Tennis: Taxing schedule may break Nadal

It is not exactly the schedule of a man struggling with fitness.

Rafael Nadal is already practising for this week's Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic, after being eliminated from the ATP Tour Finals in London.

Within days of the final, Nadal will begin his off-season training in readiness for 2010. Before the new year, he will be in the Middle East, where he will play in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi and the Qatar Open before flying to the Australian Open, which begins on January 18.

Within a week of the Melbourne final, he will be at an indoor tournament in Rotterdam.

You would think there was nothing wrong with the world No 2 but recent performances have told a different story.

He points out that he has rarely had much success at this time of the year but, while indoor hard courts do not bring the best out of him, he has looked a shadow of the man who swept all before him last year, winning the French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic gold.

Nadal has not won a title since May and in his last seven meetings with opponents ranked in the world's top eight has not won a set, let alone a match. The last few weeks have been a far cry even from the first five months of this year, during which he won the Australian Open, beating Roger Federer in a Grand Slam final for the third time in eight months.

Andre Agassi was among those who speculated whether Nadal might go on to win a calendar Grand Slam in 2009 but the Spaniard's year was torn apart following his shocking defeat to Robin Soderling in Paris at the end of May.

The question mark that has always hung over Nadal is his fitness. From his teenage days, he was a physical phenomenon, his muscles bulging as he chased down every ball and outlasted opponent after opponent.

His style of play, based on defence from the baseline, is physically demanding.

His game has placed huge demands on his knees, which have caused him per-sistent problems. After his French Open defeat, he finally gave in to the tendinitis that had been troubling him in both joints and took a break of more than two months.

His US Open chances were then hampered by an abdominal injury but he has been playing a full schedule since making his return in the middle of August.

The fact that, until London, he has reached the quarter-finals of every tournament since his comeback might suggest that he is rebuilding steadily. Indeed Nadal points out that he has enjoyed the most successful autumn of his career.

Yet he seems to be lacking the destructive power that used to wear down opponents. Physically Nadal appears less intimidating than he was, especially in his upper body.

There have been suggestions he might have been advised to lose bulk in order to relieve the burden on his knees, though Nadal insists that he has maintained the same weight in recent years. He says any change in his appearance must be down to ditching the sleeveless shirts that accentuated his muscular frame.

Memories can be short. When Federer lost to Nadal in Melbourne earlier this year, some asked whether the Swiss would ever break Pete Sampras' all-time record of Grand Slam titles - yet he went on to do so by winning the next two in succession at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Nadal, moreover, is only 23 and has time on his side.

Nevertheless, a key difference between Federer's situation then and Nadal's now is that the question marks over Federer concerned his mental state and continuing hunger for success rather than his body. Nadal's desire has never been in question but can he stand up to the physical strains imposed by his calendar?

Nadal says he does not need more time off: "I've had enough breaks this year - too many in my opinion. I'm ready to practise hard. I have motivation to play my best tennis. When you have this goal and you have this motivation, it doesn't matter if you are tired or not, so I am ready to start practising and to start playing in 2010.

"I don't know how far I am from my best. The important thing is that when this change happens, I'll be ready for it."

However, does he really need to begin his 2010 campaign in an exhibition event less than four weeks after the end of the 2009 season? After Australia, should he not rest rather than chase ranking points in Rotterdam? Evidence would suggest the Spaniard needs to do everything he can to nurse his body through the months and years ahead.

- INDEPENDENT