Freak Video Moment: Leg Cramps Cripple Rafael Nadal After U.S. Open Win
- Posted on September 4, 2011 at 11:02pm by
Scott Baker
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AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Rafael Nadal rolled his head back, squeezed his eyes shut, covered his contorted face with his left arm and leaned awkwardly in the leather chair used by players during U.S. Open news conferences.
Frozen by the leg cramps that simultaneously hit his right hamstring and thigh about two hours after he’d won his third-round match, Nadal stopped taking reporters’ questions and paused between deep breaths to plead in Spanish, “Can you call a trainer for me, please?”
Then slowly — and scarily to those watching, because it was unclear at that moment to anyone but Nadal himself exactly what was wrong — the defending champion slithered out of the chair and went down to the ground, hidden from view by a table. Within minutes, Nadal was sitting up, and then standing, after being given bags of ice to soothe his painful leg and bottles of water and Gatorade to drink.
Even if it all amounted to nothing serious from a medical standpoint — as Nadal and his manager would later insist, chuckling — it was a bizarre scene, one at least as memorable as anything that took place on court Sunday at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.
“It’s bad luck it happened here,” Nadal said, “and not in the locker room.”
His point was that tennis players often deal with cramps, particularly after competing in the sort of conditions Nadal did while beating 2002 Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian 7-6 (5), 6-1, 7-5 on a muggy afternoon with the temperature in the 80s.
“It’s just something that happens. It’s just unfortunate it happened in front of you all,” 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick told reporters after a straight-set victory over Julien Benneteau to get to the fourth round. “Every single player in there has had that happen before. Every single one. What we do — we run around, run miles and miles and miles and miles on the tennis court in nasty weather — (and) you throw nerves in there. I mean, it happens. As long as it doesn’t happen during a match, you’re fine.”
Roddick continued: “Cramps are fine. It’s not an injury. A cramp is a cramp. When you go to bed and your foot cramps, it’s the same thing.”
With No. 28 John Isner and unseeded Donald Young also winning Sunday, and No. 8 Mardy Fish advancing Saturday, Roddick is part of the first quartet of American men to reach the U.S. Open’s fourth round since 2003.
Others moving on included 2008 runner-up Andy Murray, who beat No. 25 Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at night; No. 5 David Ferrer, Roddick’s next opponent; No. 12 Gilles Simon, who got past 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (3); and unseeded Gilles Muller, who will face Nadal for a quarterfinal berth.
Nadal wasn‘t the only player who appeared to be bothered by Sunday’s heat and humidity: No. 26 Flavia Pennetta of Italy felt as though she needed to throw up right out there on court during her 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over No. 13 Peng Shuai of China.
“It was a bunch of things: the heat, the tension,” said Pennetta, who knocked off three-time major champion Maria Sharapova in the third round. “It’s not normal, but it happens.”
Pennetta now plays Angelique Kerber of Germany, who defeated Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-4, 6-3.
When a reporter began a question by asking Pennetta about beating Kerber when they played on clay at Bastad, Sweden, less than two months ago, Pennetta cut him off.
“This year? Really? I didn’t know that,” Pennetta said. “I thought I’d never played her. I swear to God.”
Fifth-seeded Sam Stosur, the 2010 French Open runner-up, isn’t likely to forget her 6-2, 6-7 (15), 6-3 victory Sunday night over No. 25 Maria Kirilenko — or at least the second-set tiebreaker. The 17-15 score made it the longest tiebreaker played by two women at any Grand Slam tournament, according to the WTA.
Kirilenko won that set — saving five match points in the process — to force a third, and TV broadcaster John McEnroe declared of the tiebreaker: “There, in a nutshell, is why this is such a great sport.”
In the quarterfinals, Stosur will play 2010 U.S. Open and Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva or No. 22 Sabine Lisicki; they were playing the last match of the night in Arthur Ashe Stadium
Much earlier, on that same court, Nadal dealt with two too-close-for-comfort sets and was treated by a trainer for a blister on his right foot during an injury timeout.
The 76th-ranked Nalbandian went up a break in the fifth game and served for the first set at 5-4, but he double-faulted on break point. Then, at 3-all in the tiebreaker, Nalbandian double-faulted again, helping the second-seeded Nadal nose ahead. After a quick second set, Nalbandian broke to begin the third, but Nadal broke right back and wound up finishing things in a little more than 2½ hours.
“I was happy about almost everything today,” Nadal said. “I think my movements worked pretty well, and the forehand worked really well, and the backhand, too.”
Notice that he did not mention his serve.
So far he’s not been nearly as dominant as he was along the way to completing a career Grand Slam at the U.S. Open a year ago. In 2010, he lost a total of five service games in seven matches; in 2011, he’s already been broken nine times through three matches.
On court, though, he’s never looked as vulnerable as he did Sunday, slumped in a chair at a news conference.
___
Follow Howard Fendrich at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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SuFla
Posted on September 6, 2011 at 8:04pmThe only thing that stopped a night of terrible leg cramps for me was when I pinched the rim of both of my ears. I did this several times, even inside the rim. Wow, I fell asleep right away. The shape of the ear resembles the birth canal, and acupuncture advocates say the ear contains all of the body’s pressure points. Nothing worked for me but this, after I was up and down most of the night. I overdid it at the gym, and my legs really were hurting me. Try pinching along the rim of your ears to stop leg cramps.
Report Post »Tickdog
Posted on September 6, 2011 at 7:34amlol!
Report Post »jarasan
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 6:54pmA bad cramp like that is brutally painful, I’ve had them and I understand, it is a result of dehydration and mineral imbalance due to heavy exertion.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 6:30pmSounds, to me, like some one hasn’t been taking their training very seriously. tsk. tsk. tsk. Shame on you! And you call yourself an ‘athlete.’
Report Post »DSVet
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 4:27pm36 seconds before he hits the floor and not one person comes to his side!!! But those cameras are sure goin!!!!! Sick sick sick!
Report Post »DSVet
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 4:24pmThe really disgusting thing here is he starts to react to the pain…something is obviously wrong, but for 8 or 10 seconds NOBODY come to his side to see what’s happening to him or to help him. You can sure hear the cameras clicking though. SOOOOO DISGUSTING! Our society has gotten to the point where the “story” is more important then the “person”….makes me want to puke! Something terrible or tragic happens everyone grabs a camera or a cell phone to “capture the moment” instead of helping, hoping they’ll get something they can exploit and make money off of. We have become a sick and twisted society.
Report Post »eric6161
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 3:02pmQuinine works for me… thank you FDA for banning it in the U.S. When you banned it I went to every pharmacy I could find and bought up everything. I still have a bit left after almost 4 years… I hear it’s so much more money buying it from Canada or Mexico but will have to once I run out… and the quiliquone or whatever the name is doesn’t work very well.
Report Post »Baxie
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 12:15pmMy husband gets them all the time. We don‘t have the French’s Yellow Mustard, how about Grey Poupon?
Report Post »robert
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 2:10pmWho is Rafael Nadal?
Report Post »clear-thinker
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 11:41amYellow Mustard helps . One spoon full every night has stopped cramps for4 me
Report Post »clear-thinker
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 11:37amplease give Nadal one spoon full of yellow mustaed quickly, it works . Look up on internet. I take a little every night and it has stopped the cramps
Report Post »mikenleeds
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 9:46ami ve been their and it s very painful
Report Post »Iman Barak Hussein
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 9:04amhe was hiding the results of….viagra.
Report Post »AntiLiberal74
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:49amI saw this yesterday and the first thing that popped into my head was the movie ‘Police Academy’….
Report Post »searching for the Truth
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:09amLeave off the ” Aspartame,” and products that contain them, although it may be quite difficult to find.
Report Post »searching for the Truth
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 1:37pmDisclaimer: Doesn’t affect everyone the same.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:03am… electrolytes and potassium …
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:17amThat’s what I was going to say. It’s also supposed to help to drink tonic water. We keep tonic water because it helps me when I get “glutened,” but my husband sometimes drinks some when he gets cramps. He‘s noticed he gets more when he’s dehydrated (working outside in this Texas triple digit weather will do that to ya). I guess it’s the quinine.
Report Post »eric6161
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 3:07pmThe tonic water used to be called quinine water… and can help if you don’t mind the bitter taste. I take potassium and magnesium… or just eat lots of bananas. I don’t have nearly as many cramps as I used to and it is hereditary… my mother and grandmother had them… something about the circulation system and capillaries. I just keep the quinine on hand for when I get a bad one… and that’s about twice a year now.
Report Post »PoliticalJunkieToo
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 6:38amAnyone who has ever had a bad leg cramp can feel this man’s pain.
Report Post »swampbuck
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:09amhave had them in bed…I ended up in the floor damn near crying..lol
Report Post »BehindBlueEyes
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:18amThe Amish make a natural product that you take oraly when cramps start. They claim within seconds the cramps will stop. I bought a bottle for my wife and she keeps it on the night stand. I can‘t verify whether it works because she hasn’t had a leg cramp in almost a year.
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 5:52amI had a shin splint cramp sp bad it gave me a stress fracture…man does it hurt.
Report Post »hudent
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 4:53amHis trainer should know better to ice those legs before anything else at least a bit,fire that guy
Report Post »cyclops
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 2:11amOh man…..poor guy……
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 3:31amBoy he will have one sore leg tomorrow.. When a cramp is that strong you can hardly move that
Report Post »muscle the next day. Poor Guy.