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Rafa Nadal facing the biggest challenge of his career
Rafa Nadal facing the biggest challenge of his career.
Should we be alarmed with Rafa Nadal? The Spanish tennis player has started the season adding two defeats (against Cameron Norrie and Alex de Miñaur ) in two games played in the United Cup, to which must be added another three defeats and a single victory since he said goodbye to the last US Open. Balance that falls short, both in filming and performance, to start in 2023.
Nobody knows Rafa better than himself. That is why things are said when they are not going well. “I have a brutal level of mistrust,” he said during the third set against De Minaur in his second match in the United Cup. He is not comfortable because he has no rhythm, but he sees himself as capable of overcoming the situation.
Nadal indeed turned 36 last June, but we must not forget that a year ago things looked even worse. In August 2021 he said goodbye to the season under the real threat that his battered foot could withdraw him. He returned in December, contesting the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi where he chained another two losses (to Andy Murray and Denis Shapovalov ).
“I don’t like to compare each year, since you never know what can happen, but a year ago at this time, it seemed impossible to imagine what happened next. Today it seems difficult for it to happen again,” Nadal analyzed these days from Sydney. Miracles go against logic, but with Rafa, you can never rule anything out.
“I’m not too alarmed or negative about what has happened, but I need to be quicker to read the ball better. That’s what gives you confidence in the game. There was a very real chance of losing these two games, last year as well. I lost those in Abu Dhabi. I have an important space to improve, I think I can achieve it”, he added.
Rafa Nadal facing the biggest challenge of his career
The difference compared to last year is that Nadal has less time to face the big goal, the Australian Open. He then chose to play the ATP 250 in Melbourne in the first week of January, which he would win after beating three tennis players and benefiting from Griekspoor ‘s withdrawal in the quarterfinals.
This time he used the United Cup card, but the bet did not work out for him. He has barely played two games and against De Miñaur he did it with nothing at stake. The positive thing is that both were rivals of height (among the 25 best rackets in the world) and he managed to start by winning the first set in both matches.
Heading to Melbourne
“I’ve spent almost six hours on the track, but I need more”, was the final summary that Nadal made after saying goodbye to the United Cup. After Spain‘s participation in the United Cup ended, Rafa left Sydney to plant his settlement in Melbourne. There he meets Carlos Moyá again and has practically two weeks ahead of him to physically crush himself and practice with other tennis players.
There will be no more competitive matches, although on the 11th he is scheduled to participate in Melbourne Park along with other tennis players such as Carlos Alcaraz -who travels to Australia this Saturday- in an exhibition under the name Tennis Plays for Peace.
Nadal’s team has everything calculated and within what is possible everything is following a progressive line. This was stated by Dr. Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro, RFET and Nadal’s doctor, this week from an act: “It’s fine, in the progression phase, because it’s what you need when the year has ended without rhythm.”
READ MORE: Fresh blow for Novak Djokovic in US decision
The message is clear: Nadal is having “good games and is feeling well.” It is time to finish preparing and gain that point of confidence that will allow him to perform those geniuses to which he has been accustomed throughout his career.
Tsitsipas threatens No. 2
Nadal will be present as the reigning Australian Open champion in the draw for the draw that takes place on Thursday the 12th. He will do so as the second seed unless Tsitsipas and Greece continue their winning streak in the United Cup. The Greeks have won the three games they have played and will play the semis against Italy, a tie in which they will presumably meet Matteo Berrettini. Ganar le dejará a solo 5 puntos de Nadal en el ranking ATP, con la posibilidad abierta de adelantarle en el siguiente partido.
Losing number 2 would put Nadal in the first-seeded Carlos Alcaraz’s side of the draw. The draw will present other big dangers, especially that of Novak Djokovic back in Australia. Last year, due to his deportation, he could not compete in the Grand Slam against Rafa, but he left us one of the greatest feats in tennis with his comeback against Medvedev in the final. Miracles.
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Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
