No. It's easy to *win* when your opponent is playing terribly - all you have to do is play bit less terribly than him. But his playing terribly does not make you play "flawlessly."
On the other hand, it's easy to LOOK terrible when your opponent is playing flawlessly. Federer didn't play his best, but he was far from playing "terribly." The intensity and assuredeness of Nadal's aggressive play is what Federer could not match. Whenever he tried to settle into a rally, Nadal took control of most of the points. I lost count of how many times Nadal would pin him to his backhand side, hitting one hard crosscourt forehand after another, often 6 or 7 in a row, all landing almost on the same spot on the deep left side of Federer's court. Federer knew that Nadal was going to go there, and Nadal knew that Federer knew, and still kept daring him to either run around the forehand, or keep hitting backhands until he missed. And of course he would eventually miss.
When facing someone so deeply in the zone you have two main choices:
1) keep playing within yourself and hope the other fellow will cool off. If he doesn't, you know he will blow you away.
2) try to counter the avalanche by pulling the trigger much more often than you normally do.
Federer wisely chose the second, because the first option would have been even worse. Of course he could have made a lot fewer errors by playing a bit safer - but the torture and the blowout would have been even worse, and it would have looked even more embarrasing. It was obvious Nadal was in the zone throughout the match, and putting a ball past him meant going for broke. Federer went for broke on many shots, made a few, and unsurprisingly missed a lot of them. He also tried coming to the net a few times and was burned most of the time. No matter what he tried, Nadal had the answer. I am pretty sure he would have triple-bagled the majority of players below the top 10 the way he played yesterday.
He was definitely better than last year. The thought that, at barely 22, he may still improve is kind of scary.
So yes. Federer LOOKED pretty bad. But if you focus on how Nadal was moving and hitting, you will understand better why he looked bad.
Yes, this is exactly right. And Nadal would've even more thoroughly dominated Djokovic playing like that than he did Federer (as we know Federer's a better clay-courter than Djokovic; see his win over Djokovic at MC).
The fact of the matter is, that while Federer is a really good, even great player on clay, Nadal is an all-time great, possibly the best-ever on clay. And he improved his game on clay as well.
He served, what 100% to Federer's backhand...McEnroe kept saying Federer should guard his backhand on return even more, but then that'd put him in horrible position to be aced if Nadal hits to forehand. It isn't as easy as it looks. Protecting your weaknesses means sacrificing something. What if Federer stood such that Nadal couldn't serve to his backhand -- he could always hit it with his forehand? Then, that would mean Nadal would serve on the other side, way way away from him, and it'd be an easy ace. E.g., lets say Federer's backhand side is on the outside of the return box, his FH on the inside of it. So he stands way outside the court, so even if Nadal hits it to the outside of the court, he's still returning a forehand. Well, then what Nadal does is hit an ace down the middle.
Look, arguably the best strategy for Federer -- when Nadal's in backhand serving mode -- is to stand as far over protecting his backhand as he can, but such that Nadal still opts to serve 100% to his backhand, with no serves to FH. This way, Federer knows what he'll need to be doing to return, knows where the serve is going, etc. In many ways, that's better than uncertainty.
But the issue is, Nadal is just a better player on clay. Federer
did try everything. The only thing that worked was him playing
perfectly when he played aggressive. And you can't fault the guy for not playing perfectly; that's enormous pressure. Plus, Nadal's topsin makes it hard to play perfectly, even at net; and his scrambling abilities make you even have to volley very hard, being more prone to errors.
So yea, Federer tried everything, just didn't work; what can you do but say, "too good". Just like last year, Nadal played out of his mind at the Wimbledon finals, and Federer didn't play his best (although still played very good), but Fed still won; just have to say, "too good".
What Federer really needs to do to beat Nadal on clay is improve his backhand returning high extreme topspin. If he can do that, without hindering his backhand on other surfaces, is a question.