I didn't see the match yet, but have it on the way in the mail for me to chart, but from what I've heard,
it plays right into a theory I have about hitting major topspin.
Hitting major TS against a hard hit ball taken flat or on the rise is very tough to do precisely. If Sod was hitting consistently as hard and flat as I'm hearing, it probably led to more UEs on Nadal trying to hit his usual clay court heavy TS, and undermined his confidence as well.
Nadal needed to take more of these balls and hit them with less TS, more like he would do at the US open or other hard ct events.
He has these skills as we have seen.
He could have been closer to the baseline and stole time from Sod, which would have hurt his ability to create all this power consistently.
This would have led to opportunities for Rafa to hit his big TS at certain critical moments.
Sounds like Rafa ran around 20' behind the baseline, waiting for these balls to drop alittle, to hit his monster TS shots, which gave sod too much time and position advantage.
it plays right into a theory I have about hitting major topspin.
Hitting major TS against a hard hit ball taken flat or on the rise is very tough to do precisely. If Sod was hitting consistently as hard and flat as I'm hearing, it probably led to more UEs on Nadal trying to hit his usual clay court heavy TS, and undermined his confidence as well.
Nadal needed to take more of these balls and hit them with less TS, more like he would do at the US open or other hard ct events.
He has these skills as we have seen.
He could have been closer to the baseline and stole time from Sod, which would have hurt his ability to create all this power consistently.
This would have led to opportunities for Rafa to hit his big TS at certain critical moments.
Sounds like Rafa ran around 20' behind the baseline, waiting for these balls to drop alittle, to hit his monster TS shots, which gave sod too much time and position advantage.
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