If nadal were flavor flav and federer were brett mich.....
Here is a simple question: Is it really true off-clay that the nadal forehand finds federer's backhand more often than federer's forehand finds nadal's backhand? This is a symmetric relationship so it's always surprising to me that people make such a big deal only out of nadal picking on the fed. backhand. Here are some thoughts on why this might or might not be true:
One thing is that fed. with his forehand can just end points much quicker than nadal, who takes about 2-3 more shots to breakdown the fed. backhand. So I believe this confuses us into thinking that nadal somehow finds it easier to find fed's backhand than the other way around.
The other thing is that nadal imo does cheat a little bit more than fed. towards his backhand side, while fed. doesn't really cheat and just hops around his backhand when the timing is right. This suggests to me that it is easier for nadal to find fed's backhand and that nadal is a little faster than fed because he is willing to give up that territory.
The final thing is that nadal has this nice safe little DTL backhand which hamstrings fed. because that reduces the number of opportunities for the fed. forehand. Nadal has always had this shot and I wonder if he developed it because players were breaking down nadal's backhand with their forehands on clay.
Here is a simple question: Is it really true off-clay that the nadal forehand finds federer's backhand more often than federer's forehand finds nadal's backhand? This is a symmetric relationship so it's always surprising to me that people make such a big deal only out of nadal picking on the fed. backhand. Here are some thoughts on why this might or might not be true:
One thing is that fed. with his forehand can just end points much quicker than nadal, who takes about 2-3 more shots to breakdown the fed. backhand. So I believe this confuses us into thinking that nadal somehow finds it easier to find fed's backhand than the other way around.
The other thing is that nadal imo does cheat a little bit more than fed. towards his backhand side, while fed. doesn't really cheat and just hops around his backhand when the timing is right. This suggests to me that it is easier for nadal to find fed's backhand and that nadal is a little faster than fed because he is willing to give up that territory.
The final thing is that nadal has this nice safe little DTL backhand which hamstrings fed. because that reduces the number of opportunities for the fed. forehand. Nadal has always had this shot and I wonder if he developed it because players were breaking down nadal's backhand with their forehands on clay.