Vaaaamos hier voor Rafael Nadal

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12-10-2007
Earlier today, Tournament Director Richard Krajicek announced the names of several world class players who will participate in the 35th edition of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, to be held at Ahoy Rotterdam between Monday 18 February and Sunday 24 February 2008. In addition to leading international players Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, the tournament will be attended by defending champion Mikhail Youzhny, former winner Lleyton Hewitt, and Dutchmen Robin Haase and Raemon Sluiter.

Rafael Nadal is the biggest name on the list. The Spaniard (21), who currently ranks second in the world, not only managed to retain his Rolland Garros title, he also secured victory at Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Stuttgart. His winning streak was interrupted at Wimbledon, where he lost to Roger Federer in the final. This will be Nadal’s debut appearance in Rotterdam, having withdrawn from last year’s tournament following an injury to his right thigh.

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Op zondag 25 november 2007 17:01 schreef morgane het volgende:
Schop!

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A champion made out of pain

Nadal lives with extreme physical situations, that would have driven many into depression. He suffers a chronical tendinitis in his kneecap, the inner part of one of his feet tends to descend while walking too (I really have no idea how to explain this, but if I understood the info correctly, Rafa has a flat foot, does that word exisist in english? ) And he has got to the point to sumerge in water with ice to mitigate the pain.

Tomeu Maura

PALMA- He is a champion made out of pain. Consolidated as the second best tennis player of the world, he is able to remain in top of the circuit thanks to his enormous capacity to sacrifice.

Nadal is a mental beast, who lives, with only 21, phisical problems that normally show up much later, on the last track in the career of a professional sportsman, that would have cause serious depressions in the majority of his rivals.

Because of his chronical tendinitis in his kneecap he suffers since two seasons, Rafa can´t make a consistent career, and has to dose his effort in order to not suffer the stress fracture in his right foot like in 2004 again, which forced him to do a long, sporadic rest to reduce the inflamation in his tendons and ease the pain.

Extreme measures. He tried everything, even the therapy of shock waves, in which the affected zone is hitted hard to provoke a bruise, improve the blood circulation and end with the calcifications. A voluntary torture in which he subjects himself a few times a week, though Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, his doctor, suspects that it isn´t that effective anymore. But it´s not the only extreme treatment he tried. In January, after defeating Andy Murray in the first Grand Slam of the season, The Australian Open, he sumerged into a tub full of ice six in the morning in order to mitigate the consequences of his effort. It wasn´t the first time. Neither the last.

The roots of everything seems to lay in his physical constitution. Nadal has "flat feet" and therefore, he overloads them. When he touches the ground, the inner part of his feet is pushed down extremely. When the foot needs to elevate, it keeps pushing itself to the inside, and creates a diversion. Obviously with this kind of diversion, the inner part of his shoes are being deteriotated. This move creates an overload on his joints provoked by the way he stands on his feet. This indicates that all the weight goes to that zone and hurts.

Of course, a "flat foot" is more exposed to suffer injuries in its ligaments, and maybe that explains the cause of the stress fracture in his right foot in 2004, that kept him away for 4 months, and from which he could never fully recover, in spite of all the treatments he went through.

One of them was the implantations of special insoles, designed after a deep biomechanical research, which in theory should have corrected his support position to avoid contractures, but he never could fully adapt to them either. The result of that was that he had to stay away from the circuit for long 4 months, from October 2005 to February 2006, and during 2007, even though he didn´t suffer such long breaks, he had to interrupt his activity many times, the last one of them, in the previous weeks of the Master Cup in Shanghai.

Raised in a privileged family environment, Rafa inherited his uncle´s capacity to sacrifice. The football player Miquel Angel Nadal, a titan who manage to play a match for Mallorca with a broken toe, or who refused to leave the field in spite of having a punctured lung and suffering huge pain. Miquel Angel had to go through a tendinitis in his kneecap too, and back problems. But he never complained. "There were days-he remembers- when I woke up and put my foot on the floor, I saw stars. But I guess that the pain is part of the life a sportsman has. And Rafa knows that too."

The living example of his uncle serves him to accept what is necesary. Just like the endless sessions of rehab his physiotherapist, Miquel Maymó, makes him go through after every match, in which he tries to get a muscular balance where the joints can be in an ideal state. The job concentrates on the recentration of the joints in order to avoid injuries, and in regard to the tendinitis, for his knees he performs isometric and eccentrics excercises of quadriceps so the tendon can take consistency.

When his ankle inflamates, they apply creams in order to retrieve its normal state. And when the situation is desperate, there is no better medecine than a bath of contrast. Or the same thing, get in a tub full of ice water.
On the court, besides from the insoles, Nadal needs protection in his kneecap. That´s why they are doing a orthopedical treatment, a tape under his kneecap or a circular tape under the lower pole of the kneecap or a knee protection centered in his kneecap, though for the next season they are thinking about the possibility to extend the protection to his quadricep.

Without infiltrations. Until now, Rafa has endured everything, and that will be the tendency for the next season, which will start in January in Australia. Nothing indicates that the pain will fade away, and even though for the moment, it has been succesfull to avoid the inflitrations, injections of corticoesteroids that are introduced to almost three times in an interval of one or two weeks in the affected zone, are prepared, and they don´t disccard the possibility to use them one day.

A case similar to Nadal´s is unknown. Of course that in the professional circuit, we don´t know such a case. And in his attempt for the number one spot, Rafa claimes to be only able to compete in equal physical conditions as the rest. Surely in that case, nobody could stop him. Not even Federer.

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Nadal heeft chronische voetblessure
sport1.nl

Als we Toni Nadal mogen geloven zit neefje en pupil Rafael Nadal voor de rest van zijn carrière vast aan een voetblessure. Zijn spelniveau wordt er in principe niet lager door.

Nadal heeft al langer last van de blessure en zal zijn spel erdoor moeten gaan veranderen; het zou namelijk mis kunnen gaan met zijn voet als hij zijn 'power-tennis' blijft hanteren.

Coach Toni Nadal over de kwestie: 'Ik weet niet of de voortslepende blessure zijn loopbaan bedreigt, maar feit is dat hij altijd veel voorzorgsmaatregelen voor zijn voet zal moeten nemen. Minder wedstrijden spelen, om zijn voet te ontzien, is geen optie. Bovendien loopt Rafael al twee jaar rond met deze blessure, in die periode heeft hij voortdurend bij de wereldtop behoord'.

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Op woensdag 28 november 2007 22:28 schreef TheGeneral het volgende:
Het is niet te hopen voor hem dat het erger wordt. Hij is voornamelijk een werktennisser, die heel veel van zijn lichaam, en dus zijn voeten vraagt.

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Nadal has no problems, says doctor
Eurosport | Fri, Nov 30, 11:44
World number two Rafael Nadal has no problems that could prevent him pursuing a career at the top of his profession, his doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro says. "After carrying out routine tests, I consider Rafael to be in perfect condition to continue developing his career," Cotorro says.

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Op vrijdag 30 november 2007 18:02 schreef kleinzusje het volgende:

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Op vrijdag 30 november 2007 18:03 schreef Nalbandian het volgende:

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Komkommertijd, evenals dat bericht over de tragedie van Nalbandian .

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Nadal Calms Injury Fears

© Getty Images

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal has moved to calm fears about his future, after comments regarding a foot injury from his coach Toni Nadal.

The Spaniard insisted Thursday that a left foot injury he sustained in 2005, has not affected his game and is not career threatening.

The World No. 2 was responding to reports quoting his uncle Toni, that the injury could affect his future career.

Nadal captured six titles (6-3 record), including a third successive Roland Garros crown in 2007. He finished the season with a 70-15 match record.

FULL STATEMENT FROM RAFAEL NADAL

Hello everyone!

I'm usually not the kind that likes to clarify what is written about me in the press, but given the all the fuss around the interview my uncle, Toni, did for El Diario de Mallorca, I want to make it clear to everyone that I'm fine.

The injury I had in 2005 - and that I have already recovered from - is under total medical control. I don' t agree with what is being published, nor with the things that are being said in relation to the injury. I don't know if the statements were taken out of context or if Toni didn't express himself well (I wasn't at the interview and therefore can't give my opinion).

The truth of the matter is that it's not like what the press is saying. In fact, I've been playing and training normally since 2006 by being cautious like it was advised. The only injury I had this season was, like you all know, in my knees. But as I said before, there is no need to be alarmed and my career isn't in danger.

Finally, I just wanted to point out that this has been my best season yet. I was able to get the most points I've ever had since I started my career, was also able to achieve great results and on top of that I was able to shorten the point difference between me and an unreachable Roger Federer.

Thank you all for the support you always give me.

Rafa Nadal

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Op zaterdag 1 december 2007 22:46 schreef morgane het volgende:
Als je zijn blogs een beetje bijhoudt, zul je zien dat ze bijna allemaal op ong. dit niveau geschreven zijn. Dus dit kan best van hemzelf zijn

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Op zondag 2 december 2007 00:00 schreef PietjePuk007 het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

_(tvp)

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Op zondag 25 november 2007 23:14 schreef wimderon het volgende:
Ome Rafa heeft platvoeten
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Op zondag 2 december 2007 12:09 schreef Federer-fan het volgende:

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Sorry, maar is dit een stuk dat met Babelfish van Nederlands naar Engels is vertaald? Er staan allemaal gare woorden tussen die volgens mij helemaal niet logisch zijn op de plaats waar ze staan, zoals 'sporadic' en 'infiltrations'.

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Op zondag 2 december 2007 01:25 schreef wimderon het volgende:

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Ik las dat hij deze graag in z'n voortuin wil zetten

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Op zondag 2 december 2007 21:59 schreef kleinzusje het volgende:

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'Rafalish' Improving, Nadal Thinking Of Placing His Terracotta At Home Entrance

http://sports.sina.com.cn

11 November 2007 19:14

11 November 2007 and the Shanghai Masters Cup have officially opened, the king of clay, Nadal and 'little Federer', Gasquet played an exciting match: the former made a comeback after dropping the 1st set. The ups and downs of the duel proved to be money worth to the almost full crowd. Nadal was in quite a good mood after his victory and after washing up, made his way with the ease of a youngster's fast footsteps towards the press conference hall with the company of an ATP official and security guards.

Those familiar to Nadal will have a headache with his 'Rafalish' but these media press conferences are normally done in English. After a few years on the professional circuit, even though Nadal has become more daring in front of the media in expressing himself but there will still be some miscommunication due to his thick Spanish accent and unique English. Actually, this lad is pretty pleased with his English standard; during the previous day's press conference, a female China journalist out of politeness, praised that his English has improved quite a lot, he immediately smiled jubilantly, 'That is because I has an English tutor'. Those whom really knew the truth were embarrassed and could just shared knowing glances with each other.

Today's press conference was no exception. English was the mode of communication and the organization committee used wireless earpieces to provide translations. However, when some journalists spoke too fast or used some complicated phrases, Nadal will have a blank expression on his face and glanced at the ATP news officer beside him, awaiting the translation of the questions in his familiar Spanish.

As we all know, before the opening match of this year's Masters Cup, ATP specially commissioned 8 terracotta warriors and at press time, Federer has already expressed that he wants to keep his terracotta for reminiscence, so everyone is curious whether Nadal has this intention too.

'If I really bring it back, I don't know where to display him....' Nadal scratched his head and looked really troubled, which incurred laughter from all. He, himself couldn't resist and laughed along, 'This thing is really new to me, so I have not thought of it yet. Maybe the idea of putting it at our home entrance is not a bad idea 'put it outside the door, not inside, can't put inside, it's too big (laughs). Currently there's not much thought yet, I think now I better focus more on the tournament!'The strange grammar with his animated gestures and expressions, all these complete an adorable Nadal - maybe this is why fans are so adoring towards him!

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Op zondag 2 december 2007 22:30 schreef wimderon het volgende:

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Je gelooft me niet hè
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Fed en Roddick hebben hem in ieder geval meegenomen volgens mij