Back to the struggle ...

I'm a huge fan of the tennis writer, Steve Tignor, who writes for TENNIS.com on his "Concrete Elbow" blog.

I've always found him to give very fair assessments of Rafa and he's wrote another good piece with comments about today and what to watch for with Rafa in 2012.

The link is here, so have a good read as its rather thought provoking.

I truly enjoy his summing up ...

"All we can do now is watch what happens in Australia, where there will be a lot of other players who have learned the Djokovic Rules for playing him (executing them is another matter, of course). The only thing we know for sure is that Nadal will make it worth our while to keep watching him. He’s no longer No. 1, but he’s used to that. He’s no longer on the young side of the sport, but he’s resigned to that. He’s struggling and suffering again. If the past is any guide, he's going to like that."