Why Nadal lost the match : He approached the match tactically wrong and opposite to his usual approach.

[NoleFam]

Nadal was woeful. He was better in Barcelona and Tsitsipas had MP didnt he?

Nadal was trash in Barcelona. Having a tough match against a qualifier and losing badly in the 2nd set against out of form Nishikori. The final also was not a high level.

 

[RF-18]

There were only 2 less ues in the Zverev/Tsits match. You act like it was a lot. It was a lot more winners in the Djokovic/Nadal match though, something you have ommited. And no, neither Tsits or Zverev would have stood a chance against Nadal based on yesterday.

Agreed, they would succumb to the enormous mental and physical pressure Nadal would have put on them. Usually players are good maybe 1 or 2 sets but then they just collapse. Just compare to 19 final for example, Thiem was unleashing everything for 2 sets to make it 1 set all, then it was just over. He couldn't keep up anymore. Only Djokovic can really withstand that and he did for over 4 hours. It's at this point players just slowly goes away mentally and physically against Nadal and starts leaking errors realizing they just can't do it.

 

[Beckerserve]

Nadal was trash in Barcelona. Having a tough match against a qualifier and losing badly in the 2nd set against out of form Nishikori. The final also was not a high level.

He played much better than yesterday. Did he serve 10 DFs in Barcelona the whole event let alone one match?
Bud i get yesterday was a big deal for Djokovic and his fans after the humiliation of RG2020 but sadly it came too late. A) not the final b) Nadal is past it in 5 set matches.

 

[NoleFam]

Agreed, they would succumb to the enormous mental and physical pressure Nadal would have put on them. Usually players are good maybe 1 or 2 sets but then they just collapse. Just compare to 19 final for example, Thiem was unleashing everything for 2 sets to make it 1 set all, then it was just over. He couldn't keep up anymore. Only Djokovic can really withstand that and he did for over 4 hours. It's at this point players just slowly goes away mentally and physically against Nadal and starts leaking errors realizing they just can't do it.

Precisely. I would have given Zverev and Tsitisipas a set each, max. They cannot handle that kind of mental pressure on clay in a BO5 that Nadal puts on his opponents. Plus the power and spin of the forehand is too much to handle over BO5 sets. There have only been a few men who could withstand it. Both of them would much rather play Djokovic than Nadal. Anybody would.

 

[NoleFam]

He played much better than yesterday. Did he serve 10 DFs in Barcelona the whole event let alone one match?
Bud i get yesterday was a big deal for Djokovic and his fans after the humiliation of RG2020 but sadly it came too late. A) not the final b) Nadal is past it in 5 set matches.

You don't seem to have a basic understanding of tennis if you actually believe he played better in Barcelona than he has this tournament and he had 8 double faults yesterday, not 10. He hit 5 against Tsitsipas in Barcelona in 3 sets so he has been struggling with double faults the whole clay season. No you gloated about FO 2020 way too much and it came back to bite you in the you know what. So tell yourself it means nothing if it makes you feel better.

 

[heninfan99]

Both Djokovic and Nadal made mistakes. Near the end, Djokovic had the energy left to overcome his mistakes; Nadal didn't.

Nadal ran out of energy in the 4th, he would've been totally out of it for the 5th, against the best 5-set player ever!

Nadal made a lot more UFE's yesterday, probably because he was redlining, and felt he had to go for too much.

I actually dont know why people are saying Nadal was drained at the end, he wasnt