Rafael Nadal may have just won his seventh consecutive Monte Carlo title but it wasn’t a pretty win. He didn’t play particularly good tennis and has twice been trumped on the American hard courts by Novak Djokovic but still Nadal has felt the need to try and play Barcelona to add to his point tally with the goal of being year end number one. “That’s where I have to play my best, where I have to defend a lot of points.”
It seems a strange response to the pressure when something is clearly not right in his game. He’s been complaining of being abnormally tired despite having four weeks off after the Australian Open. Nadal has titles to defend in Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon and his knees don’t need the extra strain. If he’s so tired someone in his team needs to step up and tell him to go back to Mallorca for some rest. Read more
