Used with permission
From Rafa's homepage at www.rafaelnadal.com
Rafa Nadal has confirmed today that he will travel to London next Tuesday, June 16th.
For the past 36 hours, Rafa Nadal, has been undergoing in-depth medical tests under the supervision of Doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro. Rafa Nadal: "I have been playing with pain on my knees for some months now and I simply can't go on like this. The pain was limiting certain movements in my body, which affected me mentally as well."
"After the tests and with the appropriate treatment, we have decided to travel to London next Tuesday, June 16th."
"I am going to give my 200% to be ready for the most important tournament in the world. The tournament that I always dream about. I will not go out and play, especially on the Wimbledon Centre Court, if I am not 100% ready to play."
"I have 2 difficult weeks ahead of me, especially because I won't be doing what I like doing most, which is to play tennis, but I will be working on my recovery through physiotherapy treatments as well as recovery work on the specific muscular area."
Doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, Spanish Federation doctor and Managing Director of the Mapfre Medical Tennis Center:
"After the appropriate tests (MRI, Ultrasound scans and gammagraphy) Mr. Rafael Nadal suffers from insertion tendonitis in the superior end of both kneecaps with a light osseous edema.
His treatment will involve oral anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy as well as progressive muscular exercises for both quadriceps.
Following the 48-hour treatment, Mr. Nadal will progressively get back into training progressively."
There will be no further comments or statements today.
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Pictures of Rafa from 2008 Queens Club tournament
Rafa defeated Andy Roddick in the Semi Final 7-5, 6-4
Rafa defeated Novak Djokovic in the Final 7-6, 7-5
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Nadal won't defend at Queen's Club
Posted June 5, 2009, Friday
Deposed French Open king Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from next week's Wimbledon tuneup at the Queen's Club because of a knee injury.
Nadal, stunningly eliminated at the French Open last weekend in the fourth round by Sweden's Robin Soderling, has been advised by doctors to rest. He won last year's title at the Queen's Club and went on to capture his first Wimbledon crown a few weeks later.
"I am very disappointed to not be able to come this year to Queen's [and] defend the title I won last year," said Nadal in a statement. "To play in London has always been special for me, to play at the Queen's Club is an honor 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 always at 100 percent. 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 tournament will still want me to come next year."
Nadal has won five titles this year, including the Australian Open. He also captured the prestigious Indian Wells event before taking clay crowns at Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. A loss to Roger Federer in the final at the French Open tuneup in Madrid preceded his first-ever loss at Roland Garros.
State of PlayIn this story: sittings editor, Phyllis Posnick; hair, Thom Priano for Garren New York Salon; grooming, Regine Thorre at Marek & Associates. Shot on location at the Four Seasons Hotel, Miami.
Used with permission
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Times online.co.uk by Matthew Syed ~ Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal - gentlemen and players
Nadal's fighting style has brought him to his knees
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
By Mike Dickson
It was Andre Agassi who produced one of his better one-liners back in 2005 when he was asked to assess the playing style of a then teenage Rafael Nadal.
'He's writing cheques you only hope his body can cash,' said the former world No 1 when asked about the hard-running, hard-hitting style of the future Wimbledon winner.
Less than two weeks from now we will have found out if Nadal's latest down payment has bounced, his hopes of mounting a serious defence of the title still clouded in uncertainty.
This appears to be the case after the Spaniard released a statement about the chances of him being able to walk out onto Centre Court for his first match on June 22, exercising his champion's privilege.
He sounded less than convinced and, while stating that he will definitely travel to London, admitted that there is some hard treatment ahead.
'I have been playing with pain in my knees for some time now and I simply can't go on like this,' said Nadal. 'I am going to give my 200 per cent to be ready for the most important tournament in the world. I will not go out and play, especially on the Centre Court, if I am not 100 per cent ready to play.
'I have two difficult weeks ahead of me, especially because I won't be able to do what I like doing most, which is playing tennis.'
Nadal's injury is said to be a relatively straightforward one, with the tendons in the area above both knees suffering constant inflamation.
The reasons behind it are more complex and a combination of the way he hits the ball, the manner in which he wins matches, and the sheer amount he plays in what is often an eleven-month season for the top players.
This year he has already played 49 singles matches alone — he also enjoys sporadically turning out in doubles — while last season he played 93 before skipping the Masters Cup and Davis Cup final, which might have taken him to three figures.
In all these contests his method tends to involve grinding out long points with lots of running. He puts enormous revs on the ball with an effort-filled, super quick racket swing that ends going all the way up around his ears in an upward trajectory.
Most shots are hit with open stance using plenty of body rotation that starts from the ankles and works up through the legs into his trunk.
Small wonder that British Davis Cup captain John Lloyd was moved to remark on Tuesday: 'It takes a lot more work for Rafa to win a match 6-2, 6-3 than it does someone like Roger Federer. That's not a criticism, it's just how it works for him.'
It has been working this way for Nadal since he started winning junior tournaments aged eight, going on to reach the world's top 50 at 16.
So it is the mileage, rather than the registration year, that is more if an issue, and it is a major threat to his hopes of getting up to the kind of Grand Slam tally that Roger Federer has just achieved.
The Swiss predictably pulled out of the ATP event in Halle yesterday, citing exhaustion, while Nadal is out of this week's AEGON Championships at West London's Queen's Club.
Second seed Andy Roddick, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Belgium's Kristof Vliegen, does not believe his knee condition will have much bearing on whether he can win Wimbledon again, and was bordering on the dismissive.
'I've had tendinitis for years and years and years, it's kind of a fancy term for overuse,' said the American world No 6.
'It's uncomfortable and painful, but in my mind I never thought his Wimbledon defence was in jeopardy. He's had knee tendinitis for a long time and he's won Grand Slams while he's had it. I'm not going to understimate Rafa, I think he's going to be there and I think he's going to be fine.'
Roddick now faces the likely prospect of taking on Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, a match featuring two players who have won this title eight times between them.
After the particularly dismal efforts of his compatriots in this tournament's qualifying and first round proper, Andy Murray today tackles Italy's Andrea Seppi after receiving a bye through the first round.
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2004: Out for two months with stress fracture of his left foot.
2005: Misses season-ending Masters Cup and Australian Open (January 2006) with strained ligaments in his left foot.
2007: Played less in latter part of the season to manage tendinitis in his knees.
2008: Out of Davis Cup final and Masters Cup with tendinitis.
2009: Misses AEGON Championships with tendinitis.
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Federer should thank Nadal's knees for French Open win
www.vancouversun.com
MONTREAL — We’ve seen those tears before, the ones that welled up in Roger Federer’s eyes before 15,000 people inside Court Philippe Chatrier, and millions more watching around the world on TV or online.
This time, the tears came after Federer held his serve to lead 5-3 in the third set of the French Open final, just four points away from a title he thought would never be his.
They were happy tears, at last, as the emotions he had kept under control throughout a routinely Roger performance against an overwhelmed Robin Soderling became too much.
But he still had four more points to win.
After a few missteps, he won them. And now he has a French Open title, the only one that had gone missing in his Grand Slam collection.
They say champions have to have almost equal measures of talent and luck. And Federer, who suddenly is back in the conversation for No. 1, had plenty of both in Paris.
When he said he was happy to see a different face across the net in the final, that was understating the case.
Federer’s battle was just making it there, doing what he was expected to do, should do, after Rafael Nadal’s shocking loss to Soderling a week prior.
What’s lost in the noise of the crowds of hopping back on the Federer bandwagon is this: his fortune comes as a result of Nadal’s misfortune.
Federer admitted himself that he hardly played his best in Paris, and he doesn’t deny that his days of dominating the sport are over.
While he puts a positive spin on that, saying it’s a motivating, new way to win, he won’t break his current all-time Grand Slam singles titles deadlock with Pete Sampras without Nadal’s help.
He won’t win Wimbledon this year without Nadal’s help — without Rafa’s absence, more than anything else. And he can’t get back to No. 1 without Nadal’s help.
If Nadal is 100 per cent fit at Roland Garros, he surely doesn’t lose to Soderling — and he almost surely doesn’t lose to Federer, either.
Federer said Monday he didn’t think Nadal’s knee injury will keep him out of Wimbledon, no matter what doom-and-gloom coach Toni Nadal says, and even though Nadal was in Barcelona Monday for two days of tests on his knee.
He pointed out Nadal’s knees weren’t wrapped in Paris — but they haven’t been wrapped all season.
Perhaps Federer didn’t notice; when he’s on court with his rival, he’s looking a lot higher up — at the heavily-top-spinned balls Nadal puts nearly out of reach, far above his left shoulder.
Nadal’s knee issues are hardly news; the one question mark people have always had, when they try to project just how much history the man from Majorca will make, is the how his body will hold up.
Usually the knees wear down in late summer, during the North American hard-court season. It’s the biggest reason Nadal has never been competitive at the U.S. Open.
This year, he’s having issues in May.
Federer could reclaim the No. 1 spot this summer. If he plays on grass in Germany this week (he’ll decide Tuesday, after a pit stop at home in Switzerland), and he wins Wimbledon, he’d be at most 1,000 points behind Nadal after trailing him by 5,000 points just a few weeks ago.
Federer could close the gap this summer, maybe even in Montreal — where he had his first chance to become No. 1 in 2003, but blew it by losing to American Andy Roddick.
But there’s that brand-new baby coming at some point, so who knows how much Federer will play? No wonder he says he’s focusing on the majors, not on who’s No. 1.
So in the renewed debate about whether Federer is the greatest ever, don’t forget to factor in his greatest rival.
Nadal took Federer’s No. 1 ranking away. Only he, ultimately, can hand it back — no matter how good, or how lucky, Federer may be.
...Montreal Gazette
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Rafa and his head band
Uploaded by merikob
OUR FORUM at www.babolat.com
My video thanking Babolat and Bluemama for our forum
This is the original forum that was at www.rafaelnadal.com
before NIKE took it over.
We are still there.
Happy Birthday Rafa
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