Rafael Nadal captures 9th Rome title: Is he running out of goals?
"I was able to play at that level. It's important for today and it's important for tomorrow..." Rafael Nadal had said at a press conference after winning his 9th title in Rome, but his first title of the clay court season. The duel continues with him, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. The only difference is that this time Federer withdrew with an injury and Djokovic came up against Nadal to be defeated at the Rome Masters final 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.
As the clay court season swung around, Nadal had lost face in bowing at all clay tournaments except one -- the last one. It was the Monte-Carlo Masters that Fabio Fognini had gained control of the match in the semifinals and dismantled the Spaniard's game in straight sets. The Barcelona Open was a big extravaganza and Nadal managed to get through to the semifinals again but only to lose in straight sets to Dominic Thiem. This was becoming a no-brainer; totally unthinkable. It was also beginning to disturb 'The King of Clay' who was slowly losing his believability to the crowds but not to his devoted diehard fans. They shook their heads with each lost but felt encouraged that the Madrid Open would be the tournament that Nadal would shine and sink a title. But it didn't happen. The NextGen Stefanos Tsitsipas was the culprit that brought Nadal down to his knees pushing the semifinal match to a three-set battle of which he lost. Tsitsipas came out victorious and Rafa was left frustrated and troubled. Why couldn't he get to a final of the three choice clay court tournaments? Had he lost his touch? Were his strategies for winning all washed up? No one wanted to believe that, not even Nadal.
But it was his trip to Rome that was the kickoff. This would be his last hoorah on the red clay surface; his last try at proving he could win a title on clay...again. As he won the opening round against Jeremy Chardy in a fairly easy play of 6-0, 6-1, he must have let off a sigh of relief. Then it was the second and third rounds winning against Nikoloz Basilashvili and Fernando Verdasco in straight sets that helped him trust his skills again. Nadal gained more self-confidence hoping to at least win the semifinal. The battle was on as he met up with the NextGen Stefanos Tsitsipas again. The Spaniard this time won in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. After the victory, Nadal felt more comfortable. "Finally I won a semifinal, I'm happy for that...good feelings of personal satisfaction..." he'd say. But more was to come when he entered the final against Novak Djokovic. The goal now was just to win the final as he'd did many times before. Ths suspense was quite a bit for Nadal to handle. But the Serbian wasn't himself in this final. He might have gotten burned out in playing the previous rounds but he did manage to bring Nadal to three sets making him fight for it. The Spaniard demolished Djokovic's game and won his 9th title in Rome. But not having the full clay court sweep meant nothing to Nadal. A win is a win. It might have been more mentally crushing if he would have lost the semifinal in Rome, but that didn't happen.
Rafael Nadal has won on every spectrum, so what is his major goal now? He had proclaimed that the most important thing to him was to really "feel myself playing well; feel myself healthy with the energy I need..." The Spaniard has had to dig deep in this clay court season to come up with consistent wins and to make it to the final with a victory. Is it terribly important to gather more titles now? Nadal might say not really, but yet he wants to keep his status intact. The pressure, unfortunately, will still be on him to win titles but more so to come through with victories round by round and to feel like he wants to and can do it. "I work hard to be where I am..." Nadal has said and it's super important to feel that he can come back and just be able to play out his passion every day.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2LXytR0
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