There are interesting point of views about Rafa’s pull out.
It’s clear that all tennis community is going to miss him at the US Open, but some (all?) players should be quite happy not to play him. Maybe the guy that takes most of the benefit from it is Federer as his game does not match very well with Rafa’s forehand (and strategy) and Ferrer that managed to get in a “stay away from a big 4” quarter as seed no.4. To be honest also all the rest of the pack will be happy not to contront Rafa.
Murray had his different point as he mantains that this slam is not any different without Rafa “It doesn’t make any difference really, it feels the same as any other Slam to me,” Murray said.
“I mean going into the Slams for the last couple of years I have either been drawn in Rafa’s half or Roger’s half and last year is was either Rafa’s or Novak’s alf and in Australia this year I was drawn in Novak’s half, it makes very little difference.”
In a way this could be a fair point for Andy as before the draw he was expected to play either Nole or Roger in the semi (it will be Roger if they can get there) and then Rafa would have been his final opponent. But Andy forgot something looking at his records against the other top3
vs Nadal 5-13 (2-6 in Slams, Andy won one of these matches because Rafa had to retire)
vs Federer 9-8 (1-3 in Slams and Olympics, best of 5)
vs Djokovic 6-8 (0-2 in Slams)
Given their head to head records, Rafa absence is not that bad for Andy either.
