If the opponent does recover from his compromised position before Nadal can get a look on his forehand, more often than not he makes the mistake of overrunning to the opposite corner in the anticipation of a forehand down the line. That in turn makes it easy for Nadal to go behind him and hit a crosscourt forehand. An analysis of the King of Clay's win over Novak Djokovic in last year's Rome Masters final shows just how effectively Nadal uses his favorite punch.
He even ran around his backhand frequently, taking advantage of a short return extracted from his wide serve, to hit a forehand. The vicious "one-two punch" enabled him to win a lot of points before they matured into lengthy rallies.
Rafael Nadal also uses the slice serve down the T to the right-handed returner's backhand on the deuce court a lot. However, this serve is not quite as effective as the serve out wide on the ad court, because of the court geometry. The tactic helps Nadal win quicker points on serve and conserve his energy to stay fresher for the return games. In case anyone still thinks Rafael Nadal is just some deep sitting baseline retriever without a net-game, drop-shots or a slice, they might want to reconsider.
Point construction is one of Rafael Nadal's biggest assets. While not typically known for his tennis IQ as much as, say, Andy Murray , Nadal is still very smart at constructing points from start to finish.
Patient while constructing the rally, Nadal often appears to be just trying to run the opponent ragged with his heavy forehand. But the Spaniard is always thinking of his moves ahead of his opponent, ready to pounce at the best opportunity to finish the point. Unlike other surfaces, it is almost impossible to finish a point on clay with a single swing of the racket. Players deploying the first-strike tennis strategy have always struggled on dirt; the surface demands astute decision-making, patience, persistence and endurance.
And all of these things are defining features of Rafael Nadal's game. The Spaniard's shot selection is designed to put you right where he wants, before he bludgeons that heavy forehand. If you are hitting confident backhands and staying in the rally without sending a short ball, he will ensure you're pushed back deep enough before launching a drop shot.
If the drop shot is good and you still manage to reach it, he'll be towering at the net to finish the point or outwit you in a net duel. If the drop shot is left too high, he will be on the baseline to hit a line-kissing passing shot off what you might have thought was a putaway forehand. If you somehow manage to gain the upper hand in a rally and think you have him where you want, he will slice the ball crosscourt to get out of trouble.
That will buy him enough time to get back in a good court position, while also completely changing the pace of the rally. Point construction on clay doesn't really get much better than a typical Rafael Nadal rally.
Nadal does a great job of opening up the court here. Even if everything fails and Nadal is cornered in a seemingly hopeless position, there is always the heavy forehand that defies the laws of physics and somehow lands outside your reach, stealing away your dreams. His foot speed and court coverage rank among the best in the history of the sport. Players would often fire massive groundstrokes at bullet speed in an open corner, thinking they have earned a winner, only for Nadal to come sprinting out of nowhere and make an astonishing get.
By forcing his opponents to keep hitting one extra shot, the King of Clay elicits numerous errors out of them. And that often makes the difference for Nadal in his claycourt matches. In his prime, the force of nature from Mallorca could cover all four corners of the court in a single rally and still manage to come out on top. With time, Rafael Nadal's speed has considerably decreased.
Such injuries are least damaging on clay thanks to the softness of the surface. When a player is pain free, playing at full capacity is a given. Who knows what this man could have achieved on other surfaces if his injuries had not caught up to him. It is said that Tennis players have arms that are different in size. That difference in size is the most prominent in Rafael Nadal. His left bicep seems to be at least twice his right counterpart.
Thanks to such massive muscles, he hits forehands that travel at upwards of RPM. This might not sound much but such a heavy topspin forehand can cause a lot of damage to the opponents.
It has been seen time and again that players try to attack his backhand by approaching the net on that side only to be passed quite comfortably.
His strong right arm also helps him counter heavy topspin forehand cross courts and at times even hit winners off them. This combination of a superior forehand and very consistent backhand make it very difficult to find a weakness in his baseline game. For the last 14 odd years, Nadal has overwhelmed this surface as no one has.
He has records that are hard to accept. He has been winning records that seem to be made up and he has video clippings on the web that gaze directly out of a computer game. There is no other player who has dominated the game of tennis on Clay court as Rafael Nadal has. But that is not all that makes him strong. Not in a real sense yet he burned through the vast majority of his youth playing tennis on it.
He is the ultimate challenge on this surface and the player to beat every time we have a clay court tournament for a good reason. He is left handed and that helps his game, he gets amazing angles and shows good invention on the court. Former world No 1 went down in three sets against the American. Jannik Sinner disappointed he came up short of reaching his big goal for Too much at stake for Novak Djokovic to skip Australian Open.
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