Tennis - Why Nadal troubles Federer

For Roger Federer fans it has become more and more common to see their star falter against the irrepressible Spaniard, Rafael Nadal.

This though is not a sudden occurrance. Various factors have led to this situation.

Before Nadal, Federer had no serious competition

Not taking anything away from Federer's obviously great tennis skills, truth is, he was never tested by a quality opponent once he got onto his golden run of Slams. When he won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships, there was no Sampras, Agassi was aging fast, Safin as history will show, was too inconsistent and overrated.

Contrast this with Pete Sampras. He started his run of dominance with the 1993 Wimbledon Championships. Lendl, Becker, Edberg were still around. Jim Courier and Michael Chang were tough too. And then there was a resurgent Andre Agassi. Of these, Becker, Agassi, Courier and Chang stayed on the circuit overlapping Sampras career for significant periods. Then there were the dark horses Goran Ivanisevic, Carlos Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Nadal was not awed Federer

Nadal has approached each Federer match with the intent of beating him. He is a modern day Jimmy Conners, never cowed down by superior opponents. Unlike other players, he is not psychologically beaten in advance by Federer. Federer has to actually defeat him on the tennis court.

Nadal has skills to hurt Federer

Nadal has his own special skills. These are unique to him as a group though other players may possess one or the other. What are these?

Heavy topspin left handed forehand

Nadal hits probably the heaviest topspin in tennis. Heavy topspin causes a tennis ball to dip just before its natural trajectory. So, it drops a few feet before it would without topspin. This change in depth causes three problems. One is it makes judging depth very difficult for the opponent. Second, it opens more acute angles. Third it pushes the opponent deeper from the baseline.

Add to this the fact that a left handed Nadal can relentlessly attack Federer on the backhand. This opens up a weakness as errors pile up on this side for Federer.

Federer has a great forehand himself, but while Nadal has developed a consistent backhand to counter it, Federer has struggled on this front.

Superior mobility on the court

Federer is great at setting up a points in rallies and finish them. Nadal is the quickest mover on a tennis court. So Federer needs a couple of shots more to finish a point compared to his other opponents. This adds a slight frustration to his game which builds up in pressure situations. The probablity of errors goes up.

High percentage tennis

Nadal is one of the greatest defensive players around. He is a bigger, faster Michael Chang with a better backhand and a vastly superior forehand. His first serve percentage is usually good @70% and his unforced error rates are quite low. So, usually though Federer has more winners especially with his superior serve, he loses those gains as his errors (some due to reasons mentioned above) exceed Nadal's.

Continuous improvement

Nadal has constantly improved and added to his game. Federer has stagnated albeit at his very high level. This is more due to lack of opponents who were is true equal than anything else. So after a peak run, that level has dropped slightly. This has not affected him against all his other opponents. But, with Nadal, this slight drop is not so small. This along with an improving Nadal has led to a turnaround in the rivalry.

Federer's psychological makeup

As defeats have piled up against Nadal first on the clay courts, then on grass and now finally on courts, Federer is getting seriously affected by his nemesis. Add to that the fact that Federer is on the brink of statistical greatness to join Sampras and Nadal has already started reaching a good number, there is more pressure. When Sampras went for his 13th Slam, the next highest was Agassi on 7 and already close to retirement. Nadal is on 6 and just 22 yrs. So, here is someone who could just take Federer's greatness (atleast by numbers) away within a short period.

Conclusion

This is probably the most intriguing rivalry in men's tennis. Never before in modern tennis has the world's current dominant tennis player been so dominated by his rival, in his period of domination (2003 to 2008). Federer will not only have to regain his old level, but have a few additional tricks to derail his great rival when they meet to battle it out the next time.