-Cilic, Chang - Nishi etc...

Is it time to say astalavista to the most famous tennis uncle?

Exciting times....

I think the key is to finally got the hang of his FH. He has the power to hit harder than anyone if he flattens it just a bit. This is actually what he has been trying to do when when he got broken back v Stan in Rome. Tehn he produced 2 UEs by trying to kill the point with 2 shots. But had he converted them, he would have won the first set v Stan.

I think he could probably do it with his right hand more naturally. He woudl get a better feel for the ball as his right hand is much more sensitive than his left. he has enough power from his left hand though to make it deadly yet secure enough. he might lose more but he might be able to win the roadrunners again.

I feel that's his only chance. Flattening his FH and becoming very good at it. That's an easy shot to improve when one has so much power.

I think it would be difficult for him as he'd have to move closer to the baseline.
The tour has improved and consolidated considerably.
How would he deal with deep and fast balls now from a closer range?
He'd have to change the swing and that would make him very nervous under pressure.

It may keep him in top 20, but would his ego be able to live with it?

I expect someone who moves that well to be able to get to the ball earlier and dictate a bit more. His shots can still be hit with lots of margins. Plus if he goes flatter, he would hurt considerably meaning many of the balls coming back would be much easier to put away. Isn't what he did roughly in 2013?

He'd have to change the swing and that would make him very nervous under pressure.

That's indeed the core of the problem. But  I expect someone who has hit tennis balls every day for 25 years to really get the feel for it. he is meant to improve his shots with age...and we are not seeing it strangely.

Playing with unatural arm maybe?

Were are you traveliing? lucky you!

I think he's not improving his FH mainly because of how he hits or rather lifts the ball...the effort is all into the force and muscle rather than timing; if he was playing it with normal topspin, he would have improved easily just like his BH has been improving over the years.
But it will be interesting to see him try.  I think it will be more difficult than in 2013 as the competition has improved, too.
Bella Italia and Belgrade.

Kafelnikov thinks Nadal won't win any more slams:

"Last year I felt for the first time he was starting to weaken physically.
In previous years, he was much closer to the base line (?), and now it was different, especially in his match against Novak - Djokovic was inside the court dictating, Rafa was 4m behind.
The trend has continued, Rafa is 29 and can't beat his opponents running any more, especially not in the best of 5.
Also, the factor of intimidation is not in the air any more, players are not afraid of Rafa.
So I stay by my prediction: I'd like to be wrong, but I would be shocked if Rafa wins another slam."

Tenez wrote:Can Nadal actually play better without having to double his muscle mass and stamina?
So going back to Nadal who just turned 29, there shoudl be in theory no reason why he can't improve from now. We thought (and me the first one) that his days were gone after 2011...yet he came back in 2013 with his best tennis ever.
His shot making should still be as good as ever and improving. We can actually see patches of those this year but it doesn't last much. Is that due to the stricter 25s rule? "training diet" not being as efficient on him as before as Truff says?
Is he going to be happy hovering around the #10 ranking for the next year or so before slipping further down or is he going to launch a last assault to the top? More importantly, what can he do to improve now?

I remembered one thing from Nole-Nadal RG QF match (the beauty of live watching and LISTENING).
When Nadal was trying to claw his way back in the first set, I noticed he played extremely well on break points both his and Nole's.
He put in a considerable amount of extra energy in his shots and was very aggressive, able to easily push Nole far behind the baseline.
So for those particular points he must probably abuse his time the most.
Naturally those are never short, and being super-physical he needs recovery after them, as well.

In one of those points he was given time-violation but managed to survive the game by serving an ace (even for that he had to take extra time and "examine" all the balls).

So I am convinced that applying the rule or even just reminding Nadal of it once in a match has played a big part in his recent performances.

Imagine if that was the case from day one...

Yes. It is essential for those kind of games. Djoko used to be a big abuser as well with hsi 20 bounces before serving. He managed to cut it out thanks to the fact he does not use as much energy as Nadal hitting his shots. But we have seen him also loses a few games and even a set due to lung busting.

Those seconds are precious. It's hard to comprehend for an avarage club player but they are as important as having a small or bigger court to aim at.

We saw how Djoko (and many before him) managed to hit the lines when starting against nadal....but as the match goes on, it becomes much harder to be precise and Djoko playing safer allowed Nadal to come back in the set like Federer let Nadal back so many times in those first sets.

The difference here is that Nadal also needed those extra seconds after a while. More so by the fact he hits harder and covers as much court, if not more than Nole.

Nadal simply can't run his usual marathons in a shorter time. That's why he laughed sarcastically at the referee when he was given a time violation.

Yes, precision goes as a direct result of tiredness and nothing else.
I can understand that part perfectly but never will the extra seconds, blood thickening etc...
It's just weird to poison your body with chemicals like that.

noleisthebest wrote:Yes, precision goes as a direct result of tiredness and nothing else.
I can understand that part perfectly but never will the extra seconds, blood thickening etc...
It's just weird to poison your body with chemicals like that.

It's not really poisoning in the case of extra red cells. It;s no different than going to high altitude. It can be in extreme cases as blood thickens..but well monitored, it's not too bad. of course steroids are a bit different.

But how do they add extra blood cells?
Surely not from hiking in the Alps...
If we needed that many, God would've given them to us in the first place.

Egg chamber is one way....but I really don't know what are the latest trends.

Following McEnroe's comment on tennis.com that something is not right with Nadal but he can't pinpoint it, in comes a Nadal fan with a diagnosis!!

"Nadal hasn't been the same since he underwent general anaesthesia, for his appendix.  It is much more common than anyone wants to admit, for some amount of neurological edge to be lost.  For older people, it can trigger a rapid decline through Alzheimer's.  For a young athlete, you'd never see anything that drastic, but maybe it just took a little edge off him.  That's enough, at that level."

Would be a shame if he had Alzheimer. Imagine how long he would take to put drink from his 2 bottles...never knowing which he drunk from last.

noleisthebest wrote:Following McEnroe's comment on tennis.com that something is not right with Nadal but he can't pinpoint it, in comes a Nadal fan with a diagnosis!!

"Nadal hasn't been the same since he underwent general anaesthesia, for his appendix.  It is much more common than anyone wants to admit, for some amount of neurological edge to be lost.  For older people, it can trigger a rapid decline through Alzheimer's.  For a young athlete, you'd never see anything that drastic, but maybe it just took a little edge off him.  That's enough, at that level."

That's just not medically true.