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Finally, it's up online: the first Tennis Roundtable of the Bleacher Community. The question for our first RT could not get more topical. Enjoy it! Thanks to each one of you (Alby, Tyler, Mike, Todd, Sarah, Marc, jb, Josh, and Burton)...

How Did Rafael Nadal Finally Reach the Top? Tennis Unplugged (Roundtable 1)

by Tennis RT Tennis Unplugged (Scribe)

10

1,643 reads

Sports

August 05, 2008


Finally, it's up online: the first Tennis Roundtable of the Bleacher Community. The question for our first RT could not get more topical. Enjoy it!

Thanks to each one of you (Alby, Tyler, Mike, Todd, Sarah, Marc, jb, Josh, and Burton). Its a little long this time around, next time, we would set a word cap.

Rafael Nadal winning in Toronto last week, combined with Roger Federer losing in the second round, Rafa has an opportunity to take the No.1 ranking next week in Cincinnati? (As we speak, it is confirmed that he will topple Federer in the rankings next week). What has been the most important factor this year in Nadal’s game that has provided him with such an opportunity, which he did not have the previous four years?

 

Alby Jnr.

Rafa Nadal's improvement goes hand-in-hand with Federer's tailspin for me.

The year isn't over yet, but it's been mostly no-go for Roger and lovely for Rafa. The buzz since Wimbledon 2007 was that Rafa had improved on grass a lot more than Federer had on clay, and this year definitely proved that.

You win less when your rivals catch up to you, and if you don't do something special, they surpass you. Federer has a lot of work to do to keep Rafa from consolidating his position.

Sure, the odds are that Rafa's body won't hold out for very long, but someone who's been No. 1 for so long like Federer won't be content to wait it out.

So far he hasn't done well against Rafa, either by his own strategy, or with that of Roche and Higueras. In the Wimbledon final, the single most effective shot he had was his big off forehand to the ad court, because his serve was on and off.

In previous years he'd mostly try to avoid Nadal's forehand, but he definitely went there with the off forehand and won a lot of points; it was great to see him use it.

As always when he plays Rafa, he had lots of chances to break; at one time he would. But no more; he gets too tight, and Rafa has improved too much.

It's a quandary. We've seen power hitters trouble Rafa on non-clay surfaces, but no one can do it every time.

We've seen that no one's topspin can compete with his; getting a ball past him is a major achievement. He hits killer angles, and he can hurt you from anywhere on court.

Rafa deserves a lot of credit. But aside from the topspin, we can say the very same things about Federer. It's just that the topspin is such a big weapon. It's Rafa's sine qua non.

If growing a few inches, suddenly adding 20 mph to his serve or more topspin isn't in the cards for Federer, what can he do? I think it comes down mostly to his head. I know it's good enough against 99 percent of his opponents, but here's something he can and must work on against Rafa.

Where did his serve go for most of the Wimbledon final, for instance? Where did his head go for all those break chances he's had against Rafa in various matches?

Big thanks...

 

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10 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Saraswathi Siriginia 11 months ago

    Great read Donahue LJS from storybook's, was awaiting the unveiling of this dame and here she is. We got ourselves a collaboration. Great points raised by the rest of the gang. Could have gone more into the psychological angle, but brain cells as burntout.

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  2. Michael Griffin 11 months ago

    Nice one mate, looks good. We're starting a trend with RT's now, first Criket, then football, then NHL, then F1, and now tennis. Bloody great stuff, POTD from me.

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  3. Tyler Charles 11 months ago

    Great piece, so many different variables I didn't think of in my own analysis.

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  4. aditi anshu 11 months ago

    very nice article. nadal deserve to be no 1

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  5. josh millar 11 months ago

    WE ROCK lol

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