You are browsing the archives of Nadal.

With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American men completed a dismal 0-6 record in singles on the grass against Spanish players over the Wimbledon fortnight (fortnight being one of those words you only hear once a year when Wimbledon rolls around).  Not exactly the confidence boost captain Jim Courier wanted going into [...]

The GOAT discussion reached its most ludicrous point yesterday when John McEnroe’s endless search for an answer to the unanswerable and interminable question landed at Rafael Nadal’s feet after he beat Roger Federer for the 17th time, the sixth time in a Grand Slam final.  (Federer has beaten Nadal only eight times, and only twice [...]

I’m glad to see Rafa beat his Borgitis, but I still think Bjorn was one cool cat.

Tennis history on the line this afternoon to see if Rafael Nadal can accomplish what Bjorn Borg never did — win in New York.  Borg won six French Opens and five Wimbledons, kneeling down on the last one like he was giving thanks to the tennis gods above.  But by September, those gods were frowning [...]

The Czechs are in Spain for the Davis Cup final starting Friday, and I’m betting the first match on Sunday between Rafael Nadal and Radek Stepanek (aka “The Worm”) could be a humdinger, with a likely 2-1 lead for one team looking to close it out and the other looking to stay alive for a fifth and final match.  It’s [...]

I woke to my alarm at insane setting of 3:30 a.m. today, but it was well worth it.  The Nadal-Federer match in the Australian Open was resplendent tennis for the first four sets, with rallies of seemingly impossible angled groundstrokes.  Nadal’s strength and speed is machinelike, so strong that he forced even Federer to get tight, ultimately stumbling in the fifth set when [...]

In a mighty struggle to see who the best lefthanded Spaniard in tennis was on Friday, Fernando Verdasco hit 95 winners, and still lost to Rafael Nadal.  Click here to check out the amazing match statistics from the Australian Open semi-final.
Next up, a rematch of the greatest match ever played.  Forget about the Super Bowl, this [...]

When Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet in Melbourne on Sunday, the endless discussion of the announcers will again turn to the debate of who is the GOAT — Greatest of All Time.  Fitting, then, that the match will be played in Rod Laver Arena, named for the diminutive redhead with the powerful forearms and holder [...]

I spent about four weeks at Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla., in 1981-1982 over the Christmas holidays, when many of the real stars went elsewhere.  While I was there, most of his work was with Brian Gottfried, Jimmy Arias and Chip Hooper, but Nick ventured way out to my practice court one time [...]

    The ultimate year-end showdown of the best eight male tennis players in the world starts Sunday with the Masters Cup in Shanghai—make that the best players ranked two through nine.  World No. 1 Rafael Nadal pulled out due to injury and the need to rest before Spain travels to Argentina for the Davis Cup [...]