Can Nadal Get Past Djokovic?

Oscar Borras

Let's face it, beating Novak Djokovic these days is extremely difficult, and especially, or so it seems, for world number two, Rafael Nadal. Nadal has lost seven straight finals to Djokovic, the last one coming at this year's Australian Open. However, that Aussie final was ever so close. Still, Rafa's fans must be asking themselves why can't Nadal beat Djokovic?

It takes thousands of hours and many years of intensive training to develop the technical, physical, and mental skills necessary to become a world class player. We have seen players who are great technically, however, not so great tactically; others with less technical ability who rely on physical strength. In any case, it's all about each player understanding, maximizing, and then taking advantage of his potential.

In Nadal's case, some people commented about a possible lack of technical qualities, when compared to Federer or Djokovic. That may be partially true, however, we cannot conclude that Nadal lacks any technical qualities because, if that were be the case, he wouldn't have achieved the number one ranking on a very competitive men's tour. On the other hand, most people will tell you it's easier getting to number one than staying there week after week. For one thing, the pressures and responsibilities are much greater at the top.

Since Rafa was18 years old, he has been aggressively pursing the title of world number one ranking. From 2005 to 2008 his objective was to beat Roger Federer. You might say that Rafa's game, with its heavy, high bouncing topspin directed into the corner of the ad court was specifically designed to beat then world number one Federer. This was the tactical aspect he used most consistently and against Federer, it was quite successful.

However, from my vantage point, these tactics have turned Rafa into a defensive and counter attacking player. This does not seem to work quite as well against Djokovic, who has evolved technically, tactically, physically, and especially mentally.

Rafa's game was "designed" to put pressure on Roger's one-handed backhand and keep him on the defensive. Against Novak's two-hander, he can't achieve the same results and there in lies the problem.

In interviews with several Spanish players and coaches, the question of how Rafa can beat Novak has been raised, and the vast majority have said that Rafa needs to be more aggressive. Well yes, but none of them actually explain how this is to be done.

So, what does Rafa Nadal have to do to improve his game and beat Novak Djokovic?

The Forehand

In Nadal's case, even though his tactical choices are almost always correct, most of his problems against Djokovic are related to his best shot, his forehand. His problem is mostly related to choosing the right balance between drive and topspin.

The strength of his forehand is made up of two vectors: the speed of the ball and the amount of topspin he imparts. In a straight or flat shot, the strength of the movement is oriented towards gaining speed. Because this shot doesn't cause much of an effect on the ball itself, the ball's path is a straight one and after crossing the net it does not descend nearly as much, therefore the out percentage tends to be higher. These are faster balls, however, they are more risky ones as well.

On the other hand, it is possible to hit a strong topspin shot, in which the ball follows a different path (a curved path) after crossing the net, where some speed is sacrificed for more spin, so that the ball lands safely in the court more consistently.

So, what must Rafa do to improve his forehand and be more aggressive with it?

To begin with, Rafa executes his forehand in two ways, the first is a more aggressive and conventional forehand where the finish is out in front and the across the body which imparts more speed and less spin on the ball.

The second is more of a reverse forehand where the finish is over the head, if not on the same side of the body. This kind of arm action imparts more spin than speed, it produces the kind of high bouncing ball the proved so effective against Federer's backhand.

During match warm ups, Rafa's hits his forehand in the more conventional way, passing his racquet arm in front, however, after starting the game he incrementally increases the percentage of shots over his head (think reverse forehand finish) up to 90%, which is a big mistake because the ball loses speed and Rafa's game also loses efficiency.

At the beginning of his professional career the balance between speed and topspin was better than now, and he rarely ran into this problem. If Rafa is too beat Djokovic consistently, he must correct this problem. He must decrease the use of the reverse forehand to somewhere around 40%. By driving the ball more he can more easily gain control of the points and move Djokovic around the court the way Federer is able to.

The Serve

In October 2009 during the 2009/2010 season I went to Manacor to Rafa's place and spent some time with him and his team working on improving his service.

After explaining and correcting several concepts, his service improved significantly. At the 2010 US Open, Rafa had the international press take notice — everyone wanted to know how Rafa had improved his service speed so much (up some 20%), sometimes going above 200 Km/h. Since that time, however Nadal's service speed has dropped again as old habits crept back into his motion. Currently it is around 175/180 Km/h. These same core concept corrections should be applied again (see the video: Oscar Borras, Uncle Toni, and Rafa: Anatomy of a Service Change).

The Backhand

I have read some of Rafa's declarations saying that he would like to have Djokovic's backhand. Of course, Rafa's not alone here, just about everyone on the ATP tour would like that as well. But in order to achieve that, it is necessary to have the core concepts of this shot clear and understood.

From a technical point of view, Rafa cannot execute this properly because he holds his racquet with an "eastern" grip (right-hand) instead of a "continental" grip. This puts him at somewhat of a disadvantage and actually determines the way his backhand behaves. Because he is right-handed by birth (although he plays tennis as a left-handed player), his "right" has a strong influence on his movements (especially his backhand), which makes him very good at crosscourt shots but limits his ability to go down the line.

Also, he errors tactically when hitting the ball down the line in that he often tries to hit backhand down the line from the wrong area of the court. That is, he hits the ball between the zone I call the "hall" (between the singles line and doubles line), a very low percentage shot. Instead, he should hit the down-the-line from at least one meter inside the singles line. However, from this position, he often avoids this shot, which makes me believe he's not confident enough to try it due his poor percentage rate when hitting the ball from this area.

Approaching the Net

In this part of his game, if anything, Nadal is very predictable. He rarely approaches the net unless it is to put away an easy ball. His lack of forward movement to the net (he is primarily a baseline line player) makes it easier for his opponents to figure out his court positioning throughout a point without worrying that he might move forward unexpectedly

Rafa needs to develop a better feel for the point, coming to the net when there is an opening instead of waiting for the obvious short ball. Rafa’s signature strategy has been to punish his opponent’s from the baseline. Mixing up this strategy by coming to net behind his heavy groundstrokes and using the element of surprise as a tactic would add another dimension to his game. That strategy alone would allow him to win more easy points (even if he lost some). Finishing points at the net using the element of surprise would make him less predictable. Rafa is actually a very fine volleyer. He needs to use that skill and become more of an all court player so he can finish points both form the baseline and the net.

Rafa could keep playing as he currently does without changing a thing and still remain among the top four for years to come. However, the point here is that if he wants to regain the top spot, he must rethink and refocus his game. And that's one man's opinion.

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