Creature vs Creature: The Turning Point For Juan Martin Del Potro

This is the first in a set of four articles that analyze two rivalries that have come under the scanner following the recent results on the ATP Tour.

This one takes Juan Martin Del Potro's side in his rivalry with Rafael Nadal.

Introduction

Almost no one on the men's tour uses the Eastern Forehand grip. Almost no one is as tall as six and a half feet. And almost no one that tall has ridiculously smooth movement for his height.

And no-one, except one man, has a combination of all three.

He has been for sometime now, touted as one of the future ambassadors of the game and a multiple Grand Slam Champion. Now that he has taken his first step by winning his first Grand Slam title, those predictions do seem to carry substance and not just speculation.

One thing that his US Open performance emphasizes about his general performance these past few months is that he is no longer having hiccups facing those ahead of him in the rankings as he beat the top two Grand Slam contenders of this era in back to back contests. As well, at the latest stages of the tournament when they tend to be "unbeatable" other than by the other.

What has been missing in Juan Martin Del Potro and what has now been rectified to a large extent is a high level of confidence in his shots when playing those whom the ATP rankings show to be "better" than himself.

This had lend him a bit passive against Federer and the like in the past, not going for the strike as early or with as much clinical exactitude as would be needed.

This brings us to his rivalry with Rafael Nadal - one among those ranked ahead of him.

This was a rivalry that Rafael seemed to dominate till early this year. But afterwards, it is well documented how Del-Potro has initiated a come-back. The US Open seems to be a sort of turning point in this respect, and let's take a look at it from that angle, while Rajat "Analyst" Jain takes a look at it from the other perspective here

The Story So Far

Till Miami 2009, Nadal was dominating Juan Martin Del Potro, and it always seemed that he could not cross over some barrier against Nadal.

People were always touting him to be the worst match-up for Nadal. The mechanics all seemed to be there - the height, which would mean that anything not really deep with a lot of top-spin, would be in his strike-zone, and the extremely pacy, flat ground-strokes which would not allow Nadal enough set-up for whipping his top-spinners.

But it must always be noticed that winning against someone is not just the mechanics of the game. It also depends on how you mentally match-up.

Perhaps this was the reason that Nadal won their first four encounters in straight sets. After all, Del Potro was only maturing on the tour and developing his game.

But then, Nadal was a speeding train running at over-capacity as the future would show, and Del Potro was enjoying improvements in leaps and bounds in his game, both in his strokes and his mentality, all this while.

He scalped the first win at Miami, and he had to come from behind in the third set. It was however said that Nadal was tired and less motivated after winning so much.

Then Nadal was removed from the scene for quite a while, and the next they met was in Canada in preparation for the US Open.

Perhaps it helped that Nadal was coming out of injury and did not really have match-practice, but surely Del-Potro had taken the confidence from his previous victory against Nadal. This time, the match was over in straight sets.

At the US Open this year, Del-Potro literally blew Nadal off the court. To the relief of Nadal fans, it was again reported that Nadal was suffering from an injury which did not let him serve well.

All the three victories of Del-Potro over Nadal, it would seem to many, came when Nadal was not at his best. But let us try to look at this a bit more objectively.

Under the Microscope

It is of no doubt that Del-Potro is not a good match-up for Nadal due to the following reasons :-

1. Nadal's primary weapon is his top-spin forehand. Anything a bit short against Del-Potro off this shot lands in Del-Potro's strike zone.

2. Nadal's serves are normally angled or kick serves. Del-Potro has a huge reach for the angled one's, and he doesn't easily get back-footed by the kick-serve because he is tall.

Also, while he could be back-footed during a rally by a deep top-spin forehand, he can chose to stand back from the court and step into the serve; in this case though he would be taking the serve from behind the base-line, he will be on the front-foot.

3. Del-Potro's serves and ground strokes are flat with lot less bounce and much horizontal pace. This would give a lot less set-up for Nadal to unleash his heavy ones. Because of this, to buy time and cut down on errors, he would be forced to play from behind the baseline, in a very defensive position. This is a really difficult position to win a match from, on fast courts.

This means that, on fast courts Nadal cannot afford to play even a bit short, or take a bit off his serve. He will increasingly have to take risks, taking the ball on the rise and avoid being too defensive.

On slow courts however, the cards that each player holds do not have the same importance. Nadal gets a bit more time to play the shots, and he gets to bounce the ball a lot higher. More setup also means, his accuracy will increase in painting the base-line. Winners are not easy to come by on clay, which is what Del Potro's game is based on.

Other than from the mechanics' perspective, Del Potro has also become a tougher customer to deal with mentally. And it should be noted that his level of play doesn't modulate nowadays as compared to how it once used to, which in those days, gave enough opportunities to Nadal, the competitor that he is, to capitalise on, and race away with the match.

Perhaps the most important thing for Del-Potro to concentrate on for now is his fitness, which though good, might not be good enough to let him tug along with Nadal in the really long matches.

The Momentum is With...

Del Potro without doubt!

The next time Del-Potro takes on Nadal, he will take with him all the confidence in the world. After all he has won three in a row now.

The match-up points to Del-Potro winning on faster surfaces, and Nadal on the slower ones with grass being a bit of a question mark, where movement could be difficult for the giant.

This year will indeed be the turning point in their rivalry. It will not be long before Del Potro achieves equality on the head to head or goes one better.

Showdowns to look out for

The "democratic surface" (as Rob York might put it) for these two is surely what is used at the Australian Open.

Also the lawns of Wimbledon where the movement of the giant could be a bit suspect as stated earlier, and the surface doesn't play as fast as the US Open.