Dreadful result for Nadal

[greg...@hotmail.com]

After winning the first set comfortably, all he had to do was move
Lubo around and expose his lumbering movement.

Instead, Nadal regressed to his late-2009 play and hit short with no
penetration, allowing Ljubicic to dominate the rallies. Towards the
end there were also some inexplicable unforced errors.

Worrying for the Nadal camp ...

[SliceAndDice]

On Mar 20, 5:55 pm, "gregor...@hotmail.com" <gregor...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Well, this is still a hardcourt and Nadal has been playing great all
week, but if his title drought continues into the clay season, it is
time to sound the alarm bells...

[Unbreakable Spirit]

This is always said about Nadal in early rounds when he is beating
clowns. He's "playing great" then meets a good player and it's bye-bye.

[SliceAndDice]

On Mar 20, 5:58 pm, Unbreakable Spirit

He did beat Isner and Berdych, who have been playing well.

[Rodjk #613]

On Mar 20, 4:55 pm, "gregor...@hotmail.com" <gregor...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

It was some strange play from Nadal. He would run around his BH, line
up the FH, take a big swing...and hit the ball up the middle and
short. I still think his confidence is down, and his movement still is
not what it used to be.

And what was up with those 82 MPH 2nd serves?

But good result for Lubo...he hung in there and hit some big shots in
the TB.

Rodjk #613

[wkhedr]

I watched the last two sets, and I don't think it is easy to make a
solid conclusion because it's hard to control the outcome when you
play a good server like Ljub although he had games where he did not
serve that well.
The one thing I can see in Nadal's level of play is his inability to
produce those crazy winners he used to in the past from very pressured
defensive positions plus the increase of his UE.

[wen...@cix.compulink.co.uk]

In article
<f9376e7d-fedf-44dc...@19g2000yqu.googlegroups.com>,
greg...@hotmail.com () wrote:

Well, let's be fair. Nadal has always been vulnerable to big servers/big
hitters on hard courts, and Ljubicic certainly qualifies. Really, it was
just that first nervy service game that cost Ljubicic the first set, and
he went on playing better.

That said, I thought Nadal *didn't* play a good 3s tiebreak -a nd that was
very surprising.

wg

[Administrator]

The winners are still there but he's easier to hit through nowadays.

[Scott]

is Shakira on his mind? (she's on my mind ; )

[wkhedr]

Yes, this Shakira thing was too much, but I don't think it had any
effect on Rafa, he promised Lopez.

[ahonkan]

On Mar 21, 3:08 am, wen...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
> In article
> <f9376e7d-fedf-44dc-ac5e-080b53d30...@19g2000yqu.googlegroups.com>,

Rafa did look the better player. Lube's serving was the
difference.
There wasn't much play in the TB - Lube was aggressive and hit a
couple of good winners. It was mostly his superior serving that
won the day.
I'd say that Murray and Djoker seem to have regressed a bit more
than Rafa. I won't comment about Fed because he doesn't seem
to go all-out any more.

[ca1houn]

It was time to worry a long time ago 9+ month without a title is bad
by Nadal standard

[ca1houn]

> He did beat Isner and Berdych, who have been playing well.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

not top 10 player and i really never thought Isner was going to give
him problem. Nadal does fairly well against big serve with no ground
game

[ca1houn]

ahahahahahahahahahahahah come on now, Nadal doesn't like women.

[Superdave]

exactly ! look at his draw. full of qualies and walking injured !

[Superdave]

On Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:01:12 -0700 (PDT), SliceAndDice <vish...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>On Mar 20, 5:58 pm, Unbreakable Spirit
><Unbreakable.Spi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> On 20/03/10 21:57, SliceAndDice wrote:
>>
>> > On Mar 20, 5:55 pm, "gregor...@hotmail.com"<gregor...@hotmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >> After winning the first set comfortably, all he had to do was move
>> >> Lubo around and expose his lumbering movement.
>>
>> >> Instead, Nadal regressed to his late-2009 play and hit short with no
>> >> penetration, allowing Ljubicic to dominate the rallies. Towards the
>> >> end there were also some inexplicable unforced errors.
>>
>> >> Worrying for the Nadal camp ...
>>
>> > Well, this is still a hardcourt and Nadal has been playing great all
>> > week, but if his title drought continues into the clay season, it is
>> > time to sound the alarm bells...
>>
>> This is always said about Nadal in early rounds when he is beating
>> clowns. He's "playing great" then meets a good player and it's bye-bye.
>
>He did beat Isner and Berdych, who have been playing well.

Isner is really not serious competition yet either. Berdych has and had
real trouble with windy conditions. Remember his match with Rogi a few years
ago? As soon as the wind came up, he imploded.

[Superdave]

no. his knees are in his head. i notice he almost turned his ankle over in the
Berdych match. perhaps that scared him yet again.

[Superdave]

yup. remember their 5 setter in Madrid a few years ago? one of my all time
favorite matches which went down to the wire and Lubo should have won it, not
Nadal. this revenge must be sweet.

[CloudsRest]

On Mar 20, 2:55 pm, "gregor...@hotmail.com" <gregor...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

It was a solid week overall. He ran into a real hot player, can't win
them all. Seeing how tough he is on hard, he'll be even tougher to
beat on clay.

[wen...@cix.compulink.co.uk]

In article
<01ae72f5-b920-429f...@u15g2000prd.googlegroups.com>,
vaget...@yahoo.com (ca1houn) wrote:

>
> not top 10 player and i really never thought Isner was going to give
> him problem. Nadal does fairly well against big serve with no
> ground
> game

Isner's improved a *lot*, and while he isn't a top ten player - yet - he's
recently cracked the top 20 and I think is still moving up. Remember he
started later than most of them do, so he's still finding his form at a
later age than most.

wg