RAFA ON ROPES
Nadal: I’m not as good as I was
STRANGE goings on at the Italian Open, where Andy Murray will play today after c oming c l ose to withdrawing due to the sheer volume of matches he has been winning on clay.
While Murray pondered, Rafael Nadal was being forced to talk up his results on the surface where we are used to see him winning for a pastime.
At 11am, Murray faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the second round. After that, Nadal takes on Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan. Most oddly for this time of year, getting the win and having a good week is probably more important for the Spaniard than the Scot.
While it is hard to detach Nadal from his natural charm he felt forced to strike a bullish and slightly agitated tone yesterday in discussing his relative slip in form.
And relative was an appropriate word in all senses because much of the discussion around him centres on whether, as he approaches his 29th birthday, he could do with a new coaching voice in addition to, or instead of, his uncle Toni.
Nadal stopped short of declaring that he will stick with his trusted team for the rest of his career, but emphasised that his relationship with Toni goes far beyond the merely professional.
And because of that, and the extremely close - knit family background he has, there can be little question that he would find it very hard to split with his uncle were he privately to harbour doubts about whether they may have run their course.
‘If you see him later you can ask him. It’s not only my decision. Toni is more my uncle than my coach,’ he said. ‘When I am playing well, it is because of me. When I am playing bad, it is because of me. I have been with the same team for all of my career and I think it is a not bad career. I cannot predict what’s going on tomorrow. Family is much more important than tennis.
‘I’ve been on and off playing well in some matches, but not consistent enough. In football you cannot change the whole team, so you have to make the coach responsible. In tennis, it’s just one person. If things are not going well, it is not because of the coach. The fault always is mine.’
He denied his erratic performance against an albeit inspired Murray in the Madrid final was the indication of some deeper malaise, which now sees him down to No 7, his lowest ranking in a decade.
‘Last week was a positive for me. I don’t see things are that bad, Marin Cilic lost today, it is not easy out there,’ he said.
‘Today I am not as good as I was. Today I am not winning as much as I did in the past, but I am sixth in the race (the rankings for 2015). Playing in the final of a Masters like Madrid has never been a bad result for me. Sixth in the race is not bad, coming back from an injury.
‘I played bad in Barcelona. In Madrid, I played one bad match, the final. I am more calm than before, working hard. Let’s think about the positive feelings I had last week. I was much more worried a month ago, after Miami.’
After battering Nadal on Sunday evening Murray was concerned that he could be in danger of overplaying ahead of the French Open, which starts a week on Sunday. But after two practice sessions it appears that Murray took what he said was the advice of Amelie Mauresmo to try and keep the momentum going and get some matches in at sea level, as opposed to the slight altitude of Madrid and Munich.
‘I made my schedule based a little bit on performances on clay in the past couple of years,’ explained Murray of his late decision.
‘I never played that well on clay, so I never expected to play nine matches in the space of 10 days. You don’t really get that in other sports.’
While he knows his body better than anyone, this is surely the more positive decision as he might otherwise have been left with as much as a fortnight before his opening match at Roland Garros.
One concern is an abrasion on his right thumb that needed taping yesterday.
If he carries on winning Murray could theoretically meet Novak Djokovic in the semi-final. The all-powerful Serb was given a scare by Spain’s Nicolas Almagro before winning 6-1, 6-7, 6-3.