Did Nadal's grass game deteriorate much like Federer's?

[Mike Sams]

2011 and 2012 Wimbledons. Nadal can't shake the clay dust off his shoes and can't conform to grass efficiently. By the time he can finally get suited to Wimbledon grass after a long and taxing clay season, he's toast by the 2nd round (Rosol 2012) or a deer in headlights (Djokovic 2011) or barely getting by some lesser ranked opposition (Haase/Petzschener 2010).

Nadal has clearly been struggling with his grass game over the past 2 years and it was exposed. He's not a super scary force on hardcourts. So clay is his best bet. I believe he will continue to aim for RG until he is broken down. He should get at least 1 more RG title if his body holds together or if his desire is still there or if he can avoid a resurged Djokovic 2.0.

[Ico]

What was the point of mentioning Federer, the defending Wimbledon champion no less, in the title?

[Mike Sams]

Originally Posted by Ico

What was the point of mentioning Federer, the defending Wimbledon champion no less, in the title?

Because Federer's grass game deteriorated as he got older and I'm using him as an example.

[West Coast Ace]

^^^^ and Olympic finalist. Fed's grass game has barely wavered; they just keep slowing down the grass and balls to give the other guys a shot.

@MikeSams, you were doing so good in the other thread; fell flat on your @ss with this one.

[Homeboy Hotel]

His tennis on grass has remained the same level 10/11/12 (08 he was superb on green clay). Easy opponents get him to the final.

Big hitters stop him.

[Mike Sams]

Originally Posted by West Coast Ace

^^^^ and Olympic finalist. Fed's grass game has barely wavered; they just keep slowing down the grass and balls to give the other guys a shot.

@MikeSams, you were doing so good in the other thread; fell flat on your @ss with this one.

Federer was lucky to make it out of the Benneteau match and the Falla match.

[veroniquem]

Rafa reminds me of Borg a lot. Borg also made a lot of Wimbledon finals but didn't do much on grass in other events (except for 1 win at Adelaide). By contrast, Sampras and Fed won regularly outside of W (even Hewitt and Roddick won a bunch of best of 3 events on grass). The main difference is that Borg won 5 out of his 6 W finals whereas Rafa won only 2 out of his 5.

[underground]

Federer's grass game is still there. Final in Halle, Silver Medal at SW19 and Wimbledon defending champion means he's deteriorating? If he were to play in 2003 grass instead of 2008~ grass he will still be the outright favourite for all grass titles.

[tacou]

This is silly. He WON in 2010 and you are using that as an example? He made the finals in 2011 and lost to Novak, just like he did I think 7 times in a row in finals on all surfaces and situations.

2012 was a bad, bad loss, and either signifies the end of his career or a serious injury that kept him out of the game for 7+ months--either way says nothing about his grass game specifically and more his overall health.

Same goes for Fed...the defending champion...his game has deteriorated on all surfaces, he's old! But he's still top 3 player in the world and probably best pure grass player.

[PrinceMoron]

Originally Posted by Mike Sams

Federer was lucky to make it out of the Benneteau match and the Falla match.

He was fitter, which helped. It is a sport, not gambling.

[monfed]

Give me a break,Ralph was one of the joint favourites for Wimby this year and he looked in sublime form. He just got destroyed by a player who quite possibly played the highest level of tennis one may have EVER seen in that 5th set. Even then he broke Ralph only ONCE. Rosol practically stopped rallying by going for EVERYTHING.
Seriously 100 MPH DTL BH winners? Are you kidding me?

[PrinceMoron]

How can you rally when your opponent hits the ball so short? It was a duck shoot. Rosol did well to keep the ball in.

[Bobby Jr]

The thing about Wimbledon is the grass season is so short that, of all the four majors, it seems to have more than its share of hot runs/upsets by outsiders. It seems the one surface where some random lowly ranker player can rock up and have a blinder moreso than at the other majors.

[namelessone]

Nadal's grass game has deteriorated somewhat, especially on the BH side, and he is slower but his sloping grass game is still better than 90% of players out there. In 2012 he had a shocking loss - the first one in ages -(with the bonus of physical problems) and in 2011 he was trampled a bit mentally after losing that first set at the end to Djokovic(coupled with the 4 defeats at the hands of Djokovic beforehand, all in finals) and couldn't quite find his feet afterwards.

[Netspirit]

Nadal's two Wimbledons are merely coincidental. He only won Wimbledon 2008 because of the psychological advantage of having crushed Federer two weeks earlier at RG 2008. His Wimbledon 2010 (def. Berdych) was a joke of epic proportions (second only to his famous USO 2010 flying circus).

Nadal always had enough game on slow grass to reach multiple Wimbledon finals, which is quite an achievement by itself, but calling him a grass court legend, getting surprised by him not winning Wimbledon after Wimbledon (like he does at RG), etc. is just silly.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by Netspirit

Nadal's two Wimbledons are merely coincidental. He only won Wimbledon 2008 because of the psychological advantage of having crushed Federer two weeks earlier at RG 2008. His Wimbledon 2010 (def. Berdych) was a joke of epic proportions (second only to his famous USO 2010 flying circus).

Nadal always had enough game on slow grass to reach multiple Wimbledon finals, which is quite an achievement by itself, but calling him a grass court legend, getting surprised by him not winning Wimbledon after Wimbledon (like he does at RG), etc. is just silly.

So is Fed's RG title.

[smoledman]

Originally Posted by Clarky21

So is Fed's RG title.

Fed had to beat an in-form Haas, Monfils, Del Potro and SoderKING.

[Netspirit]

Originally Posted by Clarky21

So is Fed's RG title.

Yeah. I discount Federer's RG 2009 win (no Nadal), Nadal's Wimbledon 2010 and USO 2010 (lol), as well as Murray's USO 2012 (wind).

If you play dozens of slams, it is OK to get lucky once or twice.

[Mustard]

I thought Nadal played well at 2011 Wimbledon, for the most part, particularly the wins over Muller, del Potro and Murray. His best Wimbledon by far was 2008, and he was also very good from the fourth round onwards in 2010. He showed remarkable strength in 2007, in almost winning the tournament despite having to play every day in the second week.

He was poor at 2012 Wimbledon, and not just the Rosol match. The signs were there in his first round match against Bellucci.