Rafael Nadal on clay - Utter dominance or a weak era for clay court players?

[NatF]

Murray has more power than anyone, he just doesn't use it very often. He can hit 100+ MPH off both wings and serves in the mid-130s, but he has a defensive mentality.

I agree, Murray is hig dude and has a lot of power. But the point in my mind is that Hewitt does not lack power. At his peak he could hit the ball solidly off both wings with accuracy too.

 

[ibbi]

It's one I've gone back and forth on. I definitely do think that Nadal rose to prominence as the last era of real great day in and day out clay courters was dying out. The ones that would come closest to qualifying nowadays are all Nadal's fellow Spaniards, and they really have spent most of their careers just frightened of the guy.

That being said, 9 Roland Garros titles from 10 championships played, and an 89-1 best of 5 set clay court record is just sheer stupidity. Federer and Djokovic are great players on the surface, are clearly a class apart from everybody else on it, and that they cannot deal with him over 5 on the surface, that they can both be so driven to succeed on the surface, to win that Roland Garros title, and both failed to have done so when they come up against this guy over and over and over again is testament to his greatness.

I don't think he's unquestionably the greatest, but among the men it is a very small and exclusive club between he, Borg, and Vilas.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

in 2010 ao murray over powered a nadal playing very well. while hewitt was getting over powered by a 17 year old nadal in 2004 ao.and even those things aside.. you can see that none of them have laclustre technique. given murray is a much bigger man than hewitt, it's expected that he is going to have more power than hewitt. it's another thing that murray doesn't always use it

Nadal retired from the match, true Murray would have won anyway, but put peak Hewitt into that match and he probably would have too. Ask me how many sets Murray has taken off peak Nadal on clay, then we will talk about power.

And during the 2004/2005 AO, Hewitt was the one that was overpowering Nadal. It's one of the reasons why he won, both times.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

Murray has more power than anyone, he just doesn't use it very often. He can hit 100+ MPH off both wings and serves in the mid-130s, but he has a defensive mentality.

I do not think Murray has more power than Federer or Nadal, even if he tries. But the point is he does have a defensive mindset and he rarely goes for winners, no matter what people say.

 

[forehand fan]

Nadal retired from the match, true Murray would have won anyway, but put peak Hewitt into that match and he probably would have too. Ask me how many sets Murray has taken off peak Nadal on clay, then we will talk about power.

And during the 2004/2005 AO, Hewitt was the one that was overpowering Nadal. It's one of the reasons why he won, both times.

you are confusing winning and overpowering. del potro overpowers djoker or nadal almost every time, yet loses more than he wins against them.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

you are confusing winning and overpowering. del potro overpowers djoker or nadal almost every time, yet loses more than he wins against them.

No, I'm not confusing anything. Hewitt was hitting harder from the baseline than Nadal was during those two matches.