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I think the two major reasons for Federer's poor record vs Nadal before the end of 2012 was that Roger had started his tennis career playing a pretty different ‘type’ of tennis and Rafa was (almost) the only one to play balls to Roger's weaker side much much more than any ... https://twitter.com/tennisnation/status/1277387284560728070
... other player.
At the start of Federer's career, there were still some ‘serve-and-volley’-ers in the game – it was kind of a transition period from S&V tennis to a more baseline approach.
Even players who rarely engaged in S&V (like Hewitt, Safin) very rarely ...
At the start of Federer's career, there were still some ‘serve-and-volley’-ers in the game – it was kind of a transition period from S&V tennis to a more baseline approach.
Even players who rarely engaged in S&V (like Hewitt, Safin) very rarely ...
... tried to engage in playing long rallies (say, more than 8 ir 10 shots) – I say this after seeing a lot of the full matches that happened in the period from 2000 to 2005 in the last couple of months.
So Federer was realistically used to that type of opponent. ...
So Federer was realistically used to that type of opponent. ...
... And then came Nadal, who definitely had an advantage most of the others did not have (he is a left hander) and more importantly, he could engage in the longest of rallies (from any part of the court – mostly from the baseline) and keep on ...
... hitting 20 shots (mostly forehands) (if required) in a single rally to (mostly) the Federer backhand till he forced an error out of Roger.
Roger's one-handed backhand (which was almost always reactive instead of proactive before his 2017 comeback) almost never worked ...
Roger's one-handed backhand (which was almost always reactive instead of proactive before his 2017 comeback) almost never worked ...
... against Rafa's top-spin forehand. Roger's net approaches did not help him much since Rafa could reach balls more often than not due to his brilliant movement and stamina, and hit really good passing shots for winners. This was in spite of the fact that Federer is a really ...
... good volleyer and net player himself.
All the above holds good for 2005 to 2012 (or maybe till AO 2014). Nadal pushing Federer to 5 sets in the Miami final in 2005 and the Wimbledon final in 2007 are good examples of that. ...
All the above holds good for 2005 to 2012 (or maybe till AO 2014). Nadal pushing Federer to 5 sets in the Miami final in 2005 and the Wimbledon final in 2007 are good examples of that. ...
... Nadal finally winning Wimbledon 2008 and AO 2009 (after that epic semi-final vs Verdasco) were truly amazing! And the AO semi-final wins in 2012 and 2014 were pretty impressive too! ...
... Also, I definitely take my hat off to Roger for his comeback since 2017, and how he has improved and somewhat ‘change’d his backhand game while playing Rafa! Nowadays, he quickly moves forward and takes balls on-the-up (while they are rising) and attacks with his backhand ...
... instead of waiting for the balls to come to him (and hitting them at shoulder height – which is definitely more difficult to execute).
