"Struggling" Rafael Nadal Cruises into Final at Rome Masters

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: May 17, 2014

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Since the start of the European clay court season, almost every shred of media coverage in the world of international tennis has focused on Rafael Nadal's "struggles" on clay in 2014.

Certainly, after dominating a single surface to a greater degree than any previous player in tennis history, it's not surprising that today's 24-hour media machine would try and make a mountain out of a molehill. 

There are four tournaments that constitute the meat of the clay court season, and Rafael Nadal has etched himself into the very essence of those red-dusted venues like no other player the game has ever seen. 

The numbers are simply mind-boggling.

Nadal has won the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo eight times, the Masters 1000 in Madrid four times, the Masters 1000 in Rome seven times, and the French Open in Paris eight times. If you include the 500-level tournament in Barcelona then you need to add another eight titles to Nadal's total haul during his career swing through European clay.

Rafael Nadal is in fact the only the second player (Guillermo Vilas) in the history of the Open Era to win a tournament eight times, and he has done that at three different events, while sitting only one title away at a fourth.

Comparing that degree of dominance to Nadal's 2014 results certainly should draw some questions about his current form. Nadal was knocked out of Monte Carlo by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals and then followed that up with another quarterfinal loss to Nicolas Almagro in Barcelona. 

It was after these relatively poor showings that the media really started to drive the storyline that Nadal was somehow on the decline. Such widespread alarm is clear in the description of Nadal's victory over Mikhail Youzhny recently at the Rome Masters.

Sports Illustrated described the match in the following manner, "No. 1 Rafael Nadal survived another tough match at the Italian Open...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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