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Rafael Nadal has responded to Roger Federer’s comment that to win a clay court event, such as Roland Garros, you need good forehands and backhands, but most importantly you need good legs. Federer’s comments that you can win Roland Garros with a very incomplete game have, despite him denying it, been interpreted as a stab at the King of Clay.
At around 4.45 on the video clip Rafa discusses his view, essentially saying that clay requires more brains because there are more options where as this is not the case on faster surfaces (where, I might add, Federer has been successful). Diplomatically Rafa doesn’t say what lots of people have commented since Federer came up with this latest pearl – If you can win Roland Garros with an incomplete game, and if it takes so little to win, then why did it take Federer so damn long to win it?
In other Rafa related news, poor Fernando Verdasco seems to be getting sick of being asked about Rafa. Most recently he was asked to comment on the karaoke take of Nadal and Shakira in the Gypsy video which was done by Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki. “Novak always wants to be the funniest, the star, but he loves this. He loves being a showman. He likes it. So you should ask Rafa if he enjoyed this imitation or not. But to tell you the truth, I don’t really know how Rafa took this, but I know Rafa. I don’t think he really very much liked the video. But anyway, who knows? Maybe he enjoyed it.”
