Why is Nadal's success against Federer attributed to him playing left-handed?

[HewittAlwaysDisappoints]

We all know the story. We've seen it play out a million times.

Nadal's vicious topspin forehand into Federer's one-handed backhand was the first noticeable chink in the once invincible Federer armour. Yet many people, including Federer himself, explain this weakness of his because Nadal plays left-handed.

But why would Nadal playing right-handed make any difference? He could still generate the same topspin and pace on it, right? Left-handers don't generate more topspin off their forehand than right-handers do they?

Usually Nadal pins Federer into the ad-court and sends a barrage of backhands there. If Federer moves closer to the deuce court, he'll have to run further to retrieve Nadal's shots that target his backhand. On the contrary, if Federer stays even further in the ad court to cover his backhand even more, it means Nadal can hit a winner to the deuce court off his forehand.

ESPN analysed a point between the two where Federer camped on the ad side and tried to hit it down the line to Nadal's backhand. Nadal kept hitting his forehand to Federer's backhand until Federer said FK IT and unleashed a big backhand cross court to Nadal's winner. But then Nadal hit an outrageous forehand winner down the line.

So I know that was pretty long, but if Nadal played right-handed I don't see why he can't get it to the Federer backhand and repeat said process. The cross-court left-handed forehand to Federer's backhand will be replaced by an off-forehand to Federer's backhand.

 

[Nathaniel_Near]

Being left-handed is a talent.

@pc1

 

[SpinToWin]

I had a huge post on this somewhere and I do not plan to write it again… I shall search in the meantime…

 

[thomasferrett]

If Nadal was a righty, he would need to be hitting off forehands to find Federer's backhand, which would expose his own running around the backhand more, and it would be way easier to hit DTL winners against him.

Also, the type of spin you generate with an off-forehand is different to with a cross court forehand. The former 'skids away' from the court (if hit with side-spin) and the latter 'hooks away' from the court and is generally heavier to deal with.

Then, Federer's best shots are his own off forehand and his knifing slice. If Nadal were a righty, the big off forehand would go into Nadal's backhand that doesn't have as much reach as his forehand and the knifing slice would go into Nadal's backhand where he doesn't have nearly as much racket head speed as he does on his forehand to whip that shot aggressively, so he would probably instead loft the ball up in an attackable way, and Federer could use his favoured short slice + deep topspin combo to expose any uncertain vertical court positioning.

So yes, Nadal's being left handed is his most genius anti-Federer move.

 

[Red Rick]

As a lefty, he can get more spin and angle on his crosscourt baseline shots towards Fed's backhand, and because he wouldnt need to run around his backhand continuously . This way, he can make Federer have to run or stretch for his backhand more, and get him on the back foot. If he was right handed, his fh to Fed's backhands shots would be dtl, (more risky and easier to run around), and to hit angles to Fed's backhand, he'd have to run around his backhand more, leaving a lot of room for the dl backhand. And it is easier to reach Nadal's backhand if that's the crosscourt option.

 

[SpinToWin]

Damn I loved conflict back then LOL

Federer's best play on his backhand, which brought him a lot of success is the slice into his opponents backhand (one of the reasons why he struggles against Nadal is that his slice goes to his forehand instead) […]

Yeah. Although I think that is not the only thing. Since you are a coach, you can give me some insight on this.

How big is a factor of Rafa being a lefty? In the sense that they are less of them. So, Fed is not used playing vs great lefties. And suddenly Fed in a GS final he has to play a lefty, while Rafa was playing his matches vs righties all the time and doesn't need to change. It's like you need additional set of skills and you have limited time.

The second question is, how big is a factor of this deuce/add court thing? Both righy and lefty can abuse the wide serve. BUT, when you are lefty you have this edge on BIG points. So, this may be part of Fed's perceived mental weakness vs Nadal.

Can you expand and explain those two points and what are your thoughts?

Interesting that you mention this. I remember Fed himself commenting on this, saying that it is a huge advantage for Nadal, since he has to make huge adjustments to his game and strategy whereas Nadal can just keep playing his game. This is part of what gives Rafa such a huge mental edge. He rarely has to change his strategy which can let him play without thinking too much, something that is greatly underestimated. There is a huge difference between knowing that your strategy will hold 99% of the time and being able to continue point after point without doubts, in contrast to having to think of every point, the strategy involved and the respective success they bring. The greatest adjustment Federer has to do involves one of the key aspects of his game: the slice backhand. Whereas that shot cross court is an advantage against the majority of the field, as most players have to play a backhand and cannot attack Federer's slice with that shot, Nadal just eats the slice up with his topspin forehand. Federer has to make incredible adjustments when playing against Nadal and needs to play patterns he never would have to against anyone else.

Furthermore, Nadal serves slice against 99% of the tour on his second serve, whereas Federer serves kick on 99% of the tour. Federer needs to adjust his serve too when playing Nadal, taking into consideration that the stronger shot now is on the opposite side.



It is much bigger than people want to admit. Nadal has the edge on breakpoints on his serve, as he can use a lefty's favorite pattern: slice out wide and then play into the open court or behind the opponent. Nadal's serve is tricky because he can get so much slice on it. You cannot predict how far off the court he will pull you and you don't know if you can run around the backhand in time because of the swerve on the ball (also, you will be way out of position and need to hit a winner from there). Especially for one handers, whose favorite return usually is the slice, since a full topspin backhand needs a lot of time/a long wind up, this is very tricky, as Nadal thrives off of slices. So they are left with low percentage shots on the return (see Wawrinka's return for the break against Nadal in this year's AO, that is one heck of a risky shot) or giving Nadal the advantage in the rally. The mental effect of giving away many break points is something that is underestimated and it can be very frustrating for a player, which is why the mental aspect against Nadal is so important.

Thanks for you knowledge. I thought that the issue was bigger and more complicated. This explains a lot.

Then if we combine that most matches were on Rafa's surfaces, you get such a skewed h2h. It is not just the backhand issue.

It's frustrating, because this issue doesn't do justice to Federer. Makes him look a lot worse than he really is.

So, is it even fair to compare achievements for lefties vs righties? Doesn't seem fair to me. We need lefty goat category since lefties have this huge edge.

Also additional question. Why doesn't Fed try to abuse Rafa's backhand? It's also a weakness. It works when Fed does it, then he abandons his strategy.

Because it is so hard to do on slow surfaces. If you just look at Nadal's movement in a match and ignore Federer, you will see that Nadal is running like a madman to hit as many forehands as he can. Any shot not way in the corner will be returned as a forehand by Nadal. Also, you cannot only hit into Nadal's backhand, as he will hit a high topspin looper way into Federer's backhand corner from where there isn't much Fed can do. If he runs around the backhand he needs to hit a winner as he is way out of position, but this is hard against Nadal as his anticipation and speed lets him get to most shots. Nadal has several plays he can consistently use with success against Federer, whereas Federer only has few plays (such as hitting very hard into Nadal's backhand and then taking the ball early into Nadal's forehand, but even then Nadal is well capable of hitting a neutralizing looper or a winner). There is simply a gigantic matchup issue on slow courts favoring Nadal.

I don't agree that there should be a lefty category and a righty category. McEnroe is a lefty, yet he never took advantage of that like Nadal does. Verdasco too is a lefty, but he isn't the most successful player, even though his forehand is quite good. Nadal is an incredible player, who likely has developed the most dominant strategy of modern tennis on slow courts, which is a significant achievement in itself.