Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Djokovic, Davis Cup first round rubber, 2009

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 6-4, 6-4 , 6-1 in a Davis Cup first round rubber, 2009 on clay in Benidorm, Spain

The result won the tie for Spain 3-1 and they would go onto win 4-1. They would go onto win the event, beating the Czech Republic in the final. Spain were the defending champions and Serbia would go onto win the event the following year. Earlier, Djokovic had lost to David Ferrer and Nadal had beaten Janko Tipsarevic, and Serbia had won the doubles rubber.
Nadal and Djokovic would go onto meet in the finals at Monte Carlo and Rome and the semi-final in Madrid shortly after, with Nadal winning all the matches

Nadal won 98 points, Djokovic 71

Serve Stats
Nadal...
- 1st serve percentage (49/73) 67%
- 1st serve points won (34/49) 69%
- 2nd serve points won (18/24) 75%
- Ace 4
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (16/73) 22%

Djokovic...
- 1st serve percentage (55/96) 57%%
- 1st serve points won (33/55) 60%
- 2nd serve points won (17/41) 41%
- Ace 2
- Double Faults 4
- *Unreturned Serve Percentage (14/96) 17%

Serve Pattern
Nadal served...
- to FH 31%
- to BH 59%
- to Body 10%

Djokovic served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 66%

Return Stats
Nadal made...
- 78 (28 FH, 50 BH), including 6 runaround FHs
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 12 Errors, comprising...
- 6 Unforced (5 FH, 1 BH)
- 6 Forced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (78/92) 85%

Djokovic made...
- 55 (18 FH, 37 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 12 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (3 FH, 2 BH)
- 7 Forced (7 FH)
- Return Rate (55/71) 77%

Break Points
Nadal 6/12 (8 games)
Djokovic 1/4 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Nadal 23 (15 FH, 7 BH, 1 OH)
Djokovic 16 (7 FH, 6 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)

Nadal's FHs - 1 cc pass, 1 cc/down-the-middle pass, 3 dtl, 6 inside-out (1 pass), 1 inside-in, 1 drop shot, 1 running-down-drop-shot cc at net, 1 net chord dribbler at net
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 inside-out return pass, 1 inside-in/cc, 1 longline pass

Djokovic's FHs - 1 cc, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-out/longline, 1 inside-in, 1 longline/cc, 2 drop shots
- BHs - 1 cc return, 2 dtl (1 possibly not clean), 1 inside-out, 1 longline pass at net, 1 drop shot

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Nadal 39
- 24 Unforced (12 FH, 12 BH)
- 15 Forced (11 FH, 4 BH)... with 1 FH at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.5

Djokovic 55
- 42 Unforced (22 FH, 16 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 5 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.4

(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)

(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Nadal was 4/9 (44%) at net, with...
- 0/2 forced back

Djokovic was...
- 15/30 (50%) at net, including...
- 2/4 (50%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 1/2 off 1st serve and...
- 1/2 off 2nd serve
---
- 1/1 forced back

Match Report
Efficient, squeeze out by Nadal, who is simply, better baseliner than Djokovic

38 ground UEs from Djokovic. Putting that in perpective -
- both players combined have 30 unreturned serves
- both players combined have 39 winners (Nadal 23, Djoko 16)
- both players combined have 28 FEs
- Nadal has 24 UEs (all groundies)
- (Djoko also 4 net UEs - including 2 of his notorious OH ones)

Simply, Djoko can’t keep the ball in court, rallying with Nadal. Its not even that he plays badly or sloppily. Hits well, moves well, rallies go on for awhile with mild side to side action. Its not that Nadal is uber consistent or rock like either. He’s just better at not missing balls, QED

Final figures don’t even bend much the way they do due to last set breadstick, and Nadal cozily gets better of first 2 sets too

After 2 sets, Nadal’s served 52 points for 9 holds, and getting broken once. Average service game 5.2 points
Djoko’s served 72 points for 7 holds and getting broken 3 times, average service game 73 points

In all, Nadal winning 58% of points, serving just 43% of them
Confined to first 2 sets, which at least on scoreline level aren’t one sided, its 56% of points, serving 42%

For his part, Nadal with a fine 23 winners, 24 UEs showing. For him, probably a notch below par, for anyone else, would be outstanding

FH with typical 15 winners, 12 UEs. That’s with a slow start. He’s got 8 in first set - including a blue moon rare poor, 4 UEs game to get broken, so just 4 UEs in next 2 sets. Moving over, by his standard, moderately to take FHs in lieu of BHs (by anyone elses, quite a lot). On top of all the winners, Nadal FH doing what it does - combo’s of cc/inside-in and inside-out to work Djoko over a bit. It can’t bully Djoko’s firm BH (as in, draw weak balls from it), but the errors come from that side. Not for being broken down systematically, but just because point has to end someway

Djoko looks to attack Nadal’s FH corner, with move-over FH inside-outs most threatening. BH cc’s pack a punch too, but not as much as the FHs. 1 problem he has is a poor follow-up FH inside-in (or what passes for it)

Attacking FH inside-out to drag Nadal to corner, who retrieves it cc, and Djoko follows with a FH ‘inisde-in’. Its more like a longline shot down center of court than to opposite corner and Nadal can catch up to it without too much trouble. Looks even worse for the masterclass in combination FH, moving-opponent-around play going on at other end, though Djoko’s attack isn’t so much about that as it is trying to find a winning shot. With Nadal, its not even certain a shot into corner would do it, let alone a shot around the middle of court. Some good, hard BH dtl shots by Djoko too. Genuinely aggressively shots, not simple longline change-ups. These test Nadal but they’re infrequent

Djoko also visiting net good amount. Always a good move when being outplayed from the back. Can only come away with modest 50% points won from his 30 trips forward. Nadal has 9 approaches, some of them forced

Djoko’s FH a little flourishy, not as tight and compact as it would come to be. And the loosest shot on show
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Ground UEs -
- Nadal FH and BH both 12
- Djoko BH 16
- Djoko FH 22

Neutral UEs - Nadal 12, Djoko 16
If it’s a surprise the neturals are close, it also reflects well on Djoko’s thinking. He’s not tempted to play who-blinks-first with the master, but seems to realize necessity of attacking

Attacking UEs - Nadal 6, Djoko 21
Errors forced - Nadal 13, Djoko 15

Good thinking and execution are two different things. Nadal not too strained to handle Djoko’s FH inside-out based attacks and that FH giving up attacking errors in time (not just inside-out wins, but in following up on big inside-outs that Nadal retrieves)

Djoko’s 5-5 when playing drop shot, including 3 winners. Better than most of what he tries and better than he usually does

Winner attempt UEs - Nadal 6, Djoko 5
Winners - Nadal 23, Djoko 16

… with ground to ground winners
- Nadal FH 10
- Djoko FH 7
- Djoko BH 5
- Nadal BH 3

For Nadal, scoring with both FH inside-out and dtl is always a very good sign. He’s got 5 inside-out winners, 3 dtl. Inside-out winners is normal for him when backing away to play FHs, but his FH dtl does considerable damage beyond the winners too

Djoko’s FH has done damage, with good yield winners and the inside-outs are mainly behind match high 11 FH FEs Nadal has (his BH has 4, Djokos has 5 apiece off each wing). Most are passes, but its big approach shots that force the errors, not great volleying.

If BH is solid, its not upto taking on winning shots against Nadal’s heavy FH cc’s often

Net points - Nadal 4/9, Djoko 15/30
Nadal barely coming in. Doing so dandily from baseline, why would he?
Djoko coming fair bit, including 4 serve-volleys (2 of each serve)

Gets dipping passes, at least a little under net and falling. He’s got 3 volley winners, 4 UEs (including 2 OHs - 1 a horror miss, the other back-pedalling), 2 FEs
Nadal with 7 passing winners (3 FH, 4 BH).With 7 FH, 1 BH passing errors
FH errors are drawn by big approach shots. And Nadal clearly on point with BH pass

Odd stat is Nadal winning 18/24 second serve points
- higher than both players first serve points. Not doing anything different on such points. It just works out that way, but does point to Djoko not being able to return with authority
Djoko winning just 41% second serve points. Typical, squeezing out play from Nadal, starting with a loopy, spin loaded return

Pretty good serving from Nadal, with good body serves that catch Djoko out. He serves there 10% of the time. 4 aces is high for him (Djoko has 2) and 7/12 return errors drawn being FEs is a little surprising too. Serve pace is about the same for 2 players

Djoko inexplicably bad at covering FH return. He's made 10 return errors on that side, for just 17 successful returns (excluding a runaround FH). Nadal serving there substantial 31% of the time, but he seems caught out by slighlty wide serves (admittedly, pretty good ones). 10 FH return errors, just 2 BHs, with FH copping 31% serves, BH 59% is odd, though that discrepancy also speaks to very high consistency on the BH return

Match Progression
Grindy baseline action in first set, with Nadal getting into return games more regularly. Moves over to play FHs much of the time, but BH looks even better of form. His FH cc can’t draw weak balls from Djoko’s BH, but does outhit it slightly

Some aggressive BH dtl’s from Djoko, but he leads his offence with big FH inside-outs. Follow up FH ‘inside-in’ (its more like a lightly angled inside-out to center of court) is imprecise. Some good, running FH winners from Nadal, but FHs quite loose for the set too

Two trade deuce holds to stay on serve for 2-1. Djoko saves 2 break points in his hold, erasing them with an ace and a third ball FH inside-out winner
Two trade breaks to move to 3-3

Djoko’s approach shot pops up off the net chord, allowing Nadal a lined up FH inside-out pass winner to start the game and another FH inside-out point after is more than Djoko can handle out wide. Djoko blinks up FH UE rallying with Nadal’s FH to end the game

Horrendous game from Nadal to give back the break. All 6 points in the game are FH UEs - and 4 of them are Nadal’s, including 3 in a row to go down 0-40. Couple of winner attempt misses (includign a sitter of a FH inside-in) and couple of blinks

Very, very rare BH inside-in/cc winner from Nadal game after. Wouldn’t expect a guy who runs around to play FHs from deuce doubles alley to hit anything like a BH inside-in. His FH cc is wide enough that Djoko’s rejoinder is down middle of court, as Nadal’s moving back to center, and he drags the ball BH inside-in/cc for the winner

If the Nadal break was a horror, what to call the one Djoko gives up for 4-5? Begins and ends with routine third ball BH UEs, and in between, chucks in drop shot UE and a speciality goof smash miss

Nadal serves out to 15. Set point is his first net point behind a FH inside-out and he slaps down OH winner

Similar action in second set, sans crap games to get broken and Nadal tidying up his FH errors. He loses just 5 points on serve
Djokovic loses 15 and is broken once

He holds 10 and 12 point games (saving 3 break points in the latter) to stay on serve for 4-3. Plays a memorable shot or 2 along the way - a drop-shot Nadal in, lob volley him back to baselien and finish with a neat drop BHV winner is special. Amidst generally being outlasted, attacking playing being met/thwarted and forced to move about more than he can make opponenet do

Djoko moves over too far to smack an at net FH inside-out and Nadal blocks ball back for winner with Djoko off in doubles alley early in game 9. Couple of baseline blinks and double fault follow soon after for the break and its 5-4 Nadal

Serves out to 15, forcing a low FHV error to wrap up

Djoko’s at his net thirstiest in third set. He opens commandingly with a hold to 15 featuring 3 net points and 3 winners

And has 15-40 game after. Actively manufactures an approach with a slice on first break point and Nadal passes him FH cc. And is unlucky on second break point, with Nadal’s FH at net dribbling over for a winner, with Djoko also at net following a drop shot ready to retrieve Nadal’s shot

Nadal goes on to hold, despite Djoko striking his sole return winner afterwards in the game
That’s last bit of good news for Djoko as Nadal runs off next 5 games

Flourish at the end from Nadal. He strikes 3 consecutive winners (FH dtl, mid-court FH inside-out and BH dtl from just behind service line against a bad drop shot) to reach 15-40
Misses routine second return, but finishes with another winner, a BH dtl pass to close things out

Summing up, good showing from Nadal and he’s cosily better baseliner than Djokovic. FH controls play (moves Djokovic around, has better of cc rallies and destructive in finishing), BH has good form, is secure and precise on the pass

Djokovic not really playing badly. Takes initiative to attack, looking to do so mostly with FH inside-outs to Nadal’s FH corner, allied to approaching and some drop shots. Poor follow up FH inside-in’s don’t help and Nadal’s not too tasked to defend his way through when needed. Otherwise, Djokovic outlasted, moved around some and squeezed out by baseliner who knows exactly what he’s doing and wants to do at all times
 
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