Racquet_smash
Professional
When discussing about 2000s tennis, especially clay and grass, often times we talk about Federer and Nadal meetings, and for the right reasons everyone knows about.
However, i feel like this match went a bit under the radar, probably because it happened right after Fedal's first ever slam match, or because of Puerta's not so egregious career afterwards.
This match features a lot of high quality rallies, with Puerta coming up with excellent aggressive shotmaking at times you don't often see on a clay court. On the other hand Nadal in 2005 was something hard to believe, his defence and athleticism really have no equals.
This was also a very entertaining battle mentally speaking, Puerta even outdoing Nadal to clutch up the first set. On the flipside the spaniard truly recovered in a borderline miracoulous way a nearly lost 4th set. The only set i found underwhelming was the 3rd one as it was quite one sided.
Roland Garros channel uploaded the extended highlights a few years ago, you should check this out.
However, i feel like this match went a bit under the radar, probably because it happened right after Fedal's first ever slam match, or because of Puerta's not so egregious career afterwards.
This match features a lot of high quality rallies, with Puerta coming up with excellent aggressive shotmaking at times you don't often see on a clay court. On the other hand Nadal in 2005 was something hard to believe, his defence and athleticism really have no equals.
This was also a very entertaining battle mentally speaking, Puerta even outdoing Nadal to clutch up the first set. On the flipside the spaniard truly recovered in a borderline miracoulous way a nearly lost 4th set. The only set i found underwhelming was the 3rd one as it was quite one sided.
Roland Garros channel uploaded the extended highlights a few years ago, you should check this out.