French Open 2011: What's Gone Well and Not so Well for Rafa Through Four Rounds
As we've watched play up to this point in this year's French Open, we have seen glimpses of the "King of Clay," Rafael Nadal. But, it's obvious, he is not at his peak performance. Rafa has even made comments during his interviews to this effect.
However, Rafa being Rafa, he has been able to pull out wins and is now heading to the quarterfinals on Wednesday to face the one and only person to hand him a defeat on the clay courts of Roland Garros, Robin Soderling. Soderling is currently ranked No. 5 in the world.
In anticipation of the match, I thought it would be interesting to review Rafa's performance, round by round, up to this point. The breakdown looks at some key areas that Rafa has performed well in, as well as others that he did not perform so well in.
Let's begin...
First Round: vs. John Isner
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What went well:
During this match, Rafa had difficulties. However, despite five sets and various struggles, he was able to keep his unforced errors low (27) and do well with his winning percentages on first and second serve (81 and 70, respectively).
What did not go so well:
Probably the most devastating blow to Rafa's game during this match was his limited ability to capitalize on break-point conversions.
Though the opportunities were available, Rafa was only able to maintain a 33 percent conversion rate. Isner on the other hand was at 100 percent (important to note that Isner only had one opportunity).
Second Round: vs. Pablo Andujar
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What went well:
There were two components of Rafa's game that stood out above the rest during this match. First, he was able to score six aces to Andujar's one. Additionally, he showed great improvement on his break point conversion rate (64 percent).
What did not go so well:
Interesting enough, there wasn't really anywhere that Andujar obtained an obvious advantage over Rafa. The only area that Rafa seemed to have a little less of an advantage was concerning net approaches (56 percent).
Third Round: vs. Antonio Veic
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What went well:
This match provided the best look during this tournament, thus far, as to why Rafa is referred to as the "King of Clay."
In the previous two rounds, Rafa was at almost 30 unforced errors. This round, he only had 18. He overwhelmingly did well with break point conversions. He was at 90 percent. He also had a compelling performance in net approaches (83 percent).
What did not go well:
As stated, this was Rafa's best performance thus far. Nothing stood out as a notable negative on his game.
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Fourth Round: vs. Ivan Ljubocic
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What went well:
There were a couple of areas that Rafa performed well in during this match—winning percentage on first serve (82) and net approaches (82 percent).
What did not go well:
This match was very similar to Rafa's match with Isner in that he struggled with break point conversions. He was at a lowly 30 percent.
Final Thoughts
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As stated in the introduction slide, Rafa is going to be facing Robin Soderling in his quarterfinal match on Wednesday.
Though Rafa leads their head-to-head matches, 5-2, it cannot be denied that Rafa is going in with a little less confidence and not playing his absolute best, as we have just discussed based on stats.
However, we are talking about Rafa. We have also just finished discussing how he has had some good moments, showcasing how well he is capable of playing tennis.
If the Rafa that showed up in the third round comes to play on Wednesday, he should be OK in securing his reservation for a spot in the semifinals.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and do leave any comments that you may have.
Stats presented in this slideshow are from the official Roland Garros site (http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html).
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