This is the article in question by Couch.Thanks to BobG for sending it to me, The question is underlined, Rafa says they told me, but doesn't say they told me while I was playing, it could have been at the rain delay it could have been before the match.. I mean Greg Couch really jumped the gun on this one.. bad writing, bad journalist, looks so un professional, trying to belittle & acuse one of the most honest & humble guys around! Someone who by far is a class act. take a lesson Couch.
The legend continues RAFA NADAL seventh player to achieve the 'Grand Slam'
"I have not finished my story"
JUAN JOSÉ MATEO - New York - 15/09/2010
Rafael Nadal (Manacor, Mallorca, 1986) receives an unexpected visit twice before winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to Serbian Novak Djokovic in the final of U.S. Open: In the dugout own the place and history, Americans will visit Jimmy Jimbo Connors and JohnMac McEnroe, two of the best players ever. The world number one, however, can look you in the eye, holding her gaze as an equal, feeling even sure of himself, and has won nine major. Already during his career has won four tournaments that make up theGrand Slam. It has already been crowned as the youngest man (24 years) do during theopen era (since 1968, when they allowed the participation of professionals), and is now part of the list of seven players who have ever succeeded. The next day, the best punch in the history of U.S. Open (only gave up five services, matching the 2003 record of American Andy Roddick) is back with McEnroe, who acts as the interviewer (and the oldMac, a whole champion, can not avoid a touch of admiration, of sincere astonishment a tennis player who has won more than him), before sitting down to talk to the Country of your great success.
Question. See you at your bench, and is so nervous that question: "Where?" Where sack? "How hard was it?
Response. It was the last game when serving for the match win. The truth is I felt very, very nervous since I got the second break in the fourth set. He was already ill. The 3-1 I played good, aggressive. When I got the double break, the 4-1, I did the world over. I really would win the U.S. Open and it cost me to assimilate. He was very, very nervous.
Q. How did you cope?
A. I did not know where to draw. By ace, middle or try to remove the classic play open and try to play right. I was told to pull out and then pulled open. Earlier in the following two services, I suffered much more than what had been done, but much more. He had break point at 4-1 and 5-2, if you look, if you see the replay, we see that the first two services are not coordinating it all. The two meters out of control long. And I was serving well! Besides, the play wrong. Touching the ball well, is the minimum. You can fail, but do not touch the ball badly.
Q. In 2008, he won Wimbledon. In a match point, however, Roger Federer got a great upside as you network up to the saying: "I will win Wimbledon! I win Wimbledon!" Were this time the strongest emotions?
R. No. Have been different. In prepartum anxiety and drama during the game are not comparable. What was that, in Wimbledon, much more, much more drama. Here was much calmer, nervous, obviously, because it was a Grand Slam final, but quieter, though it was history. I was more nervous before the final of Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
Q. To get here has been treated in the knees. Syringe say that impresses a lot.
R. Is it necessary, which many people do. It was very painful the first time, the following were not so painful because I asked sedate. I could not stand. When you wake up, yes, it hurts a lot. But when you put it is when you really ... I almost fainted the first time. It was between Monte Carlo and Rome. A pain so great that I almost fainted! The following times and raised me. And you're sedated. Terrible.
P. "We have to appreciate it when I finish my career." This is his shield, his armor, when asked about his place in the history of his sport. Do you get dizzy talk about it?
A. It gives me vertigo. For nothing. Is logical. When you are in competition and has 24 years, not that I have vertigo, it is not positive stop to think about the story. I realize that I'm in tennis history. No need to say or what I say. The numbers are there. Greats that I always saw on TV, great champions ... because I have a career like them or better.McEnroe, Agassi, Wilander, people always saw very far. And these are in history, so I guess I will be.
Q. Are you surprised that you have already positioned as one who loves him the best of all time?
A. The best ever, as I wonder ... Not that I put a shield, is that there is discussion between Federer and me, because the titles say it.
P. Normal: he has won seven larger than yourself.
A. Yes, 16. But do not think the title of Grand Slam are all that mark who is the best or not. He, excluding large, has some incredible things, like I have mine: I won the Olympic gold, which is very difficult to get, because you only get one or two opportunities throughout your career. You can not compare: it now has much more amazing things than I am. It's hard to talk about history when I have not finished my story. We'll see what happens: if I stay well, and we appreciate it. If I well, with chances to win, we will do otherwise. In this sport you can not stop. You have to always improve and be prepared to work with humility and enthusiasm every day.
P. Carlos Moya and you are Majorca, they trained together, reached number one, the Davis Cup ... Why you have won Big Eight more than him?
A. We are different players. It is very difficult to win a title in the Grand Slam. Has had a brilliant career has been many years above. Comparisons are not good. He had a great career, was a boom for Spain. Thanks to him many of us here today tennis fans helped us see that it was possible.
Q. Does it make you feel old to see that your friend has become a father?
A. It looks a little strange ... I started very young in the circuit and I have many friends who are older than me and no longer. Albert Costa, Galo Blanco ... It's sad for me because I miss them, but they are things of the sport, I'm younger and I have a few years here.
P. The Swede Borg retired at a young age. Federer changed and coach doth at his best.There are champions that change to keep winning or leave before quitting. And you?
A. I do not see at all, changing the coach. I do not look feasible. We have always been so, well, do not need anything else. Retire or not, I can not say when I will. It's something that hits you. When you arrive, you feel it, I'll go when I lose my enthusiasm to continue working and improving. Then I go home quietly, because there are many things in life besides tennis, fortunately.
P. says he wants to improve the second serve.
R. I need.
Q. So what coup and who would steal it?
R. Clearly, it would take Karlovic's serve. No doubt. With that kick would be very difficult to lose. With this kick is all much easier, because the pressure he feels is much larger rival.
Q. What did they think their families when they saw him winning the title on television, or when you are hitting the ball so hard?
A. I have an excellent relationship with everyone. They do not look like me. I look normal, as the grandson, the nephew ... of the things I always miss when I'm out, traveling, my little cousins and my uncles. In my childhood, I always carried everything to play tennis, soccer, anything. With them I spent my childhood. They are people I love most.
Greg Couch's Article:
It's Time to Stop Rafael Nadal's Cheating
Time to crack down on Rafael Nadal's cheating. That's right, he's cheating. Everyone knows it and no one seems to care.
Now, it's so openly accepted and forgiven that he apparently has even admitted to it. The Spanish newspaper El Pais asked him about looking to his coaches box during the final of the U.S. Open, when he beat Novak Djokovic, and Nadal reportedly said this:
"It was in the last game, when I was serving for the match. ... I didn't know where to serve. Down the center, to the middle or to try the classic play of the wide serve and then try to hit the forehand. They told me to serve wide and that's where I served."
They told him? It is against the rules to receive coaching during a match. Nadal knows it, too. "The rules are the rules," he said at Wimbledon, when Toni Nadal, his uncle and coach, was fined $2,000 for coaching Rafa in a match. A few years ago, too, Roger Federer grumbled that Uncle Toni was trying to give advice from the stands.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is. You see players doing it all the time in tennis, as this is its open secret. But it's still wrong.
I don't accept it, and neither should tennis' governing bodies. It is time to suspend Uncle Toni, boot him from a major tournament. And hit Nadal with a big fine.
Plenty of people, even within the game, think the better plan is to simply dump the rule. They are wrong. This is not the jaywalking of tennis rules. It is a basic tenet of the game, the guts of what tennis is about.
Time to crack down on Rafael Nadal's cheating. That's right, he's cheating. Everyone knows it and no one seems to care.
Now, it's so openly accepted and forgiven that he apparently has even admitted to it. The Spanish newspaper El Pais asked him about looking to his coaches box during the final of the U.S. Open, when he beat Novak Djokovic, and Nadal reportedly said this:
"It was in the last game, when I was serving for the match. ... I didn't know where to serve. Down the center, to the middle or to try the classic play of the wide serve and then try to hit the forehand. They told me to serve wide and that's where I served."
They told him? It is against the rules to receive coaching during a match. Nadal knows it, too. "The rules are the rules," he said at Wimbledon, when Toni Nadal, his uncle and coach, was fined $2,000 for coaching Rafa in a match. A few years ago, too, Roger Federer grumbled that Uncle Toni was trying to give advice from the stands.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is. You see players doing it all the time in tennis, as this is its open secret. But it's still wrong.
I don't accept it, and neither should tennis' governing bodies. It is time to suspend Uncle Toni, boot him from a major tournament. And hit Nadal with a big fine.
Plenty of people, even within the game, think the better plan is to simply dump the rule. They are wrong. This is not the jaywalking of tennis rules. It is a basic tenet of the game, the guts of what tennis is about.
In fact, I would say it is the point of tennis: You are standing on a court alone, without help. You make the decisions, execute the shots. You are testing your body, your mind, your nerve.
Not your uncle's.
Not your uncle's.
The coaches have their time, and it's before the match. At some point, the players have to be able to think on their own.
Sure, there is coaching in other sports, but that is about their culture. Tennis is a test of your individuality, a game played without help. In fact, when a player cramps up, in tennis he is not seen as hurt, but as unfit and unprepared physically.
It's about personal responsibility, not asking your uncle where to serve.
The problem is that this cheating has become so commonplace that it has been half-legislated. Players can be coached in the Davis Cup. And the women's tour allows a certain number of coaching visits, mostly as a TV gimmick. A coach puts on a mic and you get to hear him talk with the player.
But when the coaches come out to talk, it makes them look so weak, in need of a coach, usually a man, to hold their hands and explain what they should do.
Yuck. More than any other sport, women's tennis players have a chance to show young girls what a strong and independent woman can do. Yet Justine Henin cannot go two points without looking to her coaches box.
At this year's U.S. Open, I went to a girls junior semifinal match. It was American Sloane Stephens against Russian Daria Gavrilova, who is 16.
If officials make the mistake of dumping the rule, then they need to just do it. If the rule stays, then it has to be enforced. Have the rule or don't, but you can't have it both ways.
Gavrilova, who would win the match and the tournament, kept squinting over at her coach and her dad between points. I happened to be standing right behind them. A line judge would turn each time to see if he could catch any coaching going on. At one point, a tournament official came over and warned the father.
What I saw was this: Gavrilova was about to serve once, and looked over. She raised her fingers off her racquet's grip, her father nodded, and then she served-and-volleyed. A few points later, she stared over again, and a coach pointed his index finger to the sky.
She then hit three straight moonballs, lobs.
Look, Gavrilova cheated Stephens. And if Nadal, the No. 1 player in the world is going to blatantly do the same thing, then it's only going to send the message down the ranks.
"Sometimes in the past," Nadal said at Wimbledon, "Toni talks maybe too much. But not today in my opinion."
See, coaching has become one of those unaccepted, accepted broken rules. And that might be the problem with hitting Nadal too hard now. It's not fair when you suddenly enforce rules you have been winking at all along.
But worst of all is the way tennis handles this. If officials make the mistake of dumping the rule, then they need to just do it. If the rule stays, then it has to be enforced. Have the rule or don't, but you can't have it both ways.
What you have now is tennis' greatest warrior making us close one eye so he doesn't ruin the picture.
Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com;
Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch
Sure, there is coaching in other sports, but that is about their culture. Tennis is a test of your individuality, a game played without help. In fact, when a player cramps up, in tennis he is not seen as hurt, but as unfit and unprepared physically.
It's about personal responsibility, not asking your uncle where to serve.
The problem is that this cheating has become so commonplace that it has been half-legislated. Players can be coached in the Davis Cup. And the women's tour allows a certain number of coaching visits, mostly as a TV gimmick. A coach puts on a mic and you get to hear him talk with the player.
But when the coaches come out to talk, it makes them look so weak, in need of a coach, usually a man, to hold their hands and explain what they should do.
Yuck. More than any other sport, women's tennis players have a chance to show young girls what a strong and independent woman can do. Yet Justine Henin cannot go two points without looking to her coaches box.
At this year's U.S. Open, I went to a girls junior semifinal match. It was American Sloane Stephens against Russian Daria Gavrilova, who is 16.
If officials make the mistake of dumping the rule, then they need to just do it. If the rule stays, then it has to be enforced. Have the rule or don't, but you can't have it both ways.
Gavrilova, who would win the match and the tournament, kept squinting over at her coach and her dad between points. I happened to be standing right behind them. A line judge would turn each time to see if he could catch any coaching going on. At one point, a tournament official came over and warned the father.
What I saw was this: Gavrilova was about to serve once, and looked over. She raised her fingers off her racquet's grip, her father nodded, and then she served-and-volleyed. A few points later, she stared over again, and a coach pointed his index finger to the sky.
She then hit three straight moonballs, lobs.
Look, Gavrilova cheated Stephens. And if Nadal, the No. 1 player in the world is going to blatantly do the same thing, then it's only going to send the message down the ranks.
"Sometimes in the past," Nadal said at Wimbledon, "Toni talks maybe too much. But not today in my opinion."
See, coaching has become one of those unaccepted, accepted broken rules. And that might be the problem with hitting Nadal too hard now. It's not fair when you suddenly enforce rules you have been winking at all along.
But worst of all is the way tennis handles this. If officials make the mistake of dumping the rule, then they need to just do it. If the rule stays, then it has to be enforced. Have the rule or don't, but you can't have it both ways.
What you have now is tennis' greatest warrior making us close one eye so he doesn't ruin the picture.
Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com;
Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch
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