{"id":397952,"date":"2024-05-28T09:34:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T09:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397952"},"modified":"2024-05-28T21:06:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T21:06:14","slug":"diminishing-returns-aussie-legends-message-to-rafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397952","title":{"rendered":"'Diminishing returns': Aussie legend's message to Rafa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The twilight of Rafael Nadal<\/a>'s extraordinary career will be "a case of diminishing returns" according to Aussie tennis<\/a> legend Wally Masur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nadal bowed out of his pet Roland-Garros<\/a> \u2013 a slam he's won 14 times \u2013 in the first round with a straight-sets loss to Alex Zverev<\/a> on Tuesday morning (AEST).<\/p>\n

While many expected Nadal to retire after this event, the 22-time grand slam winner has indicated a desire to further extend his career.<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus four courts in 4K UHD on<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the home of grand slam tennis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But speaking on Stan Sport's Grand Slam Daily<\/em>, Masur said doing so would likely not be enjoyable.<\/p>\n

"You've got to remember a match is the tip of the pyramid \u2013 the pyramid is the base of training and everything that he's done over the last year and a half to get to this point," he explained.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

"He's got to maintain the rage \u2026 when the best players are at their best, they're playing 65 to 85 singles matches a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"If (Nadal) doesn't play that, it'll be a case of diminishing returns and then you have more losses against less ranked opponents. He won't enjoy that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's going to be interesting to see which way he goes, ultimately."<\/p>\n

Masur said as well as Zverev played, Nadal didn't play poorly. He said Zverev was his "second favourite" to win the tournament.<\/p>\n

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The crowd to watch the match was full of the biggest names in tennis, including Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

Nadal had flashes of brilliances \u2013 a running forehand crosscourt winner from well behind the baseline landed perfectly in the corner and set the crowd alight.<\/p>\n

There was another in the third set, too. Two sets down with the score at 3-3, Nadal ripped another running forehand \u2013 this time down the line \u2013 that just caught the edge of the line.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

That shot brought the crowd back into the match, but it wasn't enough to kickstart a miracle fightback.<\/p>\n

Nadal was afforded a rare losing post-match interview \u2013 they're usually reserved only for the winning player \u2013 in which he said it was "difficult" to know what his future looked like.<\/p>\n

But he conceded there was a "big percentage" he wouldn't play another Roland-Garros \u2013 at least in the French Open.<\/p>\n

The venue will be back in action during the Olympics, which Nadal said he hoped to play in.<\/p>\n

"Maybe in two months, I'll say that's enough," he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The twilight of Rafael Nadal's extraordinary career will be "a case of diminishing returns" according to Aussie tennis legend Wally Masur. Nadal bowed out of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397677,"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\/397952"}],"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=397952"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397958,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397952\/revisions\/397958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/397677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}