blake vs. nadal...on clay

i know you guys would probably look at this thread and say are you kidding me rafa would kill blake on clay. but if blake used his hardcourt strategies on nadal on clay what would happen? just an innocent question.

No doubt it would get neutralized. Nadal is a different beast on clay. Look at Berdych, Gonzalez and Youzhny. No-one can stop him in the immediate future or on a consistent basis.

Nadal eats up the opponent's pace on clay. The only strategy to keep it close is to take something off your shots and keep the ball deep to Nadal's bh, then wait for a short ball to approach the net. Davydenko did this to perfection on Saturday, and still lost.

Nadal would win 6/3 6/3.

oscar_2424 said:

Nadal would win 6/3 6/3.

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More like 6-2 6-4

Yeah Nadal would win except if Blake can play consistently and strategically against Nadal like Nikolay did, which I highly doubt.

Baghdatis72 said:

More like 6-2 6-4

Yeah Nadal would win except if Blake can play consistently and strategically against Nadal like Nikolay did, which I highly doubt.

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plus blake seems to be slumping currently.

The way Blake is playing this year it would be about 6-1 6-1 probably. If Blake played his best tennis, maybe he could get 6-3 6-2.

Blake lacks confidence in himself. Even if he was up 6-0 5-0 40-0, I believe he'd think to himself "holy crap, i'm about to break this two-time grand slam winning kid's almost 80-something streak on clay", then proceed choke the match away with wildly low percentage shots that he had been making up to that point. Clay court matches are a not only a test of one's physical ability, but also of one's mental ability. Having one but not the other won't suffice, especially against someone like Nadal whose immense confidence in himself and his game alone has willed him to win many matches along the way of this streak.

Blake plays a baseline game that's probably more braindead than Roddick's. Thing is he just hits it harder than Andy and hits more winners. But once his forehand goes off a bit he's got nothing else to fall back on. Gonzo showed a great plan which is the slice the ball low to his forehand and it keeps him from ripping the ball because it's below the net and he just can't wail away on it. If you slice enough he'll just lose patience and the UE's start mounting up.

He's about as one dimensional as a player can get. Albeit he's good at doing it. Davydenko took the ball early and actually played a smart match, a match Fed wished he could've played in Monte Carlo. Blake? Nah, maybe when the fast hardcourts come back again. Blake plays tennis like a Home Run hitter, it's either over the fences (powerful, pretty to see and flashy) or he goes down swinging strike outs. That's his style and in the last year it's been working, eventually he'll fall out of the top ten with his go for broke game.

Can federer watch tapes of Davydenko's strategy and adapt?

jaggy said:

Can federer watch tapes of Davydenko's strategy and adapt?

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That's what we were saying in the other thread about firing Roche, that he needs to watch the video 5 times to have a chance of beating Nadal on clay

As far as Blake vs Nadal on clay, Nadal would eat him alive. Come to think of it, there is no American that has a chance against Nadal on clay. The Americans are losing matches with love sets against the likes of Moya & Chella ( Fish & Roddick, most recently).

If Blake used his hard-court strategies on clay against Rafa, he'd lose.
Because clay and hard-court need different strategies.

So we'll see. Rafa uses clay strats and Blake uses hard-court strats and we'll see who wins.

If Blake's forehand was lights out for two whole sets, I mean he is hitting winners from everywhere, he would still lose because his 2nd serve is so weak.