Djokovic-Nadal Roma 2016 QF analysis w/ images

[bjsnider]

Let's get right to it. Nadal, up a break, serving for 5-3. He was broken and I will focus on two of the points.

Nadal serves from wide on the ad side, trying to hit the side of the box and curl the ball off the court.

Djokovic hits a good return which pushes Nadal back.

Nadal moves back and hits a backhand cross.

Djokovic is happy to keep the ball on Nadal's backhand, and hits a forehand back to the deuce corner.

Nadal makes a decision here to redirect the ball up the line with his forehand.

The ball lands short and Djokovic redirects it to the open court. It hits the line.

Nadal gets stick on it, but can't do anything with it, and the ball hits the net. Forced error.

What was Nadal's goal in hitting up the line? I think he wanted to get the ball off his backhand, and produce a weak response from Ultron. Something like this:

1. Move inside the baseline.
2. Short ball lands.
3. Hit a forehand cross court aiming for the deuce corner. Pound that shot until $player errors out or Nadal hits a winner. This play frequently works against $player. Ultron has learned over the years to neutralize this pattern of play by hitting cross court with the backhand. It takes a great backhand to pull this off. Federer et al. can't do this.

Later in the same game

Nadal hits a rally ball on his backhand cross into Djokovic's forehand.

Djokovic hits the forehand cross court, aiming for the deuce corner.

Nadal responds with a great defensive backhand that goes so deep it turns into an offensive shot, pushing Djokovic back.

Djokovic wants to keep the ball on Nadal's backhand and hits cross court again. But this is a defensive shot and it's a weak, shot ball.

Nadal is in control of the point, and redirects up the line with a forehand.

Ultron responds with a cross court backhand.

Nadal hits a rally ball on the forehand cross court. The rally is now neutral.

Djokovic redirects the ball up the line, his android programming says keep it on his backhand.

Nadal tries to hit the backhand over the low part of the net.

Oops. Backhand unforced. Ultron's evil plan worked!

Djokovic broke on the next point when he returned Nadal's serve to Nadal's forehand and Nadal errored out. Nadal does not like quick returns to his forehand -- he wants time to measure the fearhand.

 

[bjsnider]

Later in the set, Nadal dropped serve again. Here's a point from that game.

This shot is Nadal responding to the excellent return, which backed Nadal up and forced him to hit an off-balance backhand. Nadal poked the ball over the net keeping it on the deuce side.

Djokovic goes cross court with the backhand.

Nadal hits a rushed, defensive forehand cross.

Djokovic cuts Nadal's angles by hitting up the deep middle.

Nadal redirects the ball as best he can from the middle by hitting to the ad side.

Djokovic hits a forehand cross -- keep the ball on the backhand.

Nadal hits the backhand to the deuce side this time.

Djokovic hits the cross to the deep ad corner.

Nadal is rushed again and hits a defensive forehand.

The ball hit the center of the net. Ultron's strategy has worked again. Nadal does not like to be rushed on those long forehand swings.

The commentators criticized Nadal for hitting up the line so much, thus losing control of the point on most occasions. But what is Nadal's alternative? Hitting backhand crosses into Djokovic's forehand? The solidity of Djokovic's forehand since 2011 makes this a losing strategy. The issues in these points are the reason why I think playing Ultron is such an uphill battle for Nadal.

 

[Fiero425]

Nole's re-writing the record-book and will overtake most if not all the meaningful entries if he keeps this up for another year or 3! His results against the top 10 is now the best IIRC and he's surpassed Borg! He has 3 or 4 times the number of matches since the elite seem to always make it to the semi's and finals so it's more impressive! He's already killing it on the Masters' tour and just needs to have a couple more "2 or 3 win major" seasons to overtake you know who! I'm very excited for him; not because he's a fave, but I've been nauseated by the Fedal love-fest for years now! What will the fans do when both start eating Djokovic's dust?