On 1st February 2009, Roger Federer broke
into tears at the Australian Open presentation. The words that he uttered before
breaking down were ‘God, it’s killing me’. There was a reason behind that.
Though Federer will not reveal it, it was pretty clear. 2008 was a year that
Federer couldn’t put it through Nadal
He lost the French Open final (expectedly) and then was
at the receiving end at Wimbledon, which was later hailed as the ‘Greatest
match ever played’ . All this came to a conclusion at the Australian Open
final 2009, where for most part of the match, Federer had played the better tennis
and even won more points than Nadal
This season, Nadal went through a similar run. He
entered into 6 finals against Djokovic and lost in each one of them. It is not
a co-incidence that Djokovic is having a dream run. In doing that, Djokovic has
spread his wins over Nadal on all the surfaces- hard, clay, and grass
After he lost to him at the Wimbledon, Nadal
acknowledged that Djokovic has gotten into his mind and he would need to play
on a higher scale to put it across him. He did get the opportunity at Flushing
Meadows but could not quite get there
When Nadal blazed away to a 2-0 lead in the opening set,
it was thought that Nadal finally found a way to put it across Djokovic.
However Djokovic was back to his imperious best as he reeled off six games in a
row
The second set too followed a similar script as Nadal
burst away to 2-0 lead, only to see Djokovic raise his own game and take the
second set. He was in the danger of getting a drubbing similar to the one, that
he gave Federer in the 2008 French Open
In the third set, Nadal was a break down early and in
the latter half of the set, he got the forehand going. He was also having the
long rallies in the match, go his way. After he won the third set, it was
expected that he would exhaust Djokovic and take the match into the fifth set
Though Djokovic had problems with his lower back on the
left side, he played a destructive game as Nadal was a mute spectator to the
cascade of the shots from his racket. Djokovic not only won the final but also
put it across Nadal tactically
There were two strokes that worked like a dream for
Djokovic- the groundstrokes and the inside-out double handed backhand. His
return of service was as exceptional as Nadal’s serve was poor. Nadal clocked
early 100’s on his first serves. Djokovic feasted on these as he sent the
returns rocketing back to Nadal at half volley length’s at the baseline
Nadal is normally quick to pounce on any sign of fallibility
but here he could not capitalise on the number of unforced error’s committed by
Djokovic in the second set. Djokovic, in fact did not play a perfect match but
then he made sure that Nadal couldn’t rip that forehand of his
When Nadal wanted to get the wide serve going, it
invariably found the net and his forehands, more often than not bounced long.
In the third set, he tried to change the strategy a bit as he didn’t toss the
ball as much. This was because he wanted to reduce the reaction time of
Djokovic and he succeeded to an extent as he was able to hold his serve at
crucial junctures of the third set
By the time the fourth set arrived, it clearly looked
like Nadal ran out of steam. He wasn’t willing enough to chase down the balls
and literally, he was running on empty
If the same trend continues then it isn’t far away from
Nadal’s version of 2009 Australian Open final. This rivalry is a mouth watering
prospect for the next season
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