Henk Abbink Reporting From Courtside At Final In Monte Carlo

Henk, I remember the same thing happened when Nadal played Djokovic at the US Open once. Nadal was suddenly serving very slowly and the rumor was that he had injured a stomach muscle but he never mentioned it. This is the way to do it. He doesn’t do excuses and I never make excuses when my favorite players lose. Esp. since injuries are so common in tennis.

Here’s a different slant on Rafa’s injury and this match, Rafa is getting more and more injury prone. I don’t know if this is because of the knee or whatever, but we may not see a 100 per cent Rafa at the end of a big Masters Series event or slam.

Let’s remember, Djoko was the guy who came in injured in this event. His ankle was supposed to be a problem earlier in the event, but he looked flawless today. In the last few years, Nadal, even with his six month absence and skipping events like Miami, has looked like the more haggard player. When Djoko was dominating him in 2011, Nadal, especially in Miami, looked like the spent player while Djoko looked fresh.
This may become the dynamic of this epic rivalry and not the exception.

Maybe not, but the Tennis Channel commentators were mentioning Djoko’s ankle in his first couple of matches and Nadal tweaking his back, these kind of injuries happen all the time to tennis players. They shrug it off, have their trainers work on it. I don’t really buy that Nadal wasn’t at 100 %. My take is that just like Murray grabbing his hamstring all the time, once Djoko asserted his dominance over Nadal in that first set, Nadal’s back might’ve started feeling more tight.

I’m not saying Nadal can’t beat Djoko on the clay or elsewhere, but I also don’t think that was a diminished Nadal we were seeing yesterday.

Dan, you obviously didn’t read what I wrote as it seems more important to be right and/or vent what you may have against Rafa. There’s no right or wrong. Just observations and neither Rafa nor his team are trying to find excuses/reasons. If you really think Rafa was at 100% fine. You don’t have to “buy” anything and if you also think Rafa’s serving and level of confidence during his last 3 matches was business as usual, fine too. He won those two matches prior not playing at 100%. From where I was sitting, at times only 3 ft away, I had every chance to observe both Novak and Rafa from very close by. Novak blasted Rafa from the court in those first 5 games, but the dynamics were about to change during games 6,7 and 8. Novak cleverly and confidently prevailed a 5-3 score as that would have brought Rafa right where Novak didn’t want him. As a matter of fact Novak started both touching his ankle and his shoulder after it looked like – just for a moment – that Rafa was finding his game. Rafa squandered the 2nd set. It was his for the taking, but again kudos to Novak for staying fully focused. There was no drama from Rafa’s end at any point during the match and he gave all credit to Novak. Novak played great, Rafa didn’t and that’s why IMO it was not the final many hoped it would be – tenniswise.

I finally saw the tie break. It was mostly Nadal making errors. Unfortunately when these two play it goes like that. Who will make the first error.

At lease Federer goes for winners. I need more contrast and more shot making.

Well, before Djoker was #1 Novak used to go for more winners. He played a more exciting brand of tennis, at least to me. This is a match-up of who can more stubbornly play defense. Not as bad as Murray vs. Djoker but not the shot making some of us like to see.

From what I saw Djoker’s return of serve just crushed Nadal. Immediate pressure. Was Nadal serving slowly? I couldn’t really tell from just watching the tie break but I’ll take Henk’s word for it.

“you must first establish defense before taking offensive risks” Did Rosol do this? Did Sampras win 14 slams this way? NO. IMHO, a player must utilize their innate strengths. For these guys, when they play each other, it’s running side to side.

Watch the Rosol match again Scoop. He did not run side to side too much. He kept those rallies very short, taking away Nadal’s game with extreme offense. You must admit, it was a more riveting match to watch.

That’s just nuts Scoop 🙂 Please never advise Rosol on how to play!

What I do for a living these days is look at bodies, adjust bodies, assess bodies, as a yoga teacher. I see hundreds of different bodies every week. If you look at Djoko’s body, it is the perfectly-constructed body. He doesn’t have any torque forward from his hips to his head. If you look at Nadal, even though he’s also supremely built, you’ll see more muscular rounding in the shoulders which could put pressure on his lower back. Even Federer, who has a great body, has a bit of a concave chest and upper back which could cause lower back problems.

So it doesn’t surprise me that Nadal is having injury problems while Djoko has remained more injury-free. No one has the balance that Djoko has. Of course, bodies can’t always predict injury. Who’d have thought Lendl would develop a bad back as he was a physical specimen and so fit and JMac is basically injury-free at 54? Who’d have thought Connors, other than the fact he played so long and sent his body into the ball in vicious contortions, would have to get both hips replaced?

I like to read comments about matches, but sometimes, I really have the impression I didn’t watch the same match.

E.g., I tried to notice the speed of Rafa’s serve. It wasn’t always possible, but the few times I could see the part of the court where the speed was shown, the numbers were 195, 205, 202 kmh.

Then, about the FH. It seemed to me that Rafa was very aggressive with this shot, but, in the first set especially, he managed to hit so few from a clear position, when he wasn’t chasing CC BH. In the second, he hit a few InsIn FH, very deep, but Novak managed to get those balls and return them CC. Rafa was already playing very deep, and he made a few errors after that.

What I also noticed is that the spin affected not only Novak, but Rafa also in that second set. Just watch it again: Novak started to put some vicious spin on his CC FH, and Rafa missed a lot of BH. It was already noticeable at the AO: Djokovic improved his kick serve, and is able to play with much more spin than the previous years. I think it could be related with a racquet improvement, but I am not certain.

To me, it is the main reason why Rafa wasn’t able to redirect consistently his BH DTL. He played that shot too short, too long, too high, so he reverted to play it CC in the second set, and had more success.

But, overall, it was a one man show. The way Rafa broke in that second set, and the way he was broken (especially at 6-5) is the tell of the tape: Novak made the errors and the winners both time.

When I compare this match with their encounters in 2011, it seems to me that both players have improved: Rafa pulls the trigger much faster and is more aggressive (just look at the depth of his FH in the second set), Novak has more juice in all his shots, especially in his CC BH and his FH DTL or InOut.

Finally, the only thing I noticed about Rafa is that he seemed to slide less than he usually does, but there could be a lot of different reasons for that, from a bad back to a wet surface.

You said that last year.

Look for Fed to strike back. Don’t discount the Fed.

The pair with the most matches between them (Open Era) is Lendl-Mcenroe (36). Djokovic and Nadal need to play each other just 3 more times to break the record.