Abu Dhabi: Hello 2012 tennis season
Yes, it’s still 2011, but the 2012 tennis season is upon us thanks to the Abu Dhabi exhibition. Or own Nida is there – keep checking out her tweets and photo stream as she uploads!
Here’s a practice video from reemabulleil:
Rafa did a presser today and quotes are already showing up in articles. I’m sure there will be more tonight, but let’s start this thing:
- Rafael Nadal to miss Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by Paul Oberjuerge of The National. Psssst. I don’t think he ever planned on playing it.
- Nadal plans February break by Andy Schooler of SkySports
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I’m getting really annoyed at media reports stating that Rafa said he was taking the whole of Feb off to recover from the shoulder injury, THAT’S NOT WHAT HE SAID!!! He just said he would take some time off in FEb to rest and then train to prepare for what he considers the most important part of the season for him. JEEEESH.
Now Back to Abu DHabi…
What worries me most is some of the tweets from people saying how tired Rafa looked during and after his practice today. I assume he’s been doing fitness training this month even when he couldn’t practice but it’s just worrying that he’s still so tired. We’ll just have to wait and see tomorrow against Ferru because he’ll surely be tested there:/
I think Rafa had the longest journey of the 3 and he only just arrived. It should be nothing that a good night’s sleep can’t fix. From what I read, I gather that Nole and Fed were already in the vicinity and didn’t have to travel as far to get to Abu Dhabi for the exo.
Hmmm
I dont understand the relation between rafa’s current shoulder injury and his chosen playing regimen.
Why play this exhibition match , now ,and risk further strains/injury on that shoulder during a long tough Ozzie open grind – when he;ll need every reserve he’s has? Wouldn’t another complete week off – well with reduced exertion on the shoulder from serving , more massages, relaxation, antinflamms, gradual pacing up the intensity and duration of serving…..- make sense?
Or am i missing something? there really is no serious injury at all, just a minor niggle ? But from what i hear there is a real problem. I like djoko’s approach – playing nothing until Ozzie open after this exhibition match. a lesson here?? for rafa? for coaches?
I don’t think it’s a serious injury, just a nagging thing (just my opinion) that he’s trying to keep under control before the AO by reducing his practice schedule. The press is all “Rafa’s not playing inFeb because he needs to heal his shoulder” when he wasn’t planning to play in Feb anyway. I want to hear a direct quote from Rafa saying the Feb break is due to his shoulder. Until then I don’t believe it is. I think he’s treating the time between AO and IW as his off-season – since he knew he wouldn’t really get one in December.
I don’t know about it just being a niggle because he also had pain when hitting the FH and had 2 stop. In another quote from 2day he said the pain was now much less when hitting the FH.
The fact that he’s only practiced his serve once since DC speaks volumes as far as I’m concerned.
Sure, he never planned to play Dubai. But his preseason was horribly limited by the injury he sustained before WTF when he overdid serve practice. It’s a Catch-22 – work on serve, not be able to serve.
Yeah, I’m probably being overly optimistic. I’m just tired of the gloom and doom in the press. With that buggy whip forehand, I’ve been surprised he’s lasted this long without shoulder problems – it looks like it puts so much stress on the joint. (Not that I actually know if it does or not, just saying what it looks like.) I also remember, when the new black strings came out, Brad Gilbert speculating that we’d be seeing a lot more elbow and shoulder problems in players who use them because he thought they put more stress on the arm.
Rafa talks about his Feb break (From the link that you posted)
“I have to stop after Australia and have a chance to practice,” he said. “I need the February month to practice well to prepare for the rest of the season. The most important part of the season starts with Indian Wells [in March] and ends with Wimbledon, and this year it ends with the Olympics.”
john f,
The way you put it makes perfect sense but things are never that straightforward especially with Rafa;)
I also don’t see how he hopes to beat the likes of Djoker, Fed or even Ferrer serving with reduced strength so it’ll be interesting to see how he goes about it tomorrow. From what he and Toni have said about the shoulder, it’s supposed to be better now although not back to full strength and they don’t know if the injury will reappear. Also Rafa did say he doesn’t have much expectations for these tournies and he’s just using them to gradually work his way to full strength by the OZ open, so all we can hope for is that the injury doesn’t re-emerge.
I suppose playing now is all about getting into that competitive frame of mind and hopefully finding a good rhythm by the Oz open.
The last 2 years Rafa hasn’t played in Feb because of injury sustained @ Oz Open & although this senario has been out of his control I think it has only been to his advantage to have a break then before the most important part of HIS season. Staying in Manacor in Feb & practicing etc must be better for him than travelling to Rotterdam ( most likely cold/wet) & then maybe Dubai ( hot/sweaty).
He needs to put his body, health & condition first, otherwise he’ll have his work cut out this year with the way the top 12 are playing. I think at last Rafa’s being sensible about his schedule & won’t go all out against Daveeed tomorrow so am not expecting too much from him just yet.
His schedule didn’t change last year because of his injury at the AO. It was already set that way before the problem happened.
Miri, you talked about getting up early tomorrow to watch Rafa play. I can’t find coverage on the Tennis Channel, it seems to all be delayed until Mon or Tues, then Doha coverage starts. Are you going to try a live stream? Thanks :-)
Yep. Even if it’s an exo, the matches sound like they could be good ones.
Watched both matches on livescorehunter.com today. I found the first match with Daveed and Jo Wilfried to be full of serious hardhitting tennis – I wouldn’t have known it was an exo from the determination showing in the players. The Monfils Djokovic match seemed to feature a lot more showmanship and playing to the crowds. The fans seem to love that although I prefer much more the seriousness displayed in the first match. Different players, different styles.
Will be up again tomorrow to watch both matches- Hope Rafa can have his Davis Cup form for a confidence boost! Did anyone see the 2011 Davis Cup Highlights for 2011? I watched it several times over the past week – so exciting to see Rafa’s intensity, performance and passion in all his matches…I started to watch the 2011 ATP Year Highlights but turned it off.
Happy, healthy 2012 for Rafa Please! and for all the Rafa fans at Nadal News too!
Yes Leslie I watched Daveeed too on LiveScoreHunter.com (good way to catch the matches)and really feared for him after the first set and it was intense – good win though. Looking forward to todays match.