2021 French Open Round 2: [3] Rafael Nadal vs. Richard Gasquet

Who Wins?

  • Total voters
    91
StrongRule said:
Didn't like what I see. The first set was very clean, but after that Gasquet started playing better and Nadal immediately turned into an unforced errors machine. His serve is totally off, he had problems in almost every service game in the last 2 sets. He can't win against Schwartzman if he plays like that, leave alone Djokovic.
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Yeah, Nadal won, of course you don't like it.
 
TennisFan3 said:
This is not true at all. Believe me.
Roof and Night conditions NEVER favor Nadal. His spin does not go through the court. The balls also do not bounce up. His offense totally goes awry in such conditions.
RG 2020 was an anomaly. See all of the previous Nadal-Novak matches. Nadal is always more dominant when it is sunny, quick and livelier.
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Looking back Djokovic choked at RG2020. Ivanisevic put him in a really tricky spot with those stupid remarks.
 
58% first serves for Nadal. Avg serve speed is almost 8 mph lower.

His serve is slower and less percentage. How does that even work?
 
TennisFan3 said:
This is not true at all. Believe me.
Roof and Night conditions NEVER favor Nadal. His spin does not go through the court. The balls also do not bounce up. His offense totally goes awry in such conditions.
RG 2020 was an anomaly. See all of the previous Nadal-Novak matches. Nadal is always more dominant when it is sunny, quick and livelier.
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Yes I still think he prefers the sunny conditions with the court playing fast in the day time. He wants high 80s with lots of humidity.
 
Martin J said:
He'll serve bigger and better when he needs to, like he did against Djokovic in Rome. Nothing surprising about it, really.
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Why not serve BIGGER in each match, so that he does NOT have to huff and puff and hurt his already injured knees?
Who would not like a free point on serve vs having to slug it out.
 
TennisFan3 said:
Why not serve BIGGER in each match, so that he does NOT have to huff and puff and hurt his already injured knees?
Who would not like a free point on serve vs having to slug it out.
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I believe that's not his comfort zone, so unless it is absolutely necessary, he won't change his approach much. Just my two cents.
 
ACE of Hearts said:
Yes I still think he prefers the sunny conditions with the court playing fast in the day time. He wants high 80s with lots of humidity.
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Nadal doesn't like humidity as it makes conditions heavier and his spin less effective. The ball also travels slower through the air under such conditions, that's why he struggles at Miami more than at IW.
 
ACE of Hearts said:
Interesting i feel he would prefer the heat and the humid on the balls. He still likes the court to be fast and the heat causes the high bounce.
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yeah tonight the bounce appeared to be really high but that’s just compared to watching Federer who doesn’t use insane spin
 
TennisFan3 said:
This is not true at all. Believe me.
Roof and Night conditions NEVER favor Nadal. His spin does not go through the court. The balls also do not bounce up. His offense totally goes awry in such conditions.
RG 2020 was an anomaly. See all of the previous Nadal-Novak matches. Nadal is always more dominant when it is sunny, quick and livelier.
Click to expand...
We will see what happens then. Anyway good win for Rafa in the end tonight.
 
Martin J said:
Nadal doesn't like humidity as it makes conditions heavier and his spin less effective. The ball also travels slower through the air under such conditions, that's why he struggles at Miami more than at IW.
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Again when it’s sunny the balls tend to bounce higher also i think he wants the courts to be fast.
 
bjsnider said:
Was it necessary for this match to have its own thread when the guy hasn't won a set in 20 years?
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All worth it just for that second set.

More competitive than most of us expected too - Ned dropped 7 games here, same number as in the 2020 final
 
Martin J said:
What did you expect, though? Your comment about his serve was hilarious.
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What other weapons he has against Nadal? His forehand is just not good enough. His backhand is good, but it is difficult for him to be aggressive on that shot against Nadal's topspin. So usually he tries to serve well when he plays Nadal. His first serve can be tricky.
 
Today is only the 3rd time Nadal has ever bagelled Gasquet.
Nadal only dropped 7 games in the 2020 RG Final (vs. Djokovic)........but he dropped 12 games in the 2020 RG Semi-final (vs. Schwartzman)........and 11 games in the QF (vs Sinner).
 
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NADALalot said:
Today is only the 3rd time Nadal has ever bagelled Gasquet.
Nadal only dropped 7 games in the 2020 RG Final (vs. Djokovic)........but he dropped 9 games in the 2020 RG Semi-final (vs. Schwartzman)........and 11 games in the QF (vs Sinner).
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Are you sure a 6-3 6-3 7-6 score means he dropped 9 games? I think you should count again. :unsure:
 
Krish872007 said:
And Gasquet did just as well as Djokovic did in the 2020 final - a match which also included an opening set bagel.
You're right, people aren't in a position to take sets off Nadal
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Exactly, because every time a player gets close to winning a set, Nadal raises his game.
He has too much self-belief at Roland Garros, same as last year when Sinner and Schwartman both lost tiebreakers to Nadal at RG.
 
What String was Gasquet using today ?? didn't help but it looked really cool green color ??

ETCUAPARIFMLJA537I57RAALWI.jpg
 
dapchai said:
Rafa's first serve percentage yesterday was 58% which was alarming. Couldn't win the tournament if he doesn't make it higher.
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I said the exact same thing in my post. % is lower and the speed is slower. How does that work?
IF you slow down your serve, your % should go up.
He's usually in the 70% range with a faster serve. Basically his serve is NOT a weapon and he will be roasted by the likes of Novak etc unless he serves bigger.

Also forget about F.O - this kind of serving is a DEATH sentence for Wimbledon. We could have a week 1 exit for Rafa there unless he serves BIGGER and BETTER.
 
TennisFan3 said:
I said the exact same thing in my post. % is lower and the speed is slower. How does that work?
IF you slow down your serve, your % should go up.
He's usually in the 70% range with a faster serve. Basically his serve is NOT a weapon and he will be roasted by the likes of Novak etc unless he serves bigger.

Also forget about F.O - this kind of serving is a DEATH sentence for Wimbledon. We could have a week 1 exit for Rafa there unless he serves BIGGER and BETTER.
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Yes, Nadal will soon be DISMANTLED at this year's RG. He will be in BIG TROUBLE against Norrie, let alone Schwartzmann and Djokovic.
 
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ACE of Hearts said:
I’m not a fan of these night matches. I am sure the semifinals will be played in the day time.
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I have a feeling that the second SF match (of the top half) will be played in the night time. The two SFs should be played on the same day, and the first SF is potentially a long match (I only see grinders).
 
dapchai said:
Yes, Nadal will soon be DISMANTLED at this year's RG. He will be in BIG TROUBLE against Norrie, let alone Schwartzmann and Djokovic.
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Let's NOT get crazy over here. Norrie, Sinner, Diego etc are NO THREATS to Nadal.
The ONLY threat is Novak. If Nadal serves CRAP, he will have a hard time vs Novak.
 
TennisFan3 said:
Let's NOT get crazy over here. Norrie, Sinner, Diego etc are NO THREATS to Nadal.
The ONLY threat is Novak. If Nadal serves CRAP, he will have a hard time vs Novak.
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EVERYONE has a chance of BEATING Rafa here, even Norrie, Sinner, Schwartzmann,... They're all THREATS to Nadal. NOT CRAZY at all.
 
Martin J said:
Nadal doesn't like humidity as it makes conditions heavier and his spin less effective. The ball also travels slower through the air under such conditions, that's why he struggles at Miami more than at IW.
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Rafa doesn't like the humidity for, as you say, how it affects the spin on his ball but, more importantly, because of what it does to him physically. He sweats so much and loses critical bodily fluids. For years they've tried different medications and foods and preparations to deal with heat stroke and he's had a lot of matches all around the world where he's struggled mightily to make it through to the end of the game. Glad he won today without too much of a problem.
 
I have to be honest and say Nadal's form so far hasn't been near his peak years but that's expected given his year. However let's be very real he's in R3 without breaking sweat so it'll only improve. Anyone expecting Nadal to have a tough time is dreaming.

Only 2 things are stopping Nadal from a title here.
  • Injury
  • Djokovic hitting 2011/2015 form and Nadal having a bad day
I can't see the 2nd thing happening, Djokovic doesn't have the same venom on his groundstrokes. So it leaves one option, injury.
 
vernonbc said:
Rafa doesn't like the humidity for, as you say, how it affects the spin on his ball but, more importantly, because of what it does to him physically. He sweats so much and loses critical bodily fluids. For years they've tried different medications and foods and preparations to deal with heat stroke and he's had a lot of matches all around the world where he's struggled mightily to make it through to the end of the game. Glad he won today without too much of a problem.
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To sum up, if the sun goes down then so does his level. Humidity drains his energy level out which leads to a significant drop in his level of play. We all witnessed that during his AO QF match vs Tsits this year.
 
gameovais said:
I have to be honest and say Nadal's form so far hasn't been near his peak years but that's expected given his year. However let's be very real he's in R3 without breaking sweat so it'll only improve. Anyone expecting Nadal to have a tough time is dreaming.

Only 2 things are stopping Nadal from a title here.
  • Injury
  • Djokovic hitting 2011/2015 form and Nadal having a bad day
I can't see the 2nd thing happening, Djokovic doesn't have the same venom on his groundstrokes. So it leaves one option, injury.
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This is far from the 2015 Nadal. Everyone knows that 2015 was Rafa's worst year on tour when he lost confidence and he'd never played so badly before or after that. The 2015 Nadal only lasted for one season when he lost to just about everyone. Which is why I chuckled when Djokovic said, before the RG final last year, that he would draw inspiration from beating him there in 2015. Totally irrelevant.
 
gameovais said:
Are you illiterate? Why do you think I added the part about Nadal having a bad day?
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gameovais said:
  • Djokovic hitting 2011/2015 form and Nadal having a bad day
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You said Djokovic hitting 2011/2015 form AND Nadal having a bad day. Djokovic didn't play Nadal at RG in 2011 because he didn't even make the final to play Rafa, he lost to Roger in the SF, so we can't say he would have beaten Rafa and it wasn't because Djokovic was in great form in 2015 that he beat Rafa there it was because Rafa was in bad form all that year not only on that day.

Djokovic was in such great form in 2015 that he lost to Stan in the RG Final. The Djokovic who lost to Stan wouldn't have stood a chance against an all singing all dancing Rafa.
 
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