++ This 'injury issue' has indeed lingered/persisted to a point of
genuine concern for his future... when you go from one specialist to
another to another... that's 'normally' a signal that diagnostically
the problem is eluding even expert doctor's OR he's not willing to
'hear' the truth... sometimes it is the latter, though that doesn't
happen as often as it did decades ago in sports...
P
The way he hits his forehand this comes as no real surprise.
He could retire, never play, and never play another match and still
would be in tennis history books because he is a slam winner.
Unfortunately for the really tall people, there is an optimum size for
playing (most sports). If you increase your size you increase your reach,
and your strength increases by the square of the increase. In an
(imaginary) case where someone was twelve feet tall he would be four times
as strong as a six-foot man. Unfortunately he would weigh eight times as
much. Weight goes with the cube.
It is not as extreme going just from six feet tall to seven feet, but it
is a factor. And a person only five feet tall would be proportionately
lighter, and probably able to run longer, but the court stays the same
size, so harder to cover.
--
Edward McArdle
At the end of last year there seemed to be a Big Five at the top of the
men's game. Now there's suddenly just the Big Two, really. Djokovic and
Murray are stumbling, del Potro and Davydenko (who looked like making it
Six) are injured, and we're down to Federer, Nadal, and then Roddick. On
clay, that translates to Federer and Nadal.
wg