Beating Nadal

[stotty]

How can Djokovic beat Nadal so easily...well...fairly easily? It's easy to see how Nadal dominates Federer much of the time, but not so easy to see how Djokovic dominates Nadal. Is it because he has such a good backhand in the mid-court? He seems to soak up everything Nadal can throw at him, and comfortably. How come Djokovic can master Nadal yet no one else can? Murray has a great backhand but cannot replicate the same game-plan as Djokovic?

Perhaps even more important is how can Nadal combat Djokovic? As it stands at the moment Nadal looks set to be crushed every time? I don't see how Nadal can ever beat Djokovic again!

I wonder if JY may do an article one day and break down the rivalry for us? Well, it would be an interesting study for coaches.

[tennis_chiro]

Not quite that clear cut

How can Djokovic beat Nadal so easily...well...fairly easily? It's easy to see how Nadal dominates Federer much of the time, but not so easy to see how Djokovic dominates Nadal. Is it because he has such a good backhand in the mid-court? He seems to soak up everything Nadal can throw at him, and comfortably. How come Djokovic can master Nadal yet no one else can? Murray has a great backhand but cannot replicate the same game-plan as Djokovic?

Perhaps even more important is how can Nadal combat Djokovic? As it stands at the moment Nadal looks set to be crushed every time? I don't see how Nadal can ever beat Djokovic again!

I wonder if JY may do an article one day and break down the rivalry for us? Well, it would be an interesting study for coaches.

I haven't had a chance yet to go through the breakdown jimlosaltos linked us to on the Fawcette website, but I don't think it is quite that clear cut. The Nadal/Djokovic appeared in retrospect to be very one-sided, but I think the reality is the match swung on about 4 points. I wonder how much Nadal's foot was bothering him. He was missing a lot of balls for him. The matches just before he was managing to make zero unforced in one of the sets. Obviously, Novak was creating more pressure and covering more court, but I don't think the distance is as great as it appeared. Clearly, Rafa has to serve better and I think we will see that he will.

As far as Murray/Nadal, when he has played his best tennis, he has clearly appeared to have Nadal's number. In that first set, he was mixing in the slice very effectively and mixing up the play a lot. He was also playing at a very high level and very aggressively. Most of the time, he seems to prefer playing cat and mouse with his opponent relying more on counterpunching as oppossed to being proactive. When he was handling Nadal, he was being very proactive and kind of skating on the edge of his offensive capabilities. It's not easy to maintain that kind of proactive game plan and he seemed to lose his focus for just enough to let Rafa get back into the match. If he wants to be able to maintain that proactive edge through 5 sets against Rafa, he is going to have to play that way more often in his regular tour matches which he is capable of winning pretty easily without putting himself out in that "uncomfortable" (for him) territory.

The question is, "Can you learn to keep yourself in that zone of intensity (that success in these matches requires) for a longer period of time?" Confidence is certainly part of it. There is a certain level of innate "toughness". But part of what is required can be learned and improved upon with practice. I think that may be the case for Murray. On the other hand, for Rafa, it seemed he had mastered this dimension like no one else and Novak called his bluff and forced him to go farther than he ever had to go before (winning the majority of long points - unheard of).

Can't wait to see what happens at Canadian Open and Cincinnati. US Open will be exciting.

don

[julian1]

For Don

I haven't had a chance yet to go through the breakdown jimlosaltos linked us to on the Fawcette website, but I don't think it is quite that clear cut. The Nadal/Djokovic appeared in retrospect to be very one-sided, but I think the reality is the match swung on about 4 points. I wonder how much Nadal's foot was bothering him. He was missing a lot of balls for him. The matches just before he was managing to make zero unforced in one of the sets. Obviously, Novak was creating more pressure and covering more court, but I don't think the distance is as great as it appeared. Clearly, Rafa has to serve better and I think we will see that he will.

As far as Murray/Nadal, when he has played his best tennis, he has clearly appeared to have Nadal's number. In that first set, he was mixing in the slice very effectively and mixing up the play a lot. He was also playing at a very high level and very aggressively. Most of the time, he seems to prefer playing cat and mouse with his opponent relying more on counterpunching as oppossed to being proactive. When he was handling Nadal, he was being very proactive and kind of skating on the edge of his offensive capabilities. It's not easy to maintain that kind of proactive game plan and he seemed to lose his focus for just enough to let Rafa get back into the match. If he wants to be able to maintain that proactive edge through 5 sets against Rafa, he is going to have to play that way more often in his regular tour matches which he is capable of winning pretty easily without putting himself out in that "uncomfortable" (for him) territory.

The question is, "Can you learn to keep yourself in that zone of intensity (that success in these matches requires) for a longer period of time?" Confidence is certainly part of it. There is a certain level of innate "toughness". But part of what is required can be learned and improved upon with practice. I think that may be the case for Murray. On the other hand, for Rafa, it seemed he had mastered this dimension like no one else and Novak called his bluff and forced him to go farther than he ever had to go before (winning the majority of long points - unheard of).

Can't wait to see what happens at Canadian Open and Cincinnati. US Open will be exciting.

don

Was it announced that Nadal is out of Canadian Open?

[tennis_chiro]

I think he is playing

Was it announced that Nadal is out of Canadian Open?

Didn't know, so I searched:

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/news.aspx?articleid=13070&zoneid=25

Nadal's camp denies hairline fracture injury report
Ticker - Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Rafael Nadal's camp denies a report by the London Times that the Spaniard may be out for six weeks with a hairline fracture in his left foot. In an e-mail to TENNIS.com, Nadal's spokeman, Benito Pérez-Barbadillo, stated that Nadal does not have a hairline fracture and said the world No. 2 will play the Canadian Open, which begins in Montreal the week of August 8.

[stotty]

Don

I agree with you entirely about Murray.

Not so sure about Nadal/Djokovic. I thought in the first set at Wimbledon, Nadal played well. He missed some forehands but I figured that was because he was hitting up the line as a way combating Novak's up-until-then 4 match stranglehold. Hitting to Novak's backhand had proved fruitless in their previous encounters.

I thought Nadal served well throughout the first set but it had little effect. I even had Nadal edging the set were I to score it like a boxing match - that is until 4-5. Once Novak got the first set out of the way he seemed to relax and open up. From here it could have been embarrassing had Novak not lost focus. For me it looked easy. I can't see how Nadal can turn the situation around.

Novak seems to stretch Nadal out in rallies the longer they go on, like no one else can. His backhand looks deadly on the mid-court balls. It's almost like having two big forehands.

The key questions is what can Nadal do about it?