Rafael Nadal Creates History At Monte Carlo Rolex Masters Open

Rafael Nadal created history by winning Monte Carlo Rolex Masters Open for the seventh consecutive time. He defeated country man David Ferrer 6-4 7-5 in the final. David Ferrer was expected to give Nadal a tough fight after reaching the final without loss of any set.

In his route to the final, David Ferrer had defeated two left handers and was deemed to have had good practice playing with lefties. But in Rafael Nadal he met a lefty who is called the king of clay. David Ferrer had been victorious when they had last met at the Australian Open this year, but that win lacked a bit of merit since Nadal seemed to have contracted an injury which clearly affected his movement on the court. This was therefore the moment when Ferrer could prove that his victory was no flash in the pan. As for Nadal, this was the occasion to show place to the clergy and take sweet revenge for the loss at the Australian Open.

Ferrer conceded five years in age, five ranking places and four inches in height to his famed rival. He tried to make up by overdoing things in the first three games and lost the serve to trail 1-2. More than Nadal, he appeared to be fighting his own demons. First serve was not going in, ground strokes were missing lines or were getting buried in the net and a double fault added to the misery. But he broke back immediately only to falter in the very next service game by playing a drop shot on the break point. Nadal was playing his normal game shorn of any dramatic shots. When Ferrer failed to convert on triple break point opportunity, his cup of misery began to fill up. He steadied himself and stopped playing fancy shots, but by this time, Nadal had found his feet firmly on the ground. Nadal converted the second set point on his own serve to take the first set 6-4.

The second set saw both players playing their natural game at par. Nadal, the better player broke to lead 4-2 and did not press too hard on the opponents serve. He appeared to be confident that holding serve would suffice. But the complacency took its toll and Ferrer broke back to make the score 5-5. But it was just that far Ferrer went. Nadal broke and served out the match at 6-5.

The scene now shifts to Barcelona where the Barcelona Open starts on Monday, the eighteenth.

Tennis: All Time Greats

All sports have personalities who have defined certain moments in the history of the game and left indelible mark. They have successfully strived towards perfection and their endeavour has resulted in great contemporary spectacle. Sometime when two or more of them played in an overlapping era, their rivalry has  become part of tennis folklore. It is difficult to devote a single article to all of them. In the following paragraphs, only some of them have been included without in any way giving an impression that they were greater than those who do not find a place here.

Rod Laver: He was obsessed with developing powerful wrist to execute a powerful game. In an era where top spin was yet to find its groove, he brought in top spin from both forehand and backhand, a novelty in those times. He could volley with firm wrists which gave him a distinct advantage on grass, the surface on which a majority of the tournaments were played. His superiority on the ground strokes as well as the volley gave him profound success over his contemporaries and established him as the player to beat. His two calendar year Grand Slams are the main milestones which establish him as one of the greatest of all time.

Bjorn Borg: He was known as IceBorg for the outward calmness and inward sufferance. The success of his double fisted top spin back hand became a milestone on which many developed and perfected the modern double fisted back hand. With top spin on both the flanks, he developed a solid defence which was difficult to be penetrated by most of the players who sought weakness in the opponents’ back hand. He was able to build upon this defence with superb athleticism being perhaps the best athlete on tennis court. His drive volley and capacity to rush to the net on the fast grass court made him the most successful player at Wimbledon in his times. He was called the king of clay for having captured six titles at the French Open. His record of six French Open titles and three  back to back victories at the French Open and the Wimbledon is yet to be broken. His failure to win the U.S Open in four finals was the biggest disappointment for him. He retired at a young age of 26 after failing to win the U.S Open in 1981.

Pete Sampras: He has been rated as the best server ever by many critics. He could hit an ace on his second serve too. The confidence he had in his serve made him a strong serve and volley player. He had a great forehand on the run and a spectacular overhead smash. He was the last exponent of the great serve and volley game. His constant hunt for an attacking shot put his opponents on perpetual defence. His game was spectacular for many who perceive tennis as an attacking game or for whom attack is the best defence. His failure to win the French Open does not come in the way of his greatness as a champion.

Roger Federer: He is considered a perfect player by pundits. His repertoire of shots, mental strength and natural talent for tennis has earned him a great following both among fans as well as tennis players. He has the rare capacity of hitting winners from any posture and any position. It is difficult to single out any particular shot as his best since all shots combined in a rally make the most powerful winning combination. His anticipation and fluid movement on court adds to his playing strength. There was a time when people will come to watch who could defeat him and subsequently just to watch how his rival would capitulate to him. With his all court and all shot game, he has won a career Grand Slam and is in possession of 16 major titles which is a record at present. It was only after Rafael Nadal came that the weakness of his single fisted backhand against left hander’s forehand with excessive top spin was revealed.

Rafael Nadal: His innovation of heavy top spin to his forehand has reaped him good dividend. With this shot he used to grind his opponents to slow death from the baseline. He won the French Open the very first time he participated in it in 2005. He remained undefeated there until 2009 when he was upset by Robin Soderling. In 2008, he became the first player since Bjorn Borg to carry his success from the red dirt of Roland Garros to the grass of Wimbledon. With victories at the Australian Open in 2009 and the U.S Open in 2010, he became the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam. He has added strong serve, effective net play and a versatile back hand to his game and has graduated into an all court player. He is natural right hander who plays left handed. Some players find him playing with two forehands on either flank.

Comparisons amongst players of the same generations are easy to make since the records will speak for themselves. Winning formula is different for different players, it is difficult to say that one formula is better than the other. Players have different abilities - athleticism, forehand, backhand, first serve, second serve, volley, court craft, anticipation, reflexes, mental strength etc. - in different proportions. If a player has a better winning formula, he is deemed to be a better player than any one who has a weaker formula. If those who have weak backhand convert it into a forehand and win points, it is difficult to pronounce them a lesser player than the loser who might have had a better backhand. If a player makes up for the lack of shot making ability by running like hare and retrieving all the balls to win, he can  not be called an inferior player than the one who lost.

It is however difficult to pitch two players of different era in an imaginary battle to find out who would defeat whom. Players like Laver, Borg, Sampras, Federer and Nadal are generally in the race for an imaginary Greatest Of All Time, but more than that they have contributed certain innovations to the game of tennis which makes them stand apart from others.  

Sony Ericsson Open, Miami: Novak Djokovic Remains Unbeaten, Nadal Looks Forward To Clay For The First Title in 2011

Novak Djokovic continued his unbeaten streak in 2011 to 24-0 by defeating Rafael Nadal in the finals of Sony Ericsson Open at Miami. This was the second time in succession that Nadal lost to Djokovic in the finals of the Masters event having been beaten by him at the Indian Wells a week ago. On both the occasions, Nadal had taken the first set.

Rafael Nadal was in a determined mode. He was running in a way similar to what he does on the clay court, retrieving every ball. Many a time he was forced to go for the lines, and ended up going past the lines. But once he broke Djokovic, he grew more confident with his ground strokes, and it was Djokovic who went for the lines and missed them. Djokovic started hitting very hard hoping to induce forced errors but in such situations, Nadal was content with keeping the ball in play. Nadal was trying to put too much pace on the first serve with the result that he committed two double faults in the first three service games when he tried too hard on his service. Nadal gave up the seventh game on the Djokovic serve perhaps to try closing out the first set on his own serve. That appeared a tactical mistake since Djokovic came out determined in the next game and denied Nadal to take the first set. Winning 13 of the 18 points by hitting as hard as he could, Djokovic brought the score to 4-5 from 2-5 and it was on the racquet of Nadal to once again try to take the first set on his own serve. Nadal was finding it difficult to put the first serve in which went down to 38%. In an evenly contested tenth game, Nadal was able to serve out the first set riding on two forehands into the net by Djokovic. But it was no guarantee for the match yet, since Djokovic had won from a similar position in Indian Wells just a few days before.

In spite of losing the first set, Djokovic had the momentum in his favour. Djokovic broke Nadal in the very first service game and went up 2-0 in the first set. Nadal was standing much behind the baseline and his service returns were falling short sometimes allowing Djokovic to take advantage. Many of his ground strokes too were not that deep. Djokovic on his part was playing deep. His shots were landing invariably at three-fourth the length of court. It was not that Nadal was not winning points. He was, but more often than not, it was Djokovic who stole the big points from Nadal. The second set ended 6-3 in Djokovic favour.

The third set went to the tie breaker. Djokovic did not put a shot out of the court, absorbing all the top spin but Nadal went on offensive taking risks on his back hand. The first five points went against the serve with Nadal serving a double fault to give lead to Djokovic 3-2 on serve. Djokovic consolidated the break at the change over and after. Nadal did not win a single point on serve and Djokovic found himself with 4 set points at 6-2. At that point, Nadal was able to put his first serve in for the first time and hold serve. Djokovic did not falter on the third match point and proved that he is the latest. His days have truly come.

The bad news for Nadal is that he lost at Indian Wells and Miami to Novak Djokovic playing at his best without injury issues. Djokovic has played a better all court game. He has won points on drop shots and lobs too. There is a similarity in the way Nadal has lost to Djokovic in the past one month and Nikolay Davydenko in the past. Both Djokovic and Davydenko play a similar type of game, though Davydenko is more mechanical than Djokovic. There is no single shot in particular which is the demolition shot for Djokovic, but he has no weakness on either flanks. His backhand appears to be becoming as good as that of Marat Safin. It is also clear now that Novak Djokovic is prevailing over Nadal in the baseline game. Midway through the final set, Djokovic had won 54 points in the baseline rallies to 37 by Nadal. With the baseline advantage gone, Nadal is susceptible to errors. His confidence level comes down in the same way Roger Federer’s used to come down when his shots were absorbed by Nadal without difficulty and when the point would not end within first few shots which Federer was used to while playing with others. If Nadal said that the days of his and Federer’s domination were over, he was spot on. For now though, all eyes would be on the clay court season starting Monte Carlo on April 10, 2011. We could be in for surprises.  

Sony Ericsson Open, Miami: Roger Federer Falls To Rafael Nadal In The Semi-Finals

Roger Federer met his nemesis for the 23^rd time in the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami and lost 6-3 6-2. Rafael Nadal is through to the second successive final against the same Novak Djokovic who is on unbeaten streak in 2011.

The match promised much but did not live upto the expectation and fell into predictable path. It appeared that Roger Federer did not have a game plan and was only trying to do the things he does in the best possible ways. He was not allowed to do that by Nadal who was a different player this day. Nothing would exemplify this better than the first serve percentage of 80 he managed to achieve. Roger Federer, on the other hand, did not appear to have the tenacity against the determined Nadal. In his anxiety to convert backhand into forehand, Federer was committing mistakes. Nadal, as usual, was going on  pounding the backhand incessantly. Nadal was winning the baseline points at the rate of 2:1. Federer tried to go to the net for serve and volley and failed in the fifth game. He also tried to hit with power repeatedly instead of slicing with backhand as is his wont these days and committed unforced errors. By the fifth game, Federer was already forced to play at 100% of his capacity which was getting unmanageable for him and he was missing some easy shots like one easy volley in the seventh game. 18 unforced errors was the story of the first set. Nadal’s focus was evident from the percentage of the first serves which stood at 83% in the first set. This was in sharp contrast to 25% he was seen serving at Indian Wells in the last two sets against Djokovic. He won both the break points that came his way in the first set and took the set 6-3.

The second set started going towards a bagel, riding high on the number of unforced errors from Federer’s racquet. In the fourth game, Federer managed to save the first break point in four. He was making unforced errors at the rate of two per game. His first serve percentage dipped in the second set but still it was not the main issue. The main issue was that he did not have the self belief to prevail over his so called nemesis. The match was over in one hour and nineteen minutes.

There is no reason for Federer to be distraught at this juncture. It is not the same situation as in 2008-09 when the defeats at unexpected places reduced him finally to tears at the Australian Open. The expectations are not high from him. He is always the underdog when he goes against Nadal. The same situation is now likely to be there whenever he would step into the court against Novak Djokovic. However, he is not at the same position yet which the great Pete Sampras was in 2002. He will remain in fray atleast till London Olympics with a few more titles.