brokenshoelace
Grand Slam Champion
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Front242 said:^ No opponent needed to be amazing to beat Nadal today, just more focused, less errors and not botching leads or losing the match on a double fault.
REALLY disagree with this. You are absolutely, 100%, NOT going to beat Nadal at the French Open unless you play super clean, great tennis.
Now yes, Novak didn't play well. But to say that "no opponent needed to be amazing to beat Nadal today" is a bit outrageous. First of all, there was only one opponent who could have beaten him, and that's the one who was standing across the net. Secondly, while again, I agree Novak didn't play well, you're simplifying matters to the point where it's way too unrealistic.
There's a reason both Murray and Djokovic talked about how difficult it was to play aggressive, play clean, control the ball, etc...against Nadal on in these conditions. Novak himself said in the press conference that there was no way he wasn't going to have ups and downs against Nadal on this court in a match like this, but the main problem was that he was unable to play well in key moments (I agree with him on that, and I also admit he didn't play well on the whole).
But again, many of the above post reveal that people are absolutely oblivious to what Nadal does on a clay court, and how the conditions play right into his game. It's really not nearly as easy as "keeping focus and making less errors" especially with the controlled aggression you need to be playing with.