Before the Madrid Masters Tournament began, Rafa was quoted as saying that he wanted to win this one for his loyal Spanish fans. On paper he had an easy draw through to the final, no top 10 players to meet on the way. It should have been a piece of cake for him, but he lost in the semi final to French, up and coming star, Gilles Simon 3-6, 7-5, 6-7. Since he won in Toronto on August 17^th. in a one-sided final against Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 6-2, and clinched the title of the Number 1 player in the world, his performance has been far from what is expected from the best player.

Rafael Nadal won a Gold medal in Beijing where the only top 10 player he beat was Djokovic in the semi final. Other than that victory he has been in a slump. Or is he just not a hard court player yet? Or is he hurt? Or both? I think it’s a combination of several factors, that have caught up to him. His record on hard courts in 2008 falls far short of the performance of the ‘best’ player. He reached 3 finals and won only one of them, losing to Youzhny in Chennai 0-6, 1-6, and Davydenko at the Sony Ericsson 4-6, 2-6. He made it to 5 semi finals and just one quarter final, losing to such players as, Tsonga, Seppi, Roddick, Djokovic(2), Murray and now Simon. Not a stellar performance by this Spanish Super Star!

There is no doubt that he is the best clay court player to ever play the game, his record is proof of his domination on this surface. Through shear determination he managed to win Wimbledon on the grass against Federer in one of the most memorable tennis matches ever seen. Playing on grass is very different from playing on clay, its faster and the bounce is unpredictable, but like clay, grass is easy on the body, particularly the feet and legs. Playing on hard courts is painful. The pounding the feet are subjected to in a 5 set, three hour match can cause serious permanent injury. Gentle sliding on clay, or the nimble foot work required on grass, are replaced by quick stopping and starting with no let up on hard courts. The toes are forever being crunched into the forward section of the shoes, the ankles are twisted and contorted into shapes they were not designed to undergo, and the lower back is strained, and can be sore to touch after just one long match. If you add all these factors to Rafa’s unorthodox style that puts so much strain onto his body even on clay, it becomes clear to me at least that his young and athletic body is suffering. He repeatedly hits the ball off his ‘wrong’ foot, he strikes the ball with so much muscle power with his wrists and arms, and he chases and slides with his legs extended to a point beyond their normal capability, that its just a matter of time before he breaks apart. It may work on clay, but it will not work for very long on the hard surface.