RAFA WILL NOT PLAY THE AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS AT QUEEN'S


Rafa's quote:

"I am very disappointed to not be able to come this year to Queen's, defend the title I won last year and enjoy playing there in front of that very knowledgeable crowds. To play in London has always been special for me, to play at the Queen's Club an honour and the fans in the UK are among the best I have ever seen, always supporting me since the first time I played there.
I have been having some problems in the past months with my knees, that's no secret, that did not allow me to compete at 100% always.
I need to work with my team to recover well, work on my physical condition to be at my top form and get ready for the grass to play at Wimbledon. I hope I can be ready to compete by then.
I am really sorry and I hope that the people at the Club will still want me to come next year."

Rafa

Not encouraging. And who knows what's really up. If it's the knees, why wasn't he wearing tape on them this season?

From most reports, Halle is better preparation for Wimbledon because the grass is said to be faster now and the conditions can mirror the big W's center court with roof. Plus the field is stronger.

But the "I hope" really makes me wonder if Nadal is even going to play Wimbledon this year.

Mmmmm Hmmm...So since Nadal brought it up first can I mention the knees or will I still be lambasted?

Terp, I can't speak for others, but what grates to me in the past is your tone about this. And you're staying true to form here. It comes off like you couldn't wait for it to happen and you're breaking out a bottle of bubbly each time he has an issue. You've used happy faces when talking about injuries.

Anyway, yes, you're right and I'm wrong wrong wrong a billion times if that will get us to move on past the basics on this issue.

I still think -- or at least hope -- Nadal still has a lot of major wins left in him, and can have a long career if he doesn't schedule like an idiot. And he's scheduled like an idiot this year. He's played more tournaments than anyone, and put in long matches at the likes of Madrid and (especially dumb) Mickey Mouse tournaments like Rotterdam.

When did I ever use a happy face when talking about another player's injury? I'm gonna need some proof on that one. There is no I told you so or happy dance going on in my tone. But yes there is a sense of validation in that I always said it was obvious the kid had some early knee issues which persisted and that it may prevent him from longevity. People came to their own assumptions that I had negative intentions by stating it in the past when all I was doing was going off facts like errr ummm...the knee surgery he had and ummm the tape he uses on his knees...kind of deductive reasoning no? Injuries happen and are a part of the game and just because it happens to be one of your faves don't assume that there are cruel intentions involved when its brought up by someone. I talk about Serena's knee problems all the time as well. Why? Because umm she had surgery on it and still has problems with it post surgery. Again...just deductive reasoning.

What I think some people need to do is not be so sensitive in thinking that Roger fans are hoping and praying for Nadal to be sidelined by injury simply because they like Nadal more. Its not even like that. And I just searched archives and you are a liar because I have never used a smiley face when discussing another player's injury.

Here goes.

I don't think you have cruel intentions, and we just don't see eye to eye, so we can leave it at that.

Uh..what knee surgery did Nadal have? And when did this supposedly happen?

And you try to have it out of both sides of your mouth Terp. Your initial post foreshadows the kind of response you got from Two-Hander. Since you're the only one constantly referring to Nadal's physical maladies, and do so while trying to demonstrate how prescient you want to be claiming these maladies will terminate his career at any moment, it's easy to conclude you're preaching a hopeful self-congratulatory prophecy. Your consistency in pointing this out time and again is either designed to try to make you look like a sage genius, or embedded in your consistent mentions of it is a desire to see exactly what you predict, consciously or not. Otherwise, why bother trying to pre-empt a "lambasting" you think will come?

Thankfully...THE WHOLE POST is on that. That smiley face had everything to do with me being a smart ass and nothing to do with being happy for his injury. That was me rubbing it back in the faces of people who thought I was so off when I first talked about the knee issues. Clearly though... the intention of the post is made after that when I say "but seriously though" and then continue into discussion.



Ahh yes here comes the lecture. You sound like my father....no really.

Ummmm....laser surgery in 2007. Need to see pics of him on crutches? I'm sure I can find them.

That you get so defensive proves Two Hander and I are right. If you don't like him and wish he'd retire, just say so already. Don't try to be so PC about it. Man up, honey

The fact that you think you know it all and think using big words in all of your posts means anything other than narcissism doesn't make you right dear lol. But keep telling yourself that. Anywho...I digress. I did ask for it with my first smart ass post and I got it. So we can move it along as Two Hander suggested. I need to get my weekend started in this shitty northeast rain today.

Sweetheart - I'm happy to move on. It's easy to from you. Nobody on this entire message board posts more unoriginal dreck than you do. You're right. On we go

So easy yet you keep responding.

I guess you were the one who couldn't let it go

Yeah, the whole post is on that, as I intended. I would never get into a jubilant mode and rub it in people's faces about any player's injury. The funny thing is that thread is about Nadal's (alleged) foot issue, not knee issue.

It's clear to anyone with eyes that Nadal plays a physical style of tennis that is going to cause injuries or be taxing. That doesn't mean he can't have a long career.

Every time he has an injury issue you get wound up like this. There are so many players with as many injury issues as Nadal, if not more. Anyway, any time he has an injury, now and in the future, you are right.

See previous post response lol.



Well I think you are 100% accurate about scheduling. I think he feels pressure because of sponsors for some tournaments but why not focus on the slams and tier 1s/Masters events and a few of the smaller tournaments. By the time he gets to the Open and the latter half of the year he's not the same Nadal as the beginning of the year. No he may not have as high a lead in points or retain #1 but he'd still be virtually unbeatable since he is an all surface player. But even he has said that the tour needs to ease with the scheduling. Its crazy. They have the equivalent of a college winter break for their season off.

Another blog post featured some more details on the Nadal knee injury. The poster is a big follower of Nadal, so much so that she often knows where he spends his vacations! She posted that, according to Roland Garros Radio, which is streamed from the French Open website, Nadal tweaked his knee during a practice session after his match against Hewitt. It might explain why the crowd were as frantic as they were. They might have known an upset was coming, given how word had spread around the grounds.

I thought his comment about "hoping they would still want him to play at Queen's next year" was so cute.

Me too. I understand an announcement was required about pulling out of Queens, and it was well-worded. But I wish Toni Nadal would shut up for once about Nadal's injury issues. Especially while Soderling is still playing Roland Garros.

If Nadal messed up his legs and thus shotmaking foundation on clay, it was probably in that marathon Madrid semi against fellow Roland Garros fourth rounder Novak Djokovic.* His forehand was weak and short the next day against Federer, and it was never that impressive in Paris this year. Everything is hard work and tinkering with Nadal, and whereas the secret grass court training on clay helped his clay game last year, the after effects of becoming a hard court player messed up his clay forehand this year.

I have little to no expectation from Nadal at Wimbledon this year.

*I've changed this post because now remember him calling the trainer in that match, and on another board came across a Spanish-language article from 5/26 that talked about Nadal having left knee issues between his first round and second round matches at Roland Garros.

Good, because as of today he's "up in the air" to play that one, according to this piece:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jun/0...ueens-wimbledon

Another article about Nadal's doubt for Wimbledon.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/06062009/3/n...don-report.html

As much as I want Rogelio to regain his Wimbledon crown, the tournament will be TONS less interesting without Nadal so perhaps he just needs to take a break between now and June 22nd. He's played too much. No tennis until maybe a week before the tournament...some light play with a knee protector....no soccer..light work out routines. Would be a pity if not only he loses 4th round at the slam he's owned, but can't even get a chance to defend Wimbledon.

I remember a few years ago Venus Williams was diagnosed with tendonitis in both of her wrists. She was off the tour for 6 months as a result. If Nadal's tendonitis is chronic, the rest is the obvious prescription. He needs an Agassi-like sabbatical. However, he will not only see his ranking plummet, there'd be serious doubts about whether he could ever get back to where he was.

But he got to where he was. Most people never expected that.

I hope he doesn't play Wimbledon if he really does have an injury/pain that first really cropped up in Miami (according to some reports; the reports are all ove the place though, I gotta say. Journalism's a mess.). If it's been around since Madrid, well, it still might not be best to play Wimbledon in the long run, but I could understand him doing it and then taking time off.

I could only hope that Nadal's knees would heal like Venus's wrists. But wrists and knees endure different kinds of extreme strain in tennis.

Sooner or later, probably sooner, Nadal is going to need a sabbatical. And if and when he comes back, he'll need to play fewer tournaments than the tour, not more than them. If he comes back, his hunger won't be in doubt.

My ortho told me something interesting about tendonitis (I have a chronic problem with it in my Achilles). He said that tendons are the toughest tissue in your muscoskeletal (sp?) system. You can't strain a ligament, tear a muscle, or (yikes) break a bone and still have it function at anywhere near 100%, if at all. Yet you can actually injure a tendon and still have it work 100% - you won't even feel it. Sounds great, right? The problem with that is by the time the injury gets bad enough that you actually feel pain, uh oh, the injury is already serious. And if it gets to the point where you're laid up with tendonitis, you're probably f*cked. And the recovery period can be very long.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Rafa and his knees. Tennis needs its #1. Queens Club will come and go without Rafa, pish posh, but Wimbledon without its defending champion would be a real loss.

Here's what a physio had to say in a blog post about a knee edema, (or "oedema", spelled that way in the British paper that prompted the answer below) which is what Nadal appears to be suffering from:

"I’m hazarding a guess here. Oedema which is English, (spelling) is similar to edema, American, and signifies swelling of a joint. It’s an inflammatory condition which is consistent with tendinitis. In other words, Nadal has a progressed form of tendinitis which has probably progressed to arthritis of his knee and patella areas, and causes the swelling associated with inflammation = arthritis. The synovial fluid in the knee, which is its cushion, begins to dry out, and then the knee makes the grating and creaking sounds. This is common with older people, but athletes are very prone to this, hence Nadal’s case of bone oedema or bone edema = knee tendinitis.

I don’t know what type of doctors he has on his team, but orthopedists administer ‘Synvisc’ to the knees by injection to replace the dried up synovial fluid, and a series of 3 injections, given one week apart,, for three weeks, is effective for six (6) months. I’ve recently read that there are now anti-inflammatory patches which can be applied to the affected arthritic areas to reduce the pain/swelling and the patches provide relief similar to the NSAID taken by mouth, but without affecting the stomach, which NSAIDs are known to do.

And, that’s about all I know on bone oedema or bone edema."

That sounds painful. How often can you do that procedure.....(i.e. how many years can you continue with the injections?) Is it one of those things that you can do a certain number of times and then it becomes so bad that you need knee replacement?

Typically it is a series of 2-3 injections as one treatment... I've never seen it where patients get more than one series of these...

Mostly- patients undergo multiple scope procedures, which unfortunately, can leave scar tissue and cause further problems.

Pain is usually one or two days. The relief of bone on bone pain completely going away is worth it.

Doesn't Serena suffer from chronic knee tendonitis? I think Justine struggled with tendonitis in her knee as well. It seems like it's something that will flare up from time to time and require rest, but he will come back.

Oh well. Maybe if he's forced to miss Wimbledon, he'll be fresher for the U.S. Open.

I also remember Graf underwent major knee surgery sometime in 1997 or 1998, and she was out of the game for quite a while. Not sure how long, but I remember it was measured in months. She'd said that when she'd got to the French Open of 1999 her desire was to "get in a few matches before Wimbledon", and she ended up winning there. But her lower body must have betrayed her again, because at Wimbledon that year she had a brutal QF against Venus which she got through, and after that she was wearing a thigh wrap the rest of the tournament before losing the title match. And then quit altogether when it was over.

So maybe Nadal is looking at borrowed time that's much sooner rather than later? Even if they find it's a moderate or severe problem they can surgically fix, how long before his condition gets to a point when there are no more medical answers to his problem?

what exactly are the fines and penalties for failing to play enough tournaments a year or skipping a particular Masters 1000? Is it just that you get a zero figured into your ranking point total, or does it go beyond that? While it's a hit to the ego to lose that #1 ranking he worked so hard for, if the alternative is that you face a year-threatening if not career-threatening injury, then you gotta be willing to forfeit the top ranking. Rafa could afford to skip 3-4 Masters 1000's a year without risk of dropping any lower than #4. And the way the competition is with Rafa/Rog/Andy/Nole at the top of the game, is there any bottom-line difference between the #1 and #4 rankings?

Are there $$ penalties as well? if it's just a matter of paying a fine, I'm guessing Rafa can easily afford to pay any fine(s), even, say, up to $1 million total in a year. Yeah, that would suck (surely he'd rather put that million toward the Aston Martin One-77), but it's not like Rafa would have to apply for food stamps or anything. Rafa's scheduling decisions have always been a bit baffling, particularly in light of his complaints.

All that said, even if Rafa really has only himself to blame, I still feel bad for him. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed so hard they hurt that he'll somehow, some way, be fit enough to play Wimbledon. Oh, one more thing: Rafa should give serious consideration to taking himself out of Davis Cup altogether.

Three Americans reach the semis here: Roddick, Blake & Fish. They face Karlovic, Youzhny, and Murray, respectively. Are the semis & finals gonna be shown on the teevee?

Here's an interesting article about Roddick's outlook for Wimbledon. I think Andy's well poised to have a solid second half of the year. But I've thought that before...

Lots of NBA players are diagnosed with knee tendinitis and somehow play through it (like Kobe). Hopefully, this will be true for Rafa too. On the other hand, maybe there are degrees of tendinitis and his could be towards the worst end, which would be a shame.

speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that tendinitis can range anywhere from discomfort and soreness to complete immobilization of the joint. I have a bone spur that rubs up against the Achilles, which occasionally causes tendinitis. Sometimes it's just stiff and a little painful, sometimes pretty bad, and once it was so swollen that I couldn't move my ankle even a millimeter without excruciating pain. Where Rafa's case falls on the spectrum, who knows?

Hmm..is that a new rule..six guys in the semis?

Tennis Channel will have London QF today, supposedly the Semis tomorrow, and the Final Sunday.

Oops meant quarterfinals!

Fish out to Murray, Roddick up a set.

Mirza finally making a nice showing by reaching the semis in B'ham in both singles & doubles.

Roddick beats Karlovic. Thank God. I am not an AR fan, but Karlovic ... omg, he bores me so badly with that serve.

GO JAMES BLAKE!

Interesting how this thread about the Wimbledon warm-up tournaments has Nadal in the heading and he isn't even playing....

I wonder what happened to Andy Roddick. Well, James Blake on to the final. I don't remember seeing him play Murray before. Should be interesting. I'm picking Murrary, again. Although I would love to see James win.

Strangely, Blake has only played Murray once before. He won easily, but that was three years ago, on clay (!), so I don't know if it means much. Murray's a much better player now, so I would expect him to win.

Roddick retired with a right angle injury. Hopefully, it's not a serious one. Sometimes players will retire on very minor injuries when the big events are coming up.

Sucks for Andy but yay for James. He's had a pretty sucky year and needs some confidence going into Wimbledon. I was kind of looking forward to an Andy/Andy matchup though before the big W since I put those two as second week contenders. I never understood why James didn't play better at Wimbledon either. Big serve, good movement, decent net play, powerful forehand. He's got the kind of game you'd think would do well on grass. Unfortunately, that damn temperment of his has kept him back too many times.

I have always found his movement to be awkward.... I always thought he should be so mentally tough from all the personal and medical issues that he has been through, but on the court he is truly lacking in mental tenacity

it doesn't sound like Andy's ankle injury is all that serious. He said that running forward it felt fine, but side to side he felt some pain. He expects the recovery to take a few days. It sounds like your guess is right, JC. With Wimbledon in just over a week, why take the risk?

I like Magdalena Rybarikova.

As expected, Murray handles Blake in straights.

This is the shot where he injured his foot. Mistake in judgement......

Rafa to hit the practice courts next week and be back in time for Montreal. I hope he's taken a long enough break. I guess it will be 4 weeks since his pre-Wimbledon exhibitions.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/tenn...n.ap/index.html

He likes the Canadian Open. And it gives him a chance to test the knees...and if he needs to skip the following weeks for more rest to still give him a chance to play the Open.

From Nadal's appearance on the Spanish Network TVE a few days ago:

Rafael Nadal, speaking to TVE about when he will return to the circuit and the nature of his knee problems: "I would like to come back in Montreal in a week and a half. I have to force the knees and just see how far I can go.

"I have to wait and see how I continue to recover because I’ve only been back training for a week and a half... You start with lots of hope, but again, the real test would be to see how I go when I really push my knees and I think that is likely to happen in the upcoming days.

"What happened was that I was in a lot of pain for a while, when I came back from Miami and I was training in Manacor, I started to feel a strong pain, especially in my right knee. It was a different kind of pain, so I took off the bandages in my knees. And everyone thought that it was because I felt great, but the problem was that it didn’t hurt there [in the previous spot] anymore, now it hurt in the superior end of the knee cap.

"My main objective is not to regain the number one ranking. My main goal is to be well and happy to be playing tennis.

"I have spent more hours on the couch these past two months than in the past four years."

I do remember when Venus had tendonitis in both of her wrists and she was off the tour for 6 months. She proved you can come back from that like gangbusters. If he means what he says about not fighting to get his #1 Ranking back, he should just rest for as long as necessary. Otherwise he'll just be back in the same boat.

Nadal also just purchased a new house in the Dominican Republic. Wonder if that means he's planning on a coaching change? Unless Toni Nadal, his Significant Other and their 3 kids are moving there too.