This was the worst returning match of Nadal’s and thats why he lost

[lrdrdy]

If someone thinks otherwise than please tell me why because I don’t think I’m hyperbolizing here. Tiafoe played a great match but had a terrible first serve percentage, and his second serve is a pop-in, was much slower than Nadals. So how could Nadal get so few break chances?

Because he stood so far behind the baseline he could barely punish a weak second serve. Before you scoff and say he’s always returned like this and its most effective, it clearly wasnt effective vs the first serves he got, and it gave no benefit on the second, because 1.) hes not gonna be aced by Tiafoes second serve so no need to cover all that and 2.) if the idea is to rely on winning points with ground game, he could have seen that Tiafoe was matching him with aggresive tennis and this was not reliable.

The worst part is that he didnt even try to adapt as the match went on and the return strat clearly wasnt working. Idk how Nadal or even his coaches couldnt see that the match is slipping away you need to attack these powder-puff seconds theres no use in setting up for rallys if your losing the majority of them because your opponent is red hot.

I know you guys will comment, “he has 22 slams he knows what hes doing” but honestly it was a terrible performance and in the future he has to adapt or else these streaky guys will startbeating an old Rafa on a good day.

 

[BeatlesFan]

He's 36 years old. His reflexes and hand-eye coordination have eroded. His movement has significantly declined. He's probably 60% of the player he was at his peak in 2008, but he's still better than any of these mugs who are 10-15 years his junior.

Consider that 99% of tennis pros were long retired at his age.

 

[reaper]

He's 36 years old. His reflexes and hand-eye coordination have eroded. His movement has significantly declined. He's probably 60% of the player he was at his peak in 2008, but he's still better than any of these mugs who are 10-15 years his junior.

Consider that 99% of tennis pros were long retired at his age.

They should be retired, but many of them are still plying their trade. Fognini, Wawrinka, Murray, Monfils to name just a few in their mid 30's.

 

[lrdrdy]

He's 36 years old. His reflexes and hand-eye coordination have eroded. His movement has significantly declined. He's probably 60% of the player he was at his peak in 2008, but he's still better than any of these mugs who are 10-15 years his junior.

Consider that 99% of tennis pros were long retired at his age.

I dont think its as bad as you say, he’s definitely not 20 anymore, but today he still got back some balls that 90% of the tour couldnt, that game to break for the second set was incredible. He just wasnt intent on changing things up in this regard and it cost him the match, surely he’s as capable as guys like Kyrgios or Tiafoe can be at this, he didnt need to aggressively return like Djokovic today to win, just more than usual for him, which he didnt so he lost.

 

[Rogibear]

The amount of 85mph 2nd serves that nadal was returning into the net... sigh.

 

[blauerton]

Tiafoe was more aggressive. Fast court rewards aggressions.

 

[D.Nalby12]

At the age of 36 worst days become more often.

 

[beltsman]

Tiafoe was more aggressive. Fast court rewards aggressions.

Tiafoe served 50% and won? That's incredible! What was Nadal doing???

 

[Sampras-Bruguera 1993]

Djokovic is "old" too and his returning aint nearly that muggish as Nadal's was today soo.... When you cant return a pathetic 2nd serve like Tifaoe's, its kind of hard to defend that. I don't care how old you are. LOL. Thats one of the worst 2nd serves ever. And for some odd reason Nadal was returning it from the stands all day. Stupidity. All he had to do was stand inside the baseline and hit cross court angle. You could have broken him 10 times at least

 

[dapchai]

Tiafoe served 50% and won? That's incredible! What was Nadal doing???

Hope you're not trolling, but Rafa was abysmal today. Foe served to his BH a lot and most of the time he had no answers, even on second serve. Clueless. Garbage.

 

[Mustard]

He's 36 years old. His reflexes and hand-eye coordination have eroded. His movement has significantly declined. He's probably 60% of the player he was at his peak in 2008, but he's still better than any of these mugs who are 10-15 years his junior.

Consider that 99% of tennis pros were long retired at his age.

And in some ways, he's been better recently (since 2017), like being finishing points off quicker. When he was younger, he could just rely on grinding the opponent down.

 

[DSH]

If someone thinks otherwise than please tell me why because I don’t think I’m hyperbolizing here. Tiafoe played a great match but had a terrible first serve percentage, and his second serve is a pop-in, was much slower than Nadals. So how could Nadal get so few break chances?

Because he stood so far behind the baseline he could barely punish a weak second serve. Before you scoff and say he’s always returned like this and its most effective, it clearly wasnt effective vs the first serves he got, and it gave no benefit on the second, because 1.) hes not gonna be aced by Tiafoes second serve so no need to cover all that and 2.) if the idea is to rely on winning points with ground game, he could have seen that Tiafoe was matching him with aggresive tennis and this was not reliable.

The worst part is that he didnt even try to adapt as the match went on and the return strat clearly wasnt working. Idk how Nadal or even his coaches couldnt see that the match is slipping away you need to attack these powder-puff seconds theres no use in setting up for rallys if your losing the majority of them because your opponent is red hot.

I know you guys will comment, “he has 22 slams he knows what hes doing” but honestly it was a terrible performance and in the future he has to adapt or else these streaky guys will startbeating an old Rafa on a good day.

Nadal was but at the same time he was not in New York.
His wife is very close to giving birth and that is much bigger than a Major tournament.
That's it, his ordeal is over since that abdominal injury and to think about his personal life, which in the end is the most important thing.

 

[blauerton]

Tiafoe served 50% and won? That's incredible! What was Nadal doing???

Didn't attack second serves. Playing too safe.

 

[Fabresque]

Don’t understand why he was standing so far back on second serves. Tiafoe was serving high school level serves.

 

[D.Nalby12]

Djokovic is "old" too and his returning aint nearly that muggish as Nadal's was today soo.... When you cant return a pathetic 2nd serve like Tifaoe's, its kind of hard to defend that. I don't care how old you are. LOL. Thats one of the worst 2nd serves ever. And for some odd reason Nadal was returning it from the stands all day. Stupidity. All he had to do was stand inside the baseline and hit cross court angle. You could have broken him 10 times at least

This is true. Djokovic is in far better shape physically than Nadal. It's just stupidity and stubbornness kept Slam race alive. He should have taken 22-21 lead by now with his pet Slam next. Nadal overachieved in 2022 thanks to poor choices of Djokovic and due to his own luck. The level he displayed in last two wins was hardly spectacular.

 

[lrdrdy]

This is true. Djokovic is in far better shape physically than Nadal. It's just stupidity and stubbornness kept Slam race alive. He should have taken 22-21 lead by now with his pet Slam next. Nadal overachieved in 2022 thanks to poor choices of Djokovic and due to his own luck. The level he displayed in last two wins was hardly spectacular.

Djokodal slam race being so heavily decided by ignorance and injuries is pretty sad tbh. And if nextgen is actually a threat now, then the ending is probably sooner and more anticlimactic than we thought, hopefully they play one last great match off clay, that would be good enough for me but even that seems like a stretch

 

[BeatlesFan]

They should be retired, but many of them are still plying their trade. Fognini, Wawrinka, Murray, Monfils to name just a few in their mid 30's.

None of them won slams at 35-36 nor will any of them. Fed and Rafa won a slam at at 36. It's almost impossible to do.

 

[Chairman3]

Tiafoe, smartly, targeted his backhand. I tried to google and find the stat but couldn't find that detailed of stats.

I saw Tiafoe hit a lot of down the line backhands to Nadal (which would be to his backhand). A smart and simple tactic

 

[beltsman]

Hope you're not trolling, but Rafa was abysmal today. Foe served to his BH a lot and most of the time he had no answers, even on second serve. Clueless. Garbage.

Not trolling, I didn't see it. Yikes!

 

[BeatlesFan]

I dont think its as bad as you say, he’s definitely not 20 anymore,

I never suggested Rafa is bad, he won 2 slams this year! I said he's 60% of the player he was in 2008 and said he's better than anyone else besides Djoker. Where did I ever dare suggest he's "bad?"

 

[fundrazer]

Don’t understand why he was standing so far back on second serves. Tiafoe was serving high school level serves.

I think a lot of players are starting to use this strategy against the guys playing far back. There's literally no risk to them until other player adjusts.

Or if opponent has a Berrettiniesque backhand. lol.

 

[Rafa24]

They should be retired, but many of them are still plying their trade. Fognini, Wawrinka, Murray, Monfils to name just a few in their mid 30's.

none of those are winning 2 slams in a year at their age.

 

[dapchai]

none of those are winning 2 slams in a year at their age.

In fact none of them even won two slams in a year throughout their careers.

 

[AO13]

I haven't noticed people talking how really bad his backhand was, and how he absolutely lost confidence in it when Tiafoe broke him back in 4th set after Nadal's error trying to hit the BH parralel which finished into the net.

He was almost playing only defensive BH slice since then, totally lost confidence.

Really bad play by Nadal today, surprisingly bad. Don't know why, it was a 4th round match, no Djokovic in the draw, Medvedev lost. He looked like he was on big pressure, looked rather insecure, uncertain, definitely a little bit edgy and tense.

 

[dapchai]

I haven't noticed people talking how really bad his backhand was, and how he absolutely lost confidence in it when Tiafoe broke him back in 4th set after Nadal's error trying to hit the BH parralel which finished into the net.

He was almost playing only defensive BH slice since then, totally lost confidence.

Really bad play by Nadal today, surprisingly bad. Don't know why, it was a 4th round match, no Djokovic in the draw, Medvedev lost. He looked like he was on big pressure, looked rather insecure, uncertain, definitely a little bit edgy and tense.

Yeah it looked like I was the only one talking about his bad BH here. You can check my previous posts.

 

[Rafa24]

In fact none of them even won two slams in a year throughout their careers.

and fognini and monfils have never done anything at all in slams. so not even sure why they are in this discussion. fed can probably come back and produce results like they did in their primes.

 

[Rafa24]

I haven't noticed people talking how really bad his backhand was, and how he absolutely lost confidence in it when Tiafoe broke him back in 4th set after Nadal's error trying to hit the BH parralel which finished into the net.

He was almost playing only defensive BH slice since then, totally lost confidence.

Really bad play by Nadal today, surprisingly bad. Don't know why, it was a 4th round match, no Djokovic in the draw, Medvedev lost. He looked like he was on big pressure, looked rather insecure, uncertain, definitely a little bit edgy and tense.

he looked really bad against fognini for 1.5 sets. didn't play great in his first round match either. Gasquet isn't a good gauge because he could beat him with his eyes closed. He was just off bad today and Tiafoe was just swinging for the fences and played the best match i've ever seen him play.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

It wasn't the returns, it was after the returns: Tiafoe was more aggressive and played better.

 

[Santis]

Nadal's first serve returning position was closer to baseline in the second half of the match - he was going further back to return the second serve - incredible. Don't remember seeing anything like this (even from him).

There was also no charge in tactics, even when playing like that ensured his sure defeat...Tiafoe got away with a terrible first serve percentage throughout the match and with 75/80 second serve. This I have seen many many times though.

 

[T007]

Djokovic is "old" too and his returning aint nearly that muggish as Nadal's was today soo.... When you cant return a pathetic 2nd serve like Tifaoe's, its kind of hard to defend that. I don't care how old you are. LOL. Thats one of the worst 2nd serves ever. And for some odd reason Nadal was returning it from the stands all day. Stupidity. All he had to do was stand inside the baseline and hit cross court angle. You could have broken him 10 times at least

Calm down he didn't lost because of returning but for the reason that tiafoe was playing first strike tennis and wasn't allowing Nadal to grind himself in long rallies. In one sentence Tiafoe overpowered him from the baseline. Something that Federer did in 2017 and Djokovic since 2014.

 

[DSH]

I don't remember Nadal committing so many double faults in a single match and he looked lacking in confidence throughout the tournament.
So it was impossible to win.

 

[optic yellow]

He's probably 60% of the player he was at his peak in 2008,

lolno