Analyzing Rafael Nadal's Struggles in Loss to Juan Martin Del Potro

Considering the incredible season that Rafael Nadal has put together, any loss is noteworthy. His defeat against Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinals at the Shanghai Masters is no different.

This is only the fifth loss of the season for the current No. 1 player in the world in 73 matches. He was denied his 11th title of the year, and this was only the second time he failed to reach the final of a tournament he entered.

Meanwhile, del Potro came through with an upset win that was not even that close, as noted by BBC Sport:

A lot of credit has to go to the Argentine player, who continues to show that he is truly in the upper echelon of the sport. The former U.S. Open champion is back up to No. 5 in the world after dealing with injury issues, and he will be a top contender in bigger tournaments for the remainder of the year.

Nadal had this to say about the defeat, via Sports Illustrated's Beyond the Baseline:

While it is true that he did not play poorly, there is certainly more that he could have done in order to secure the victory.

One notable issue was his inability to win points with his serve. Tennis Stats provided this interesting look at the difference between this match and the rest of the tournament:

Nadal had certainly been challenged, but he had been doing a great job of getting serves in play and giving opponents no chance of getting quality returns. He still was accurate with his first serve in the semifinal, but the shots were too easy to defend.

As a result, the Spanish star only won 55 percent of his first serves, way down from his season mark of 73 percent.

Still, the biggest problem for Nadal in the match was a common theme throughout the tournament: He simply could not close out his opponent when he had the chance.

In the previous two matches against Stanislas Wawrinka and Carlos Berlocq, Nadal only managed to win five of his 17 break points. Each match featured a tiebreak set when the favorite failed to convert any of at least three break chances.

This continued against del Potro, as the Argentine was able to save all six of his break points on the day. Earning even a couple of these would have completely changed the match in favor of Nadal.

Unfortunately, he was unable to win the big points when needed, and the result was his elimination from the tournament.

This loss certainly is not something to be concerned about, as it is just a minor blip on an otherwise fantastic year. However, there are certainly areas in which Nadal needs to improve after the loss. With a few more tournaments remaining in 2013—including the ATP World Tour Finals—he has to make sure to make adjustments before suffering the same fate in future matches.

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