Front242 said:
Neither of them got **** on this guy though [video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R-eltQDerPc[/video]
Well yeah, in terms of power, Blake and especially Fernando Gonzalez are in a league of their own. But, at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, Huntingyou is right. That forehand is one only Nadal can hit (quite literally). Because the footwork required to run around it, couple with the balance and coordination to hit an inside out screaming from such an unnatural position with your body almost twisted sideways is insane. Most players, Federer included, wouldn't have even bothered to run around it. The video you posted shows Federer hitting a forehand that wasn't nearly as difficult.
I've always said Federer has a better forehand than Nadal, but for the purpose of that particular type of shot (the one HY posted a video of), I've honestly never seen hit inside out forehands from that sort of position with the same frequency as Nadal.
This kinda ties into what I've been saying about his movement. There's nothing that regressed about it in terms of splitsteps, footwork, getting into position to hit forehands, make tiny adjustments, etc... In fact, there's not much that's regressed (it has, but nothing substantial) about it when sprinting from point A to point B (tracking down drop shots, covering the open court, etc....). Where it has regressed is the explosiveness in that initial step when he doesn't have the benefit of anticipating. In other words, if Nadal is on one side of the court and the opponent is about to hit to the open court, Nadal's movement isn't noticeably hindered since he can still sprint like a rabbit.
But when he's forced to stretch on his forehand side (and he doesn't know the ball is going there) despite being positioned in the middle of the court, and he requires that initial explosion in his step to get to the ball in time to hit a quality shot, he's a split second slow these days. Hence a lot of his replies end up in the bottom of the net whereas in the past, he would at least loop them back in. That's also the reason why his passing shots have regressed (he used to almost never miss one).
On the backhand side, the real problem is bending down low (which again affects the quality of the passing shot).
Regardless, I actually think he looked better than I thought he would in this first week and he's moving well. If he steps up the serving he'll be fine.
