2013 Monte Carlo F: Nadal vs. Djokovic

[brokenshoelace]

It just feels right for Nole to win in his adopted home town, after they scratched Belgrade of the tour calendar

Fans were largely pro Nadal though, oddly enough.

 

[Denis]

Thanks Broken, always a good break down of a match by you.

 

[kskate2]

Huge win for Nole. Feels weird seeing someone other than Rafa winning this.
I am not sure if this will affect Rafa too much in the negative sense though. He can still tell himself he is coming back, he is not %100, he has room to improve, and he might not be totally wrong.

Huge kudos to Nole though. This match always felt like it was on his racket.

His game needs alot of work. The serve for starters, better net play, more consistency driving through the BH. It really let him down today.

For this match Rafa's first serve% 72. Nole's first serve% 62. You have to admit he was put on his heels today.

I'm not saying he wasn't under the gun. I stated that Novak controlled the court for most of the day. Nadal serving at 72% doesn't track the pace and placement. He also served 3 DF's to Novak's zero.

 

[herios]

Anyway, it's a bit disappointing just from the historical context: 9 in a row would have been insane...

It was already insane, common, 8 in a row, hat else do you want?

 

[brokenshoelace]

Another thing that stood out to me is that Novak generally hit his backhand with more angles than usual. Obviously, he still hit it hard and deep to Rafa's forehand in general, the way he always does, but often times when Rafa gave him deep balls in the middle off the court with not much on them (meaning they're actually difficult to deal with since you don't have pace to feed off of), Novak pulled the trigger early and created some otherworldly angles.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Only reason Rafa lost is that he wanted to have that second place trophy that was missing from his collection...
Nice speeches from both...Rafa" Congrats on winning my favorite tournament" Nole"Thanks for allowing me to win one."

It is amazing Nole is only a Cincy win away from completing the master 1000s. He might take care of that this year.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Anyway, it's a bit disappointing just from the historical context: 9 in a row would have been insane...

It was already insane, common, 8 in a row, hat else do you want?

LOL yeah, I have to agree.

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

It's one of those records that will never be broken.
me thinks!

 

[herios]

It just feels right for Nole to win in his adopted home town, after they scratched Belgrade of the tour calendar

Fans were largely pro Nadal though, oddly enough.

Fans always want to see a dramatic 3 setter, that is always the goal of the audience, of course they were cheering to Rafa, who was playing catch-up

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Another thing that stood out to me is that Novak generally hit his backhand with more angles than usual. Obviously, he still hit it hard and deep to Rafa's forehand in general, the way he always does, but often times when Rafa gave him deep balls in the middle off the court with not much on them (meaning they're actually difficult to deal with since you don't have pace to feed off of), Novak pulled the trigger early and created some otherworldly angles.

...and the funny thing is, his DTL backhand was not as good as usual. As good as Nole was today, that shot could still improve, which is scary...

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

I'm not saying he wasn't under the gun. I stated that Novak controlled the court for most of the day. Nadal serving at 72% doesn't track the pace and placement. He also served 3 DF's to Novak's zero.

I agree with you K
72% doesn't mean didley when your serve fails you in the last few games of the match and the tie breaker to boot.

 

[Denis]

It just feels right for Nole to win in his adopted home town, after they scratched Belgrade of the tour calendar

Fans were largely pro Nadal though, oddly enough.

Fans always want to see a dramatic 3 setter, that is always the goal of the audience, of course they were cheering to Rafa, who was playing catch-up

I didn't have the impression that the crowd was pro-Nadal. It was very evenly balanced I thought. As Herios says, the neutral spectator would have cheered for Nadal at the end of the second set to see a third, but the crowd wasn't biased.

 

[Kieran]

Anyway, it's a bit disappointing just from the historical context: 9 in a row would have been insane...

It was already insane, common, 8 in a row, hat else do you want?

Well, that's true!

But nine is a round number, 3 times 3 and all that. But yeah, 8's not bad!

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

Picture time!

 

[brokenshoelace]

Another thing that stood out to me is that Novak generally hit his backhand with more angles than usual. Obviously, he still hit it hard and deep to Rafa's forehand in general, the way he always does, but often times when Rafa gave him deep balls in the middle off the court with not much on them (meaning they're actually difficult to deal with since you don't have pace to feed off of), Novak pulled the trigger early and created some otherworldly angles.

Was watching the same... I think britbox called them Nalbanian like angles.

While he still made a few mistakes, Nole's netgame continues to improve dramatically. As a fan, am quite pleased.

Yeah both looked fine at the net actually (with the exception of one awkward looking overhead that Nadal missed), which was a relief because Rafa had looked terrible this week in the forecourt.

I actually think Novak deals well with difficult volleys that require a lot of flexibility and getting low (he's such a great athlete so it helps), but struggles with volleys that require less stretching but more technical proficiency. I thought the quality of his approaches for the most part, was right on the money though.

 

[BalaryKar]

Can somebody correct me? I think Nole not only became first man in 9 years to win Monte Carlo, I think he had become the first man in history to win 3 matches against Nadal. Please confirm

 

[brokenshoelace]

It just feels right for Nole to win in his adopted home town, after they scratched Belgrade of the tour calendar

Fans were largely pro Nadal though, oddly enough.

Fans always want to see a dramatic 3 setter, that is always the goal of the audience, of course they were cheering to Rafa, who was playing catch-up

I didn't have the impression that the crowd was pro-Nadal. It was very evenly balanced I thought. As Herios says, the neutral spectator would have cheered for Nadal at the end of the second set to see a third, but the crowd wasn't biased.

Maybe because he was down for most of the match and the crowd wanted a comeback, but his winners/service games won/etc.. were definitely drawing bigger reactions.

I think Novak will be a bigger crowd favorite in Rome, for instance.

 

[Kieran]

Is that a ball in his pocket or is he just glad he won!? :exclamation:

 

[brokenshoelace]

Can somebody correct me? I think Nole not only became first man in 9 years to win Monte Carlo, I think he had become the first man in history to win 3 matches against Nadal. Please confirm

Not sure I understand. Obviously, you mean "first man outside of Nadal to win Monte Carlo in 9 years" for the first one.

But the second question? Do you mean win 3 matches against Nadal on clay? Gaston Guadio has done so.

 

[Kieran]

Novak has now won 3 of the last six matches on clay against Rafa, which is certainly a great achievement...