Topic: Rafa's game plan against Djokovic

[swish]

Another thoughtful fanboy post supporting your side of the discussion with technical analysis of stroke mechanics illustrating the cause and solution of the alleged breakdown. 

Keep up the good work!

what more technical analysis? any decent follower would notice the obvious decline in his backhand dynamics which i have illustrated in the previous pages.........

losing sets to isner on the parisian clay is a frigging joke and if that's not proof enough to how dreadful his backhand and subsequently his overall game has become, one just has to quit saying you are arguing just for the heck of it........

No doubt something isn't right with his game, no way should Isner be playing on the same level and putting such pressure on Nadal.
Hard to identify it, just the overall game of Nadal doesn't seem very effective.

he needed this kind of match, swish........he needed to be shaken and reminded of his dreadful game at the moment........

You have a point, only once has anyone given Nadal such a hard time at RG, since Isner isn't playing a great match it has to be a problem with Nadal.

Unless someone has other ideas??? Anyone care to explain this.

At the draw, Raf knew this would be a tough match.  No surprises here.

I fully expect Nadal to take the 5th set.
3 great returns for Raf to set up triple BP.

Isner taking Nadal to 5 sets at RG doesn't surprise you?

[monstertruck]

Another thoughtful fanboy post supporting your side of the discussion with technical analysis of stroke mechanics illustrating the cause and solution of the alleged breakdown. 

Keep up the good work!

what more technical analysis? any decent follower would notice the obvious decline in his backhand dynamics which i have illustrated in the previous pages.........

losing sets to isner on the parisian clay is a frigging joke and if that's not proof enough to how dreadful his backhand and subsequently his overall game has become, one just has to quit saying you are arguing just for the heck of it........

No doubt something isn't right with his game, no way should Isner be playing on the same level and putting such pressure on Nadal.
Hard to identify it, just the overall game of Nadal doesn't seem very effective.

he needed this kind of match, swish........he needed to be shaken and reminded of his dreadful game at the moment........

You have a point, only once has anyone given Nadal such a hard time at RG, since Isner isn't playing a great match it has to be a problem with Nadal.

Unless someone has other ideas??? Anyone care to explain this.

At the draw, Raf knew this would be a tough match.  No surprises here.

I fully expect Nadal to take the 5th set.
3 great returns for Raf to set up triple BP.

Isner taking Nadal to 5 sets at RG doesn't surprise you?

Why on earth would it surpise me if the draw bothered Nadal himself?Surely you know by now that I'm a proponent of the philosophy that no match is a foregone conclusion.  That's why they play them out instead of just plugging the 2 fanboy favs into the finals.

[swish]

More about Nadal's level of play. It's a serious issue.
As discussed, his mechanics look fine.
Many people have nice looking mechanics, but are not even pros.
So to look at only mechanics, which I did, there seemed to be nothing terribly wrong just by looking.
Now you have Isner taking Nadal to 5 sets, why wasn't Nadal running Isner from side to side?

To have the BH working right Nadal has to be aggressive and trust his shots. Mechanics aren't enough as pointed out by Start The Game.
There's been several matches since Nadal played Djokovic and he's not looked like the Nadal of the past.
This discussion is going on in different forums through the internet.

We need more reasons than mechanics of the BH.
Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.
Any other perspectives would be appreciated.

[Babblelot]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

[swish]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

Nadal's been playing a long time, he needs to bring a few six packs on his fishing boat. 

[monstertruck]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

Nadal's been playing a long time, he needs to bring a few six packs on his fishing boat. 

Perhaps he's on the wrong fishing boat.

I think he's a decent kid and has a great perpective on life and tennis.

As I've said before, he's a player who enjoys lateral movement and has made a killing forcing other players to play that type of game.  It's typically loaded with tons of cross- court rallies of balls in the middle of the court where he has time to unleash his FH and take charge of the point.  Suddenly, Nole is robbing him of that time and folks think his groundstrokes are mechanically malfuntioning and that he needs to make some sort of stroke adjustment.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  His strokes are technically sound, he just needs to make a few minor tactical adjustments against players that steal time from him by getting off first or hitting down the line.  He can do that by serving and returning up to his potential and dictacting play immediately instead of waiting around for a short ball to take charge of the point.

[monstertruck]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

I think his lack of confidence comes from the fact that he can no longer wait around way behind the baseline for his opponent to hit a short ball before he dictates play and hopes to break his opponent down physically and mentally over the course of a match just by hitting tons of balls back.  That's not working against Nole, a supreme mover and defender.  Lately he's been fit and confident enough to stay in the rallies and turn the tide IMMEDIATELY when the opportunity presents itself.  Whether that be initially on the serve or return, or perhaps later in the point. 

[williamchung7]

Maybe that is the issue, his stamina is good as he was.
I think the techni of his game does not change a lot. The techni discussion previously, we seen agree that his techni does not change. The problem is other thing.

I doubt that he leg is injured again, he just does not talk and hid it. (It is my guessing. )

We still need more clues and evidences to see what actually happen to him.   

[falcon]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

I think his lack of confidence comes from the fact that he can no longer wait around way behind the baseline for his opponent to hit a short ball before he dictates play and hopes to break his opponent down physically and mentally over the course of a match just by hitting tons of balls back.  That's not working against Nole, a supreme mover and defender.  Lately he's been fit and confident enough to stay in the rallies and turn the tide IMMEDIATELY when the opportunity presents itself.  Whether that be initially on the serve or return, or perhaps later in the point.

Does your lack of confidence against one particular player affect your game so much that you struggle your way in the opening two rounds of a slam?

[Babblelot]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

I think his lack of confidence comes from the fact that he can no longer wait around way behind the baseline for his opponent to hit a short ball before he dictates play and hopes to break his opponent down physically and mentally over the course of a match just by hitting tons of balls back.  That's not working against Nole, a supreme mover and defender.  Lately he's been fit and confident enough to stay in the rallies and turn the tide IMMEDIATELY when the opportunity presents itself.  Whether that be initially on the serve or return, or perhaps later in the point.

Does your lack of confidence against one particular player affect your game so much that you struggle your way in the opening two rounds of a slam?

I vote yes. Saw it with Roger, too. There's a sense of invincibility that these guys operate under. Once that "weapon" gets compromised, negative thoughts start to penetrate their single mindedness.

[monstertruck]

Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.

What do we have here, a revolving door? Federer loses confidence and can't beat Nadal, Nadal loses confidence, and can't beat Nole? Now, Nole is the only player with his head screwed on straight.

You may be absolutely right...

I think his lack of confidence comes from the fact that he can no longer wait around way behind the baseline for his opponent to hit a short ball before he dictates play and hopes to break his opponent down physically and mentally over the course of a match just by hitting tons of balls back.  That's not working against Nole, a supreme mover and defender.  Lately he's been fit and confident enough to stay in the rallies and turn the tide IMMEDIATELY when the opportunity presents itself.  Whether that be initially on the serve or return, or perhaps later in the point.

Does your lack of confidence against one particular player affect your game so much that you struggle your way in the opening two rounds of a slam?

I vote yes. Saw it with Roger, too. There's a sense of invincibility that these guys operate under. Once that "weapon" gets compromised, negative thoughts start to penetrate their single mindedness.

JMac referred to that phenom in an interview about Fed's 'demise'.  He said once the aura has been diminished, it not only affects the player's confidence, but creates a sort of feeding frenzy for opponents.  We've seen it happen to many champs and I guess Raf is no different.

[Start da Game]

More about Nadal's level of play. It's a serious issue.
As discussed, his mechanics look fine.
Many people have nice looking mechanics, but are not even pros.
So to look at only mechanics, which I did, there seemed to be nothing terribly wrong just by looking.
Now you have Isner taking Nadal to 5 sets, why wasn't Nadal running Isner from side to side?

To have the BH working right Nadal has to be aggressive and trust his shots. Mechanics aren't enough as pointed out by Start The Game.
There's been several matches since Nadal played Djokovic and he's not looked like the Nadal of the past.
This discussion is going on in different forums through the internet.

We need more reasons than mechanics of the BH.
Maybe the mental drive could be a factor, this is probably the case.
Any other perspectives would be appreciated.

believe me, it's the backhand and backhand alone.........mental drive is not at all an issue, he is driven to kill in this roland garros and reestablish his authority on clay.........he once said he will not even enter the court and will retire from the sport the day he has no more desire to win.........

at the moment his overall game is taking a hit due to the junk balls he's producing off his backhand.........if you noticed yesterday against pablo, there was no single point in the match where he din't try to run around his backhand and take it on the forehand.........

i now have a feeling that his backhand will continue being below par through out this french open.........one week is too less a time to improve it........

he will somehow manage the title victory with his great forehand and unbeatable footspeed alone.........he is still that good........

his backhand will only get back to its best at wimbledon.........on grass there is no way but to play aggressive.........that makes nadal hit through his fears to get his backhand back in groove........at the moment he is doubting himself to plant the foot forward and drive firmly off the backhand.........it's a thing of confidence........

 

 

[Babblelot]

^^^saving that quote for a later date, monster?

Where's your contribute?   

[FedFanForever]

How 'bout Rafa worry about his draw first? 

[williamchung7]

Lack of confidence mean you will think too much which slow down your groundstroke and more errors occur.

[casper11]

( ) Flatter forehand

( ) Aggressive service return

( ) Random approach shots

( ) Brad Gilbert

[monstertruck]

^^^saving that quote for a later date, monster?

Where's your contribute?   

I got stuck last night.
Looked at it again this morning.
Decided that talking tennis with fanboys is a complete waste of my time.
Boy do I feel stupid.

[Start da Game]

^^^saving that quote for a later date, monster?

Where's your contribute?   

I got stuck last night.
Looked at it again this morning.
Decided that talking tennis with fanboys is a complete waste of my time.
Boy do I feel stupid.

let me see what theory you put forward for nadal's poor form of late.........of course you are free to ignore even uncle toni's frustrations from the stands about nadal's "uber effective" backhand........

[Alex]

I still think there is nothing really wrong with Nadal. The problem is that nobody can sustain a high level all the time, no matter how great a particular player is. Nadal is going through a little slump according to his own standards but he is still winning ...

[monstertruck]

^^^saving that quote for a later date, monster?

Where's your contribute?   

I got stuck last night.
Looked at it again this morning.
Decided that talking tennis with fanboys is a complete waste of my time.
Boy do I feel stupid.

let me see what theory you put forward for nadal's poor form of late.........of course you are free to ignore even uncle toni's frustrations from the stands about nadal's "uber effective" backhand........

The players giving him problems are those who take time and space from him.  Attacking earlier in the points, pushing him back, and playing shots DTL to his backhand.  Avoiding the cross-court patterns that are Nadal's bread & butter.

I haven't spoken with Uncle Toni in quite some time, so I've no idea what he's thinking.