Djokovic's strategy against Nadal

i see it a little differently......it's not that nadal-federer matches are down to "bad" matchups......in my opinion, bad matchups do not exist in reality......it is just in your mind that they exist......

every tennis player has a weakness or two.......federer's weakness is his pathetic overrated backhand.......it is good in style but lacks the substance.......he does not have the finishing power of wawrinka or the guile of haas or the outlasting strength of guga......

every tennis player tries to expose the weaknesses of other players......if djokovic was a bad match up to nadal, nadal would not have beaten him 22 times and lead the rivalry 22-18......

federer never tried to overcome his weakness by moving out of his comfort level and trying new things......he never did that......

much inferior players with single handers held great success against nadal......no bigger examples than youzhny, blake and gonzalez......that was possible not because they had bazooka backhands but because they overcame their weaknesses and found a way past nadal......

nadal does the same thing too......he just finds a way past players......against federer it gets a little easier for him because federer doesn't quite cover up his weakness against him, in other words fails to find a way past rafa......

i do think djokovic is a "bad matchup" for nadal, in that he counters nadal's greatest strength... no, it is not that CC forehand, it is nadal's ability to move his opponent from side to side. i think people have emphasized so much about nadal's cc forehand to the righty's BH, that they fail to see that the bread and butter of nadal's game is first, a solid defence, and second, his pinpoint control in directing the ball from side to side.

djokovic's greatest strength is his balance on both wings -- that is why he is a bad match up for nadal.
 
NONE of those players had "great success" against Nadal.

Youzhny is 4-10 vs. Nadal. That is a slightly worse winning percentage than Federer's. All of Youzhny's victories came on hard courts; the Colonel is 0-6 in clay sets against Nadal.

Fernando Gonzalez is 3-7 against Nadal, which is about the same winning percentage as Federer's. Nadal won the last six matches they played. One of Gonzo's wins came way back in 2003!

Blake has superficially the best record against Nadal, at 3-4. However, the two players never met on clay, and did not play at all after 2009. How well do you think Blake would have done if the two had played half a dozen matches on clay, and/or had met many times in the last five years?

Moreover, contrary to your principal argument, the reason these players had any success at all against Nadal is indeed because of their "bazooka" shots. All three are natural flat hitters, and they exploited that stylistic matchup to the maximum in their efforts against Nadal. Federer can hit hard, but he is not a natural flat hitter.

agreed. it is also why Gulbis seemingly does well against Nadal i.e. Nadal seems to struggle against Gulbis. The hard hitting flat style can be very taxing on Nadal.

this is why the one match-up I really want to see is the 1996 Sampras against Nadal on a hard court. I really wonder how Nadal's game would have held up against Sampras's flat groundies, and Sampras challenging Nadal to go for his forehand wing. It would have been a fascinating contest.
 
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