Arena Federer/Nadal/Djokovic Era - Now 1/3rd Over

Have to wonder if Nadal is injured in some way (beyond just the blister), as he was at Wimbledon in 2012 and 2013. Wawrinka is very good, but Nadal has only looked this bad over the years when he's been injured.

Connors vs. Ashe in 1975 at Wimbledon comes to mind, though. The only match Ashe won against Connors.

 

he looks fine physically to me, but who knows. he does seem very tight.

 

And there it is-- his back appears injured in some way.

All I can say is that a healthy Nadal is more than a match for Wawrinka, and there's not much the latter could do about that in any of their previous meetings.

Things don't generally change so radically without a clear reason.

 

yeah, he tweaked something. i don't think he was hurt when he walked on the court though, and stan has been dominating from the start.

 

That's true.

Edit: Wawrinka's rather testy with the referee.

 

Well, I think Nadal is clearly injured. Wawrinka's just not good enough to keep up with Nadal on even terms.

I think Nadal may retire from this match.

 

ugh, this is really too bad. he's clearly injured now for your sure, but he didn't look anything like this in the first set.

 

Well, not even Nadal may know precisely when something went wrong, but it could have been something minor that was already there and then flared up progressively, or something that happened partway through the first set and has gotten worse since then.

 

or stan was just playing great and nadal wasn't on his game. wawrinka beat djokovic in this tournament. nadal was challenged by players like nishikori and dimitrov. it's not unthinkable that stan could take a set from a healthy nadal.

 

A set? Maybe. But, I must point out again that Nadal took 36 straight sets off Wawrinka over a period of many years.

Nadal is virtually silent right now, which I've never seen (or rather heard) before.

 

yeah, but the last time they played it was 7-6, 7-6 and wawrinka battled back from a break down in both sets to force the tiebreaks. he's been getting closer and is playing the best tennis of his life over the last year. it's just too bad that it's going to end this way and we won't know how it would have played out if nadal wasn't hurt.

 

What'd Rafa take? I'd wager it wasn't a couple ibuprofen.

 

yeah, looks like they're kicking in whatever it was. hope it lasts. this could still get good.

 

Nadal's serves still look like they're being sent in by ground service.

 

now wawrinka has clearly been thrown off his game by playing an injured opponent, and maybe a bit the moment, being a set away from his first major title. whatever happens, this match seems unlikely to give us any tennis where both players are at their peak level.

 

Not that it means anything, but my streaming feed has returned to the way it was the past several matches I've watched-- choppy. It was completely clear throughout the match up until now.

 

Nadal takes the third set. Unbelievable, really.

 

yeah, super gutsy performance even just to take a set.

 

will this go the distance?

 

it's likely over right here.

 

well, a better match than it looked like it would be anyway. rafa has a lot of heart. congrats to stan.

 

Wawrinka wins it.

 

Nadal was injured from the beginning of the match, though of course it got progressively worse: http://espn.go.com/tennis/aus14/story/_/id/10353832/australian-open-meant-nadal