tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
Nadal-Berrettini was the real final
How can Rafa be more competitive against Nole on HC....
- Thread starter irishnadalfan1983
- Start date
I now know why nobody likes your posts or bothers replying.
tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
tell that to the 33 thousand likes that I received ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
wait, what?
I just pointed out the fact. Fed is joint record holder there with 5 in a row so he has nothing to prove. The other guys have 0 USO during his peak.
Im only person who replies lol.
You think federer peak ended at 26? I cannot agree with that.
Federer has nothing to prove of course bar two issues. His US Open record during the Nadal era there and his inability on his best surface to beat Djokovic at Wimbledon in the Djokovic era there.
His last prime year was 2009
he beat Djokovic in 2012
Nadal’s USO record during Fed’s era was abysmal.
Hitman
Bionic Poster
Yes, Del Potro's career is truly what could have been. After 2009 there was just so much promise, sadly he was overcome by injuries. The game lost someone who could have been one of it's prolific champions to constant injuries and setbacks.
McEncock
Professional
ForehandRF
Legend
I was talking about the match against Nadal.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
Yes. My dream is for him to win one more Major or Olympic Gold. OG would mean world to him as well
Hitman
Bionic Poster
Well, he loves playing for his country, that is for sure.
Nadal was not even 21. Thats like saying Felix and tsitispas are useless lol
Nadal was at his physical peak, Fed’s generation were simply too skilled for him.
luckily for him, they slowed the USO down enough so he could vulture 2 recently and a further 2 vs exhausted Djokovic who had nightmare draws both times.
tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
thank you kind sir I really needed an imaginary friend
Djokodal Fan
Hall of Fame
FH DTL & Body serve. That's right, that's what he needs to pull to surprise Novak and keep him guessing. Otherwise he'll be a toast
King No1e
G.O.A.T.
The changes to his game didn't make him worse, but his loss of speed and consistency due to age did. And it's a very pronounced difference - before 2014 he dominated Fedovic everywhere, since then they've dominated him on 2 surfaces.
landcookie
Professional
He needs Djok to have a OHBH.
Sad thing is...thats actually true!!
Any more desperate excuses? One thing though that is apparent is without knowing u personally you obviously have never played sport at any level if you think Nadal or Djokovic at 19 would be anywhere near their peak compared to a 28 year old federer.
As i say Federer has had a marvellous career. Just two guys happened to be a bit better. One of those things.
Lew II
G.O.A.T.
Fedovic improved a lot on fast courts. Djokovic reached a new level of tennis ever since 2015, and Federer changed the racquet and stated multiple times that he's playing better than ever.
I didn’t give any excuses, only facts son. Nadal in 2005 was the fastest he’s ever been.
Djokovic better than Fed with 4 less slams and like 28 less titles? LOL. Nadal better than Fed with a worse record on 2/3 surfaces?
I like Federer alot so i do not want to sound like i am diminishing his achievements. The fact is though from the age of 26 he became alot less prolific when Nadal and Djokovic got close to their peak and were mentally mature.
I do hope you saying Nadal 2005 was Nadal peak was just a trolling attempt rather than something you truly believe. The Nadal of 2020 would humiliate Nadal 2005.
Djokovic didn’t really affect Fed until he was 30. Nadal admittedly scored 2 big wins in 08-09 which has cost Fed a bit. Then starting with USO 2009 he became vulnerable to the tier of players below as his prime ended.
I can only assume you haven’t seen 2005 Nadal play on clay.
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Hitman
Bionic Poster
I have seen a new play that Nadal has brought for Djokovic which he was using in their match. In this play Rafa is hitting the ball short intentionally several inches within the service box, but he is pulling off an acute cross court forehand. This is basically taking the ball out of Djokovic's strike zone, Novak is leaning out and reaching more for the ball as the angle is dragging the ball away to left side of the court. Novak cannot at that point hit a full bloodied shot, he can still get to the ball and return it, but it is without depth and venom. Rafa hits the shot a couple of times off of each reply by Novak pulling him further away from where he would want to hit the ball, and then Rafa extracts the error and hits into open court.
Argh now i see where we may be at cross purposes. Now you can see i am not anti federer perhaps we can analyse a few things about these three legends. I may be wrong but i get feeling you feel the best of Djokovic is slightly lower than Nadal and Federer?
As for Nadal i am in no doubt 2005-2010 he was a much better clay court player than post 2010. He was also better on grass 2006-2010 then after.
However on hard courts Nadal is miles better post 2010 then pre 2010. This is where the calendar becomes an issue. So much tennis is on hard court it is beneficial for a player to tailor their game to hard courts as 70 per cent of tour is on Hard court. That is what Nadal did. So statistically Nadal is much better post 2010 although looking deeper it is more complex as on 2 surfaces Nadal was better pre 2010
Start da Game
Hall of Fame
2012 clay season is the answer to op’s question folks......he developed a tactic which denies djoko any angles......i think it was in monte carlo that year he first used it to good effect and started getting immediate success......
basically what he did was he beat him with depth......just deep and safe balls down the middle of the baseline denying him angles to work with.......he would eventually pounce on djoko’s short replies, not afraid to blast his backhand......that’s how he won in 2012 and 2013 on all surfaces against djoko......
these days he is playing like a scared little chicken just afraid of losing all the time, makes me mad at times......the gameplan is so simple, yet he complicates everything in his head......there is no need to go for extravagant shots, just deep and safe rally balls are the answer coupled with effective serving......
basically what he did was he beat him with depth......just deep and safe balls down the middle of the baseline denying him angles to work with.......he would eventually pounce on djoko’s short replies, not afraid to blast his backhand......that’s how he won in 2012 and 2013 on all surfaces against djoko......
these days he is playing like a scared little chicken just afraid of losing all the time, makes me mad at times......the gameplan is so simple, yet he complicates everything in his head......there is no need to go for extravagant shots, just deep and safe rally balls are the answer coupled with effective serving......
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Fed used this strategy brilliantly in the 2018 Paris Masters semi against Novak. It still wasn't enough to beat him, but he won many points doing it. Nadal's slice isn't good enough to hit the short slice and bring in Novak, that's another excellent strategy.
Start da Game
Hall of Fame
short balls angled wide won’t work for more than 5 points......there is just no substitute for depth, and no better proof than rafa’s current struggles to realise that point......
Hitman
Bionic Poster
Nadal probably was looking at what Federer was doing and tried to adapt it to his own game.
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Depending upon when those 5 points are won can mean the difference between victory and defeat. In any case, Fed won more than 5 points doing this in the 2018 Paris match against Novak.
Nadal is going to have to change his tactics if he hopes to ever beat Djoker off clay again. The old adage: change a losing game. If he thinks he's going to out hit, out rally or out think Djokovic on a HC, think again. If they meet again in the AO final in two weeks, I think it will be a similar scoreline to the 2019 final. Just basically a beat down unless he changes things up big time. I don't think he's capable of doing that on a HC against a player who mentally owns him off clay.
Start da Game
Hall of Fame
the only way i see rafa bearing djoko is by being patient and out manoeuvre djoko from the back with the same tactic of 2012 which he devised with uncle toni exclusively for djoko.......
going to the net will not work, he would get passed all day......he can beef up that serve a bit but that’s about it, there’s no shortcut to beating djoko on a hardcourt, he has to do it the hard way and he’s done it before......
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