Ir wasn't fun for me to witness Rafa go down against Sod. I was hoping for Rafa to beat Borg's record. Well Rafa is only 23 so he can still do it.
Roger is now my favorite and I hope this gives Federer the lift to finally get the dirt crown.
Carlo made the most concise summation on the Sod vs Rafa showdown.
* Rafa was filled with visible frustration at key junctures (sign of tiredness and extremely destructive)
* Nadal lacked his usual creativity in his struggle. Sod didn't face the Rafa Verdasco battled in the AO SF 2009 or the one Roger faced in RG 2008 or earlier. Rafa was very good though -- he almost took it to five against someone playing madman percentages and enjoying almost complete success in their risky ventures -- but he wasn't close to his best and Sod made him look worse.
* Sod made the play you should do against Rafa's playing style -- be patiently aggressive, try to stress their consistency and rhythm with pouncing strokes followed by sharp attacking backed up by tremendous serving. Like Panatta, Nastase, Mecir and things that Laver and Rosewall certainly knew a thing or two about...
* Great that Carlo mentions Rafa's new forehand stroke. Rafa's forehand wasn't the thundering Thor's Hammer this RG the way it used to be -- really opening up the duels for Sod's blasting attacks...
This match had a lot of similar key factors with Borg's loss to Panatta in RG 1976 and there's been fine posts earlier here addressing the various factors:
* Bad match-up-phenomenon -- i. e. for a retrieving baseliner the worst nightmare takes shape in the form of an aggressive pouncer and net-attacker who constantly breaks any rhythm and puts them off balance in the points. The Pouncer must be playing at an extremely high level (very unusual) to successfully achieve high winner numbers essential for an ultimate victory. I always thought Federer would deliver a perf like this to Rafa at RG but he's never sustained it longer than a set -- never playing at Sod's level in the Rafa-match all the way through (that can also be because Rafa was better against Roger than when he was facing Sod) although Fedex has shown Sod's high level (and better IMO) for plenty of entire matches against others than Rafa in practically any tourney -- so Roger can do it. Verdasco tried this style on a better Rafa at AO but didn't succeed completely.
* One key aspect between Adriano vs Björn RG 1976 and Sod vs Nadal RG 2009 was also the fact that Borg and Rafa never reached their best play during these matches. That always happens some day. It's amazing that this was Rafa's first so-so match and he had severe bad luck meeting a player with this effective match-up style really in great form. Borg, like Rafa, also played passively against Panatta that hot day. Also in parallell with Nadal -- Björn's groundies bounced abnormally short and Björn lacked his new, sharp, dependable rifle-service (he would polish and develop this new "bomb" during the following weeks after RG as a response to his perf against the Italian Genius Panatta) while Panatta, like Sod, served a hailstorm of armor-piercing first bullets. Borg's rhythm became staccato -- like Rafa's -- releasing uncomfortable gestures giving their opponents fresh air.
What suprised me most was Rafa passivity. Sod stayed far behind the baseline when threw his demolishing groundies. If Rafa would've been fresh and creative (his usual self) he would've struggled, seen this, adapted and started surprising Sod with his fine drop-shots he hits beautifully from anywhere. But no -- no drop-shots from Rafa. No creativity...
Adriano Panatta was an extremely talented under-achiever never again reaching the level he played there in Rome and RG in 1976. In these tourneys, for once, he represented a fully formed threat and not just only a spectacular problem against anybody occasionally -- in between he was usually uneven and uninspired.
Panatta's playing style was based on a strong serve and very steady groundies for which he could smack flat and with topspin with similar ease. He had great reach at the net and had the cunning knack of a great natural volleyer like Rosewall, Laver and Mac to know when and how to grab the net and pull off amazing winners even off of great passingshots -- all stretched out pummeling spectacular shots out of reach.
What he did so well against Borg was to trade some strokes in the rallies -- waiting for the opening -- and then surprise with power-groundie and charge (or charge after a tricky, slick slice).
Panatta was both touch and power -- at his best an all-round aggressive Federer/Laver-like player preferring to be on the attack but delivers fine defense while awaiting the moment. He could be excellent on all surfaces but generally preferred clay.
Now Borg was 20 and lacked his serve and never really played as good as he usually did and I do think this was just a hiccup in Nadal's career (like it was with Borg).
After 1976 Björn always seemed to pull off that Rafa vs Verdasco/Federer-level in big matches when he faced this kind of style of opposition -- fighting, raising his level, serving better and other things to try and stop the tide -- and he was successful almost always. So to pull off the Sod/Panatta against Björn/Rafa is not an easy task and doesn't always succeed by any measure...
