He will not win it again, he will burn out. He will be thrashed on grass. The streak will not last long.

Three years later he won three slams, he has the longest winning streak on clay, he has been to two finals on grass and was finally beaten by a bad schedule and fatigue, I can count the number of masters he has won on both fingers. He has a winning record against the current number 1. He has become a better player than the world number one, all he needs is a serve and some perfection at the net.

They ask why is he number 2?

Because he cant do it alone, his opponent is feeding off points from the previous year each year, the rest of the ATP cant beat his rival, therefore he always gets to finals leaving Rafa to take care of business on his own. A journey man in the era of lions came back from a ban to help but his rival has managed to avoid him due to "lucky" draws in the last three tournaments.

Sorry about my initial pessimistic remark, after all he is Rafa and whether he knows it or not, after each performance he proves doubters wrong.

Get well Murray, wake up Thomas, step up Novak and fulfill your potential Gasquet because contrary to believe Rafa is only human.


Cheers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A24617135

Yes,poor Rafa looked exhausted in that final.. ;)

Thanks, Yorkshire - most entertaining roflmao

Sorry, chairman, but that kind of talk is one of my peeves. Why is so hard to understand the points system. The rankings are determined by how well you've done over the past 12 months, so sure, at any time mid-year, it includes points from a portion of the previous year. But that has nothing to do with why Nadal is No. 2. He's been No. 2 for all this time, because he's been great, but Federer's been better.

Now, that could change this year, if Rafa can manage to have a better second half of the year than he had in '06. He is, after all, No. 1 in the race this year. But in terms of year-end ranking, nobody can feed off points from the previous year. The previous year has some influence on your seedings, that may help you gain points in the current year, but it has no direct bearing on your year end points. And I'm sure you know that Rafa has been a clear No. 2 all this time, so Fed has no seeding advantage over him.

I just clicked the link and got the 'Server too busy' error

Ahhh that brought back memories

:lmaao: :lmaao:

Is there any reason why Yorkshire thought of posting that link. :rolleyes:


HELLO, I was introduced to this board through the beeb, it was for the benefit of those who dont go there anymore. :phew:

Whack or dumb, Yorkshire? :unsure:

Have to agree, Nick. Rafa does phenominally well on clay so his points coming into the 2nd half of the year will usually, if not always, be better than everyone elses. He doesn't do well in the hardcourt season, which is why he ends up #2 and stays there.

If he was more of an all-around player (does well on all the surfaces), he'd be #1. but he's not and, in fact, doesn't really strive to be - it's not his goal (or at least not the goals i've ever heard from him). He wants to win Wimby (grass) but doesn't care too much about US or Aussie Opens (hardcourt).

it's not a dig at Rafa - he just has a different objective than others. More power to him for knowing what he wants at this point in his career and going for it instead of just doing what everyone else would want you do to.

To be fair...Nadal cares a lot about the USO and AO. he said to his team after Wimbledon last year that he wanted to concentrate on doing well at the USO. It is a huge market and they know it. You win the USO and your sponsors reward you twice as much as winning the French, I bet. But maybe he put too much pressure on himself, maybe he went through a doubt period, maybe Youzhny simply played too well.....again maybe he gets a recurring injury when playing on hard that affects him much less on more slippery surfaces. Many reasons.

Maybe he will do very well this year.....maybe, again, each HC season takes its toll on his body. As ever it s going to be an interesting end of season.