For the first time in the past few weeks we have some positive news on Rafa. The news coming out of Spain and captured in the attached link describes how Rafa and his team have been re-evaluating his schedule.They've taken away the emphasis on being No. 1 to concentrate more on the Slams and the tournaments that lead up to it. Fantastic news, I say.
Rafa has half killed himself in the pursuit of being number 1. You can’t blame him, he’s a sportsman who wants the ultimate accolade. But with that then brings the added pressure of defending all your points from tournie to tournie whereby most times, nothing but a win will do. I really think this was another of the contributing factors to Rafa’s current fitness. He came from Miami nursing an injury, but the clay court season was upon him. Soooo many points to defend and to keep his status, he had to try and do it. Its a testament to his ability that he won 3 tournaments on the clay, but finding out about his endemas in Madrid and that monumental match with Novak just about saw him off into the state he is now.
His reported schedule for the rest of the year seems no different to what he was going to do anyway, but the article talks about planning for next year, which is probably where we will see the changes.
Here's the article and translation ...
"Everything has changed for Rafa Nadal after the injury. There has been no choice but to sit down and reconsider, because something wasn´t working. Something had to change or the body will be damaged. So, the way things are and the way Federer is playing, Rafa and his team have decided to change their priorities, not just this season but for the following. The thought is: “I have already had the number one, well, that’s it. Now I’m more interested in the Grand Slams”. These are the tournaments that bring more glory (and points), so seasons will be planned thinking about them even if that means putting aside the fight for the number one, what makes you compete more smaller tournamentes and makes Rafa’s body to be tired in the big ones.
The number one is complicated. If Federer wins today it will be lost and it will be very difficult to recover, because we must remember that Rafa will soon lose 800 points for the Olympic Games in Beijing. So better to change.
And it starts now. So the player and his team have almost closed the tournament schedule that Rafa will play till the end of the year. While recovering at his summer’s home in Menorca, he and his team have developed the plan, which, as everyone knows, has set the U.S. Open as its primary goal. The spaniard would reappear in Montreal and then Cincinnati, U.S. Open, Bangkok, China, Shanghai, Paris and London Masters. The only question is whether he would be back competing even earlier in some european tournament on clay, not because they want, the doctors and his team, but because he has some crazy desire to play.
The player is resting at home, while continuing to rehabilitate his knee: VCR, strengthening exercises, short wave, ie what he was already doing in Mallorca and London before returning home. In the daily monitoring is Rafa Maymó, his physio, which follows step by step the player’s rehabilitation. Rafa is resting, but he has not gone fishing (he musts get up too early and he does it only in vacations), but he goes out with friends and plays golf occasionally, as all the day it split between the rest and five hours of rehabilitation."
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