{"id":396270,"date":"2024-05-22T20:46:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T20:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396270"},"modified":"2024-05-22T22:06:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T22:06:10","slug":"woodbridges-grim-forecast-for-tough-nadal-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396270","title":{"rendered":"Woodbridge&#039;s grim forecast for &#039;tough&#039; Nadal farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian tennis champion <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/todd-woodbridge\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"T\ufeffodd Woodbridge\">T\ufeffodd Woodbridge<\/a> has declared he isn&#x27;t confident that <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/rafael-nadal\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Rafael Nadal\">Rafael Nadal<\/a> can win <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/roland-garros\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Roland-Garros\">Roland-Garros<\/a>, in what would be a fairytale end to his career.<\/p>\n<p>The clay court major begins on Sunday, with all eyes on Nadal, who has won 14 of the French titles across his decorated career.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>While the 37-year-old has not made any call on his playing future, Roland-Garros may be the last time he takes to a court competitively.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/motorsport\/supercars-news-2024-erebus-ceo-barry-ryan-andrew-van-leeuwen-perth-pit-lane-incident\/75ca3b5d-4290-402d-8712-a058cba7dacb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Public humiliation&#x27;: Erebus team boss faces fresh allegations<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/state-of-origin-2024-news-wally-lewis-queensland-maroons-team-selection-tom-dearden\/a5bfa49e-9a5b-42d6-9256-60a84cf41460\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Wally picks Maroons 17 with &#x27;confrontational&#x27; bolter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/rugby\/news-2024-new-zealand-crisis-players-association-threat-to-walk-from-governing-body\/d3acdc31-831c-4be1-aac7-eba87e63e76c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>NZ rugby in crisis amid extraordinary players threat<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>His injuries have suggested that the time is near.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal, who had hip surgery last summer, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/news-2024-rafael-nadal-unsure-roland-garros-ahead-of-madrid-debut\/8b56e38a-5a3d-4c48-8b1d-fe717a74cfcf\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"lost to Alex de Minaur in the second round in Barcelona last month\">lost to Alex de Minaur in the second round in Barcelona last month<\/a>, in what was his first tournament in more than three months.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"ac46c5fa-6e87-46b5-933e-73b1f15a989a\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ac46c5fa-6e87-46b5-933e-73b1f15a989a\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After that loss, Nadal admitted that he is giving himself &quot;a chance&quot; and hopes to &quot;find better feelings&quot; in his body going forward.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#x27;t lose hope. I just accept the situation that I have today,&quot; Nadal said. &quot;I mean, I am not playing bad. It&#x27;s about more body limitations &#8230; That&#x27;s not allowed me to compete the way that I would like to compete.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Now, Woodbridge is concerned that Nadal&#x27;s time at Roland-Garros could be even more painful for his adoring fans to witness.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s pretty tough to win with the lead-up that he&#x27;s had,&quot; Woodbridge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/sport\/tennis\/de-minaur-falls-to-tsitsipas-in-final-french-open-tune-up-20240515-p5jdoe.html\" title=\"told The Age\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told The Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The physical demands on the body, to win seven matches there, is extreme. He hasn&#x27;t had the miles in the legs that he&#x27;s used to going into this tournament.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"77e489d4-9eee-45b2-8faf-48e567b8a7c8\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/77e489d4-9eee-45b2-8faf-48e567b8a7c8-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Nick Kyrgios shakes hands with Rafael Nadal at the 2020 Australian Open.\" data-width=\"3000\" data-height=\"2000\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But Woodbridge isn&#x27;t giving up hope that Nadal could go all the way, in what would be a shock triumph to potentially end his career.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;What Rafa has achieved on clay is extraordinary,&quot; Woodbridge said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Nobody believed that he could win a tournament as many times on any surface that he has (at Roland-Garros), but to do it on this one, which requires incredible physicality, and probably the strongest mental ability, has highlighted to the tennis community what can be done.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>And if Father Time has officially caught up with Nadal and this is in fact is his final competition, Woodbridge says the emotions will be high.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think he changed the attitudes of the likes of Roger (Federer) and in particular, Novak (Djokovic) &#8230; being his last tournament \u2013 if it is that, in fact &#8211; it&#x27;s going to be quite an emotional experience for everybody, somewhat like watching Roger when he retired at Laver Cup,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Australian tennis champion T\ufeffodd Woodbridge has declared he isn&#x27;t confident that Rafael Nadal can win Roland-Garros, in what would be a fairytale end to his <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396270\" title=\"Woodbridge&#039;s grim forecast for &#039;tough&#039; Nadal farewell\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396275,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396270\/revisions\/396275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/396272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}