2013 US Open Final: Nadal vs. Djokovic

[brokenshoelace]

Question to the board:

The guy who was mentally tough enough to rebound from a seismic loss to Steve Darcis in the first round of Wimbledon by storming through the hard court season undefeated, is the same guy who supposedly needed SEVEN MONTHS OF MENTAL RECOVERY from a similar loss at Wimbledon last year? Yeah, I'm not buying it. Maybe, just maybe, he WAS injured (*in before this theory changes to a silent ban*)

Both losses came right after winning the French Open by the way. So the context is pretty similar.

 

[golds girl]

Nehmeth and other Nole fans, let me mention one great thing about Nole as a person
and a true tennis player and lover. Over the last three or four years, I have seen Nole
openly appreciating opponent's good shots DURING THE MATCH. He did that several
times today also. The interesting thing is that he actually means it, as he does not
appreciate all kinds of shots that wins the points for opponents and only excellent
shots. So, this is not a robotic move like apologizing to the opponent over a net
cord winner.

Thank you G.S.M. Thanks for noticing. One of many reasons why I appreciate Nole.

I've seen Rafa do it a couple times, but yes Nole is the only top player to do it consistently.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Useless piece of trivia:

Apparently, Nadal won his 40th career title at the French Open in 2010, his 50th at the French Open in 2012, and his 60th at the US Open this year.

So, it means that Nadal's 70th career title will be a Slam title

 

[imjimmy]

One thing about Imjimmy's comment above got me thinking:

"Nadal is definitely not playing the best hard court tennis of his career. He is not as sharp as he was in UsOpen 2010."

I think this is interesting. To me, Nadal is absolutely playing the best hard court tennis of his career. Never in his entire career has he been so consistently great on hards, on a week-to-week basis. With that said, yes, I thought he played better at the 2010 US Open than he did at this year's US Open (including a comparison of the two finals with Djokovic). However, and this is what I wanted to comment on, the above statement makes it sound like your most recent match is the indicator of your form. Moreover, it makes it sound like 2 weeks are enough make a general statement. An entire form on a surface can't be determined by one tournament. Nadal's results on hard courts in 2010, as well as his general form on average, doesn't even come close to what he's done this year. He did however, have two brilliant weeks in New York that year. Meanwhile, this year, his form at the same tournament was close, albeit not quite as good IMO, but his form in all the other hard court tournaments (especially Cinci and Montreal, where he was amazing) was far better than his general form on hards in 2010. Imjimmy himself alluded to this when he discussed his Montreal and Cinci form, only to completely change his mind because of one performance against Gasquet. IMO, this isn't really fair, and leads to inaccuracies.

So yeah, Nadal is absolutely playing the best hard court tennis of his career this year, match in and match out, as evidenced by his form in each tournament he's played in, and his undefeated record, which isn't too shabby.

Thanks Broken_Shoelace. Interesting comments. Well I should have said a little differently. I just thought that Nadal reached a peak of hardcourt tennis at UsOpen 2010 and then continued it briefly during the rest of the year (in the later tournaments after UsOpen). He was serving big and hitting his off-forehand with abandon.

2013 hardcourts- I think Nadal peaked in Montreal. The Montreal Nadal-Djokovic SF 2013 was CLOSE to some of the best tennis I've ever seen Nadal play on a hard court. He was firmly entrenched on the baseline and just moving Djokovic side to side, with some exquisite combination of cross court, DTL and off-forehands. He was also not hesitant to use his DTL backhand offensively. In other words a different pattern to their usual matches, with Rafa dictating and Djokovic running. At the UsOpen 2013, however, I didn't think Nadal played his best after the QF against Robredo.

Here's how I saw the UsOpen final. Nadal plays well in set 1 but Djokovic is a little flat. Rafa runs away with set 1. Set 2, they both play well and then towards the end Djokovic shifts to the offensive and Nadal becomes a little hesitant. Djokovic wins it. Set 3 - Djokovic starts strong and plays his best tennis. Nadal retreats. The hardcourt improvments of the summer of 2013 are all forgotten. It's suddenly like 2011 - and Djokovic is controlling the center of the court and Rafa is running. His backhand is weak and his forehand is barely clearing the service line.

And right at the time when Rafa is desperate, the subtle improvements in his game during 2013 come to his aid. The i/o forehand to forehand pattern that allowed Djokovic to dominate 2011 doesn't work. Nadal starting hitting his off-forehand harder. Gradually the DTL forehand comes to life, and he gets a couple of crucial free points. One of them to save the break point and another to win the set point. He also starts moving better to the backhand. Again the 2011 Djokovic pattern of DTL backhand to Nadal's DTL backhand doesn't work as well. Finally Nadal raises his level in set 4, and Djokovic loses it mentally.

Overall, not a great match by either player. But the good news for Nadal is that he managed to win without playing his best. And Djokovic is perhaps the only player who can trouble him. He's also getting more efficient in getting through earlier rounds, so he has more energy for the finals (which is the only time he can meet Djokovic). Next time though, hopefully he'll have enough confidence to dictate play as he did in Montreal SF 2013 or UsOpen Final 2010.

 

[Kieran]

Actually Jimmy, Rafa began to settle a bit in the third and resist. The technique followed but I told my missus at 3-1 down that he'd settled. There's a difference here that's crucial. Players communicate more to each other than shots. I'm not saying that everything that followed was inevitable because it wasn't - but had he not settled first and begun to resist, then the third set was gone fairly fast. These things still aren't won by technique, and never were. The techniques at that level are all fairly sharp. It's the intangibles that matter...

 

[NADAL2005RG]

Nadal served better in 2010 US Open (as in the actual hitting of the serve). But in 2013 US Open, Nadal was only broken 4 times (this set a new US Open record). 2010, he was broken 5 times. So the fact that Nadal didn't actually hit the serve that well in 2013 (compared to 2010) but was still more dominant, is indicative of his baseline performance being greater in 2013. And Kohl played a better match than anyone Nadal faced in 2010 pre-final.

 

[Moxie]

One thing about Imjimmy's comment above got me thinking:

Here's how I saw the UsOpen final. Nadal plays well in set 1 but Djokovic is a little flat. Rafa runs away with set 1. Set 2, they both play well and then towards the end Djokovic shifts to the offensive and Nadal becomes a little hesitant. Djokovic wins it. Set 3 - Djokovic starts strong and plays his best tennis. Nadal retreats. The hardcourt improvments of the summer of 2013 are all forgotten. It's suddenly like 2011 - and Djokovic is controlling the center of the court and Rafa is running. His backhand is weak and his forehand is barely clearing the service line.

And right at the time when Rafa is desperate, the subtle improvements in his game during 2013 come to his aid. The i/o forehand to forehand pattern that allowed Djokovic to dominate 2011 doesn't work. Nadal starting hitting his off-forehand harder. Gradually the DTL forehand comes to life, and he gets a couple of crucial free points. One of them to save the break point and another to win the set point. He also starts moving better to the backhand. Again the 2011 Djokovic pattern of DTL backhand to Nadal's DTL backhand doesn't work as well. Finally Nadal raises his level in set 4, and Djokovic loses it mentally.

Overall, not a great match by either player. But the good news for Nadal is that he managed to win without playing his best. And Djokovic is perhaps the only player who can trouble him. He's also getting more efficient in getting through earlier rounds, so he has more energy for the finals (which is the only time he can meet Djokovic). Next time though, hopefully he'll have enough confidence to dictate play as he did in Montreal SF 2013 or UsOpen Final 2010.

Accurate overall assessment of the match, I thought.

Actually Jimmy, Rafa began to settle a bit in the third and resist. The technique followed but I told my missus at 3-1 down that he'd settled. There's a difference here that's crucial. Players communicate more to each other than shots. I'm not saying that everything that followed was inevitable because it wasn't - but had he not settled first and begun to resist, then the third set was gone fairly fast. These things still aren't won by technique, and never were. The techniques at that level are all fairly sharp. It's the intangibles that matter...

Also a good point about intangibles. What else explains how fast that 3rd changed hands, and the 4th was over?

 

[Moxie]

This is weird. I keep trying to post a reply, but I can't see it. Anyone else having problems?

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

It must've fixed itself!

We shall end this thread with a usual picture of Rafa biting his trophy:

 

[NADAL2005RG]

Despite Djokovic's aggressive play, he only hit 5 more groundstroke winners than Nadal.

Forehand Winners
Djokovic 16 (including these 3- lob; dropshot; simple rally ball when Nadal slipped over)
Nadal 11

Backhand Winners
Nadal 6
Djokovic 6

 

[brokenshoelace]

Despite Djokovic's aggressive play, he only hit 5 more groundstroke winners than Nadal.

Forehand Winners
Djokovic 16 (including these 3- lob; dropshot; simple rally ball when Nadal slipped over)
Nadal 11

Backhand Winners
Nadal 6
Djokovic 6

But you can't ignore volley winners, since they're set up by aggressive play. For Djokovic to have found his way into the net, he had to hit big groundstrokes to gain that position.