The summaries of Christmas-De Miñaur that they will have seen on television or on social networks will be full of points, passing shots and winning shots. Of several “let’s go”, of fists in the air and gestures with the stands. What those summaries surely did not show are Nadal’s forehands that flew high, very high, and that forced the Australian to play uncomfortable and far from his comfort zone. They were much less showy blows, but they served to build his best victory since 2022.
With hardly any continuity on the ATP circuit for two years, Nadal’s body is still getting used to the maximum demands. This Monday against Pedro Cachín (4:00 p.m., on Movistar+ and Teledeporte) will be the fifth he has played since he reappeared in Barcelona two weeks ago. The abdominal no longer bothers him, but the gears are still not oiled and it shows.
“There are things that I still can’t do the way I would like. I need more powerful supports that I am missing and I still have to be a little careful. The priority remains that nothing serious happens, having the option to explore the following weeks,” he said on Saturday afternoon after beating the number 11 in the world ranking.
The truth is The statistics speak of a notable improvement for Nadal in just one week. With data from the TennisViz and Tennis Data Insights platforms, the specialized tennis website Tennismajors.com has analyzed 12 Nadal statistics at the service of both his match against De Miñaur in Barcelona and Saturday’s duel against the Australian in Madrid. Nadal improves in 11 parameters, such as serve speed, points won or break points saved.
“Let’s not get carried away by the emotion of a match either, there are many things that have to be adjusted,” said Nadal, trying to calm a little the euphoria that was generated after his victory over De Miñaur. “TI would still like to turn the ball more from side to side, but I can’t yet. I’m slower and attacking the balls I can. I need to play with tactics and that things do not happen so quickly so as not to have to make accelerated movements.
Arantxa and Conchita’s strategy
As his career progressed, Nadal has been shortening the points. He knows that his physique no longer responds the same to marathons. “He knows that he has to be aggressive, try not to get stuck in long rallies and shorten the points. We have been working on it for some time,” Carlos Moyà, his coach, told L’Equipe in January. But that was before the physicist kept Nadal aside until April. Now things have changed and Nadal has resorted to the old strategy that gave him such good results against Federer.: lean your body back and hit the right hand with a tremendous top spin.
“I have to take the points slower and for this to happen it is vital to play long and high“, he analyzed on Saturday at the Caja Mágica. During many exchanges in the match against De Miñaur, Nadal opted to that tactic that Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario and Conchita Martínez also used in the 90s: their balls passed through the net with a height of more than two meters and they dribbled beyond the service box. De Minaur had no choice but to get on the ball or take several steps back to hit it. As long as he could, the Australian tried to take the initiative, but on many occasions what happened was that he backed off and ended up losing the initiative.
The ‘top spin’ against Federer
That was precisely what happened for many years to Federer in his duels against Nadal. The Spaniard crushed his one-handed backhand with top spin and forced him to always hit with the head of the racket over his shoulder, a very uncomfortable gesture. That strategy was even more exaggerated on clay.
Nadal martyred Federer with that top spin and the Swiss found the solution very late. It was in Indian Wells 2017, when already in the final stretch of his career he decided that he would no longer wait for Nadal back on the court, but would start hitting almost every backhand with a bounce soon. Federer began to play a kind of ping-pong that baffled Nadal.
“He played very aggressively and his backhand was good enough to win the match,” Nadal analyzed that day. “I didn’t have the right answer to the remains of him. He needed to neutralize the first two balls and I didn’t do it. Playing two strokes is better than me now, five years ago, ten years ago and always. When I was able to neutralize those first two balls, I was a little better than him“. De Minaur did not find the solution on Saturday. Now it is Pedro Cachín’s turn.
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
2024-04-29 08:12:18
#fast #Relief
