Is Nadal still recovering from injury or is there a more serious problem with his technique??
:confused::confused:
Printable View
Is Nadal still recovering from injury or is there a more serious problem with his technique??
:confused::confused:
I think the problem is more serious than just lack of practice. Look how he did in the ATP finals. HE DIDNT EVEN WIN A SET!!. What's even worse is that, before the tournament started, I didn't expect him to get to the semis. When you don't expect Nadal to get to the semis of an eight-man tournament, something's seriously wrong...
This may be true. He really didn't perform like himself to any extent. i don't really mean that Nadal needs practice.. just that if he's not there putting in the work week in and week out, his game suffers horribly. But who knows.. maybe he just decided to take a break the rest of the year.
Multiple injuries PLUS mental burnout.
Nobody hits more tennis balls than Nadal. And he hits them 100% full out all the time.
Couple that with the fact all his near competition tries extra hard against him, and his road is tougher than most. He's the benchmark for the top 10.
You say mental burnout but when I watched him at the ATP finals he lacked the extra punch that his shots usually have. He was just being out-hit by every1 he came up against, even davydenko who hasnt got big groundstrokes at all. Nadal was just serving up juicy shoulder height balls that his opponents were hammering
Davydenko's groundstrokes are the best part of his game.
Davydenko's groundstrokes are ridiculously powerful. That and he hits on the rise a lot to get the ball back faster.
That he takes the ball early gives the illusion of his groundstrokes being powerful. Its shrewd thinking on his part because he lacks the power of more heavily built players. The efficiency of his shots come from the angles he creates rather than the power he generates.
If you think about it, when people visualize the players with the biggest groundies, they think Gonzalez, Tsonga, Del Potro etc.. Davydenko wouldn't really come close
Del Potro was averaging 77mph groundstrokes in his loss to Murray in Shanghai, I can't find statistics on Davydenko but of course he can't hit as fast as Del Potro and Soderling. Still he hits hard off both wings, and there's more to powerful groundstrokes than speed alone.
The problem Nadal has with Davydenko is the angle shots because Nadal plays so far back so he has to cover much more ground to get to the kind of well angles shots Davydenko has mastered.
You hit the nail on the head there but I think Nadal's problem with Davydenko's and indeed any other top 10 player's groundstrokes is heightened because Nadal's own strokes aren't as deadly or dangerous as they should have been. If his strokes had been more penetrative then he would have mitigated the risk of having to run around several metres behind the baseline because he would have been able to restrict Davy's groundies
As said, every one else raises their games in expectation of meeting Nadal. He's the benchmark 7.0 top player, so everyone else tries harder against him.
His burnout causes his opponent's to try even harder.
He always hit some short balls, that's what allows him his angles.
The other reason Davydenko was able to beat Nadal has to be his ability to close in on the net at the right time almost all the time. Nikolay was like a goalie in hockey the way he was staying square to the shooter (or in this case hitter) effectively blocking all angles. And speaking of angles, everyone will agree that is Davydenko's game. There's no way to read the shot other than to get a feel for his game. It should be an interesting 2010 people.