The 25 year old Spaniard,the King Of Clay,and the person who is considered by many to be the greatest player ever to play the game has been on a shaky run this year.
The major problem for Rafa this year seems to be the one and the only man ,NOVAK DJOKOVIC,who has been in a truly sensational form winning 3 Grandslams and 5 ATP World Tour Titles in the 2010-2011 season so far.
Things seemed normal when Nadal lost to Djokovic in the final of BNP Paribas Open 2011 but they started getting fishy when Rafa again lost to Novak, this time in the final of Miami Masters 2011.From there onwards ,the Mallorcan has lost 6 battles against Nole ,each of them coming in tournament finals and the sentences like “…he’s done some unbelievable stuff” and “he has accomplished what is impossible to repeat..”have become very common in Rafa’s post match press conferences.
This bad patch for Nadal has become even more significant after his loss to Andy Murray in the final of Rakuten Open Tennis Tournament this past Sunday.
One of the most obvious reasons for Nadals losses (especially in the finals of tournaments)is that the repeated defeats from djokovic have distorted his mindset a lot and he hasn’t been able to fully concentrate on his game.
Moreover,he simply hasn’t had his days in the finals. Not just the finals of the tournaments but defeats from Tsonga,Mardy Fish,Ivan Dodig,..etc. in the early stages of tournaments have also shaken Nadal’s confidence.But there is still a hope that Rafa regains his form and the confidence about which a female tennis player once said “whenever I start losing,I think of what nadal would’ve done under such circumstances”.
So,as there are still a few tournaments left in the season among which Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is the major one,lets hope that Rafa recovers from his bad run and starts filling his trophy cabinet once again.
GeoSuper