Rafael Nadal Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Indian Wells Men's Draw Is One Big Clusterfuck
Today, out in the Coachella Valley, the Indian Wells Masters will begin. It’s the highest-profile tennis tournament in the world after the four Grand Slams, dropping a fat bounty of 1000 ranking points on its winners. Everyone in the tennis universe should be excited, except for Serena Williams and ...
Is Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal's Longtime Coach, Really Cool With Stepping Down?<em></em>
Rafael Nadal will split ways with his longtime coach, Uncle Toni, at the end of the 2017 season, according to an interview Toni Nadal gave to the website Il Tennis Italiano over the weekend. Instead of traveling with his nephew, Toni Nadal said he will spend next season overseeing the Nadals’ tenni...
Science! Shows That Roger Federer's Backhand In Fact Defeated Rafael Nadal
Yesterday we argued that Federer’s unusually strong backhand anchored his Australian Open win over Rafael Nadal, and today we found a startling statistical basis for that claim. It comes courtesy of the always helpful Jeff Sackmann at TennisAbstract. Relative to other sports, tennis remains fairly d...
Roger Federer Played Free And Gave His Archrival The Back Of His Hand<em></em>
“I’m a different player due to Rafa’s presence,” Roger Federer said in a 2015 press conference, and if you needed it, yesterday’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Australian Open win offered the clearest possible evidence. When your defensive-genius nemesis applies crushing pressure on you for more than a de...
Roger Federer Wins Australian Open For First Grand Slam Title In Five Years
Thirty-five-year old Roger Federer took down old rival Rafael Nadal in five sets to win the Australian Open—his 18th Grand Slam title, but his first in five years. ...
Roger Federer And Rafael Nadal Will Face Off In A Throwback Australian Open Final
This photo’s from 2005—they were about to meet in a Grand Slam for the first time, the 2005 French Open, a semifinal match Rafael Nadal won before claiming the title, his first of many. They’d then spend about a decade at the top of the game, sucking up all the available oxygen, dominating all major...
Now It's Just Rafael Nadal And A Bunch Of Gorgeous One-Handers
Rafael Nadal dug around and exploited two glitches in the Milos Raonic serving machine—two successfully converted break points, that is—to win his Australian Open quarterfinal 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-4. And now he’s surveying a field full of the prettiest one-handed backhands in all the land. Roger Federer’...
Rafael Nadal Turned Off The Gael Monfils Show
Rafael Nadal put up a sweat-saturated 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 performance to end Gael Monfils’s run at the fourth round of the Australian Open. Through the first two sets it looked like old-school Nadal dominance. Both sixth seed Monfils and ninth seed Nadal are rangy scramblers who cover every inch of t...
Just Rafael Nadal Holding A Koala
One of the under-looked perks of tennis stardom is that you’re often being handed marsupials. Rafael Nadal got to hold this koala at the start of the Brisbane International. His grin and the bear’s claws appear to be saying very different things....
Roger Federer And Rafael Nadal Are Not In The Top Four For The First Time Since 2003<em></em><em></em>
Scroll through the ranking histories of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, skim over the mind-numbing string of No. 1's during Federer’s untouchable 2004-2008 run, and you might notice that you need to dig back to June 2003 to find a moment when neither Fed nor Rafa was among the top four players in th...
Rafael Nadal Halts Play While Mother Seeks Her Lost, Weeping Child
When will parents learn the consequences of minding their children? First, the death of the handsome silverback Harambe. Now, the brief interruption of an obscure exhibition doubles match pitting Rafael Nadal and teen Simon Solbas against old guys Carlos Moyá and John McEnroe, out in Nadal’s home is...
Del Potro Holds Off Nadal Surge To Win Stunner, Reach Gold Medal Match
Juan Martin del Potro has missed most of the past two years due to injuries. The Rio Olympics have marked an incredible comeback for the Argentine, with him defeating world #1 Novak Djokovic and, now, Rafael Nadal in a 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) semi-final thriller today....
Get A Load Of This Spatially Ambitious Rafael Nadal Shot
Rafael Nadal is doing some doubles work at the BNP Paribas Open with Fernando Verdasco, and he hit one of the cooler shots I’ve seen in a while. The two Spaniards lost to Bob and Mike Bryan last night, but not before Nadal hit a series of increasingly difficult backwards lobs to eventually take this...
Novak Djokovic Just Dominated Rafael Nadal At The French Open
So, it turns out what I and others thought was going to be the greatest quarterfinal in tennis history was...umm, not even close, as Novak Djokovic handled nine-time champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-1....
This Nadal-Djokovic Point Is Absurd
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are currently playing the French Open in what looked to be the greatest quarterfinal in tennis history, and points like this one only go to show that maybe—just maybe—this match is going to live up to the hype....
Novak Djokovic Tops Roger Federer In Italian Open Final
Novak Djokovic will enter the French Open undefeated on clay this year after a 6-4, 6-3 win over Roger Federer in the Italian Open final on Sunday. Djokovic is now the winner of 19 of the last 41 Masters tournaments, and has won his last 22 matches. ...
Rafael Nadal Withdraws From U.S. Open
Rafael Nadal will not defend his U.S. Open title when the tournament starts next week, announcing today that he will not compete as he recovers from a wrist injury....
This 19-Year-Old Just Kicked Rafael Nadal Out Of Wimbledon
Nick Kyrgios, a wild card entry to Wimbledon, just won against world number one and number two seed Rafael Nadal. Who the fuck is this guy?...
Double Fault! A Recent History Of Tennis's Most Humiliating Finish
Rafael Nadal won his ninth French Open Sunday, and he did it in the most unbecoming way possible. The decisive moment was a double fault from Novak Djokovic, provoking an awkward "fall to your knees in euphoria after winning a point literally anyone with a pulse could have won themselves" celebratio...
Stanislas Wawrinka Dominates An Injured Nadal, Wins Australian Open
Rafael Nadal hadn't dropped a set to Stanislas Wawrinka before today's Australian Open final. Wawrinka promptly changed that by winning the first set, eventually taking the match in four sets, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. But Wawrinka didn't come out on top only because of Nadal's injury. The Swiss was in ch...