Kieran said:
Well, I dunno if GS&M will agree but I condensed the articles suggestions into these four headings:
#1. Be more a grinder, like Nadal
#2. Patience in coming to the net
#3. Slice the backhand wide to Rafa's forehand
#4. Mix up returns
Obviously, there are descriptions of how these worked for Stan, but I agree with you: Stan's backhand is a thing of beauty and he can trace them down the line effectively, which is the usual way of getting Rafa out of that forehand corner, where he loves to wield the bully club and batter one-handers into submission.
Nole was probably the first to have great success with this opening up of the court by playing into Rafa's backhand, and Nole also has an exceptional backhand.
#1. I don't like your cryptic description of number 1. It sounds as though we are talking
about mindless baseline rallies. However, your further explanation shown above is
precise. As all of us know, Rafa forehand to Fed backhand rally just won't work
as a form of grinding. It is just a matter of how many shots are needed before
Fed's BH gives up. The only way to get out of this is to play DTL back hand
and then pin Rafa in the backhand spot and be a grinder in that. Of course,
this is easier said than done for Fed. Besides, this aspect of the problem is
nothing new. Everyone in the world knows this aspect of Fed's problem with
Rafa.
#2 This is something that can possibly be improved. The problem is just because
one does not like to engage in lengthy baseline rallies, one cannot come forward
on poor approach shots especially against a good passer like Murray or Rafa.
Why Fed was able to come in so often and successfully against Murray, but
not against Rafa? With Murray, Fed seems to have the confidence to hang in
the base line rallies and so even though he may come in a lot of times, he
does so on his terms, but not out of desperation to avoid rallies. On the
other hand, against Rafa he comes in out of desperation to avoid rallies.
This issue is obviously connected to issue #1. To avoid coming in out of
desperation, one must build little more strength in issue #1.
#3. I think Fed's slices get thoroughly punished when they sit in the middle
of the court. That is why the suggestion of makeing sure that slice
wide to Rafa's forehand. But, I guess this is affected by lack of
(upper body?) strength in back hand strokes. If that be the case
nothing much can be done about this.
#4. Of all the issues mentioned in the article, I think this is where Fed
can show the maximum improvement. His return position certainly
does not seem to vary much with the opponent and also with a
specific opponent over the course of a match. On the contrary,
I have seen Rafa make beautiful adjustments to his return position
during the course of the match (I don't know whether he does it
by himself or gets signals; but we will leave that for another day).
This (rafa making beautiful adjustments in return position) is clearly
evident if you watch the 2013 Cincy match between Rafa and Roger.
To summarize, IMO all the four suggestions are on the mark. But,
whether Fed can act on them, is another story. #1 is probably the most
difficult to fix for Fed at this time of his life and the point in the rivalry.
As long as #1 issue is there (which I just now said will always be there),
it would be difficult to be disciplined in coming in.
However, IMO #3 and #4 are certainly something that Fed could use.
In particular, #4 is definitely something that Fed can work on.
p.s. Whenever I am posting an article, it does not mean that I agree with
everything said in the article. However, it does mean that I think the article
is worthy of being discussed by us in this forum. I read lot of other articles
which I don't find interesting and/or to be of value. I don't start threads
on every article that I encounter.
p.s.2. Unbelievably, we finally have one or two posts (after more than 25
posts on asterisk and injury) talking about actual tactics and their
effectivness and the possibility of deployment.
