In a video posted on his Instagram account, Patrick Mouratoglou looked at the evolution of Rafael Nadal’s game since his debut. He asked himself the following question: how did the Majorcan go from king of clay to the most successful player in Grand Slam, all surfaces combined?
The new coach of Simona Halep distinguishes three key points: the offensive game, the service and the backhand slice. The former coach of Serena Williams details his thoughts:First of all, Rafael Nadal’s game has become more and more aggressive. Earlier in his career, Nadal won the points by forcing his opponent to play long rallies from the baseline. Today, he goes more into the court, takes control of the exchanges and shortens the points to keep energy. Second, Nadal’s serve has gone from a simple face-off to a real weapon. He changed his technique to gain power. One of the main changes was the improved transfer of his weight forward when serving. […] Finally, Nadal added new shots to his game. During the Australian Open final, we saw him using the backhand slice a lot to bring Medvedev to the net. He even used the drop shot to make the Russian doubt. In addition, Nadal has improved his game at the net, he comes there much more often to conclude the points. »
Published on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 6:02 PM
