What happened to Rafa against Ferrero today at Rome? Was it bad play/tiredness/Foot problems?

Question

Whats your opinions ?

Answer 1

The first set was pretty much even.. they both had chances to break and take the set, but at 6/5 rafa made errors and lost it.. though  i think its mainly because Rafas been playing too much and hes tired, and that blister if you saw  looked painful :S

Ferrero did play really well though i must say.

but anyway.. one week off for Rafa and back to business!

Answer 2

I can imagine how you are feeling, but Rafa really needs a break and he is one person who can always bounce back. The only reason I can think for his loss is that he is tired and needs a lot of rest. I am not sure about the bad play, but I would say 70% is tiredness and 30% is foot problem. Even though I am a Fed fan, I respect Rafa for his performances on clay. He needs to rest not only for the clay season, but he also has a busy season ahead. " Champions are down but never out "as Roger has shown lately. All the best to Rafa !

Answer 3

His movement was clearly limited re-blisters..had it not been for that he would have won no doubt...

Answer 4

Rafa definitely had his chances in the first set, but you could see he wasn't himself.  He had nothing left in the second set.

Answer 5

Ferrero was playing very well, but Rafa was definitely in pain. The blister looked like a huge gash. it was sick. poor guy, but he handled it diplomatically, of course.

Answer 6

I didn't actually see the match but I had the live score up so I know how it panned out. I think Nadal is tired becasue I saw an ATP interview and he said he is very tired from 3 tournaments in 3 weeks. Also Ferrero has always liked playing in Rome and Nadal needed to be on his A1 game to have won, which he wasn't. I think it will be good for him though because he can rest now for the rest of the week and be prepared properly for Hamburg. Federer is probably happy as he has a great chance of winning in Rome now as well as the other players. It is sad to see Nadal loose so soon though. He will undoubtedly be blaming the ATP schedule for putting too many clay court tournaments back to back giving no time to rest. He has a point there but it is his decision whether he plays them all or not. For instance Federer opted out of Barcelona to rest for Rome and it has paid off nicely. Shame Nadal lost though because I had a bet on him to win!

Answer 7

He has been playing too much. He has this tendency to run himself down. This may be a blessing  disguise for him, since it forces him now to rest.

Answer 8

He has a bad blister on his foot, which he first got in Barcelona.  Rafa's game is predicated on his ability to play defense and run down every shot from his opponents, so the fact that he was hampered by the blister really gave him almost no chance against a player like Ferrero.