2018 French Open Men's SF: Nadal v Del Potro

[Denis]

JMdP wont the first 6x1 (but, even with that score line, it was a battle). Than he lead by a break in the second. Then in the fourth he was two breaks behind, I guess, and fought back to even it, and then finally lost it. It was nearly five hours or more. For sure not straight forward. Maybe we are talking about different matches, this one is in 2011, if I am not mistaken.

Yeah I remember a hard fought Davis cup four setter too on clay in Spain I believe?

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Finally, they showed one match on old fashioned TV and that was a beat down.

 

[Moxie]

Yeah I remember a hard fought Davis cup four setter too on clay in Spain I believe?

It was in Spain. Darth is trying to say it was nothing much, but I'm pretty sure he didn't watch it.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Serious question: do you think its actually feasible to do what Nadal is doing on purpose? Struggle the first few games, give the opponent hope, then when its crunch time, you step on the gas. I've seen it many times before with this guy.

No, that's too far fetched. I honestly think Nadal just lacks the consistent confidence to get out to great starts by swinging freely and playing with conviction. I think he's almost always nervous to an extent, and it takes him a little time to shake it off and start being himself. It's wild to contemplate, given he's won this tournament 10 freaking times, but I've seen it so often. You can tell when he's unsure, nervous, or still figuring out his tactics. The key in that sense, if you're his opponent, is just for him not to win the first set (look at the second set vs. Schwartzman. Rafa was still awful until the rain delay). But if he wins the first without playing his best, I honestly think this becomes the best feeling in the world for Nadal, because he's in the mindset of "I won this set without even playing well...Now I can just swing freely and I'll win more easily."

 

[brokenshoelace]

Very disappointed by Del Potro's tactics, even as a Nadal fan, not that I'm unhappy about an unpredictably straightforward day at the office. I can forgive the lack of energy (that seems to be a DP trademark), unforced errors, poor execution, and even the harmless backhand (the biggest problem in his game since his 2010 injury, and the reason this match-up has become so difficult for him on almost every surface), but I can't forgive his insistence on standing miles behind the baseline to return Nadal's serve, which put him on the back-foot in every rally, despite Nadal's serve being an absolute joke this tournament in terms of pace, precision and placement.

Del Potro always stood back to return Nadal's serve throughout his career, to mixed results, but the idea was that Nadal almost never got cheap points against him. On clay, with Del Potro's backhand being completely unable to cause Nadal trouble or get DP on the ascension in the rally, this is just a terrible idea because it just allows Nadal not to be under any sort of pressure to go for more on his serves, knowing he'll just get to hit a forehand on the first shot of the rally and take it from there.

Nadal was not at all impressive in the first set and the serve and backhand continue to be a problem, and perhaps more importantly, his nerves. To his credit, he navigated through his first set problems very smartly by using the drop shot more so than I've seen him use it at any point in a given set (throughout his career really), further exploiting DelPo's ill-advised court positioning. However, I really feel this was also to compensate for Rafa's lack of confidence in actually hitting through his forehand and going for his shots. A telling point in which he served and volleyed on a second serve, (which worked, because he's a problem-solver) is further evidence.

That said, he raised his level in the second and third sets and played very well, serving aside. But, with news of rain on Sunday, and Rafa's patchy level, the final is not a foregone conclusion, especially against Thiem.

 

[isabelle]

awful performance from Juan, very disappointing