Archive for: clay
Although nearly everyone would put their house on Nadal to win his 5th straight French Open title, Robin Soderling is one of the dark horses that he should be wary of.
Nadal beat him so convincingly a few weeks ago in Rome 6-1, 6-0 and is 3 and 0 in head to head results against Soderling but there has been some fierce rivalry between these two which started at this very tournament in the first round of 2006 in which Nadal clinically won in straight sets.
The tension between these two esculated at Wimbledon 2007 in a match that was played out over 3 days due to the weather. There was alot of niggling going on from Soderling in response to the time Nadal took between points and also some of his mannerisms. There was no love lost here between the two and Nadal went on to win 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5. This to me proved there was enough fire inside the belly of Soderling to take revenge and upset the world number one on what could be described as his very own court having never lost a match on it and over the course of the last four years only losing 7 sets from 31 matches.
The key to this victory could be put down to many things like Nadal not at his best or Nadal had peaked too soon this year winning so many titles already on the red surface, but the two things that really stood out for me in this match was (1) Soderling believed in himself and his game plan and (2) he went out there to make Nadal work and put him more on the defensive by hitting more to the strength of Nadal (forehand) and then exposing more of his weaker side in the backhand.
Roger Federer has stunned Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 to win the Madrid Masters event yesterday. Rogers win against Rafael ended a five match, 18 month lising stream against the Spaniard. That run included three Grand Slam titles and ended Nadal’s 33 match winning streak on clay, which streaches back over a year to the Rome second round in 2008.
Federer heads into the French Open in a week’s time with a huge confidence boost after finally defeating the man who stripped him of his Wimbledon title last summer.
Nadal, who had won clay-court titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome this year, was visibly jaded from his semi-final the day before, when he needed over four hours to defeat Novak Djokovic. It was one match too many for the top seed, who was unable to squeeze motivation or power out of a weary body after complaining of problems with his knees in that marathon encounter.
“I think this (fast clay) favoured Roger,” said Nadal, who has won nine of 11 clay meetings against his rival.
“He deserved this victory more than I did. He played well. I wasn’t able to play aggressively enough.”
Nadal and Federer, who have contested the last three French Open finals, both head to Paris with the Spaniard hoping to regain his powers after playing and winning for three of the last four weeks on his favoured surface.
Federer won €585,000 ($1.05 million) and a car as he extracted some revenge in the pair’s first meeting since the Australian Open final five months ago which ended with him reduced to tears.
“I’m sorry to have beaten a Spaniard on your court, I’m sorry to spoil the party,” he told tournament director and former great Manolo Santana on the showcase court named in his honour.
The Spaniard’s defeat was only his fifth on clay over 155 matches dating back to 2005.
American tennis players have approached the clay court season with a lot of fear and U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe believes that the surface is the key to unearthing the next American champion.
“If you develop players more on clay … they will become better all-court players, even … better fast-court players,” McEnroe said during a conference call on Tuesday. “The way the game has changed with the technology, the rackets, the strings, the athleticism and the speed you have to learn how to build the point and play with spin, play with angle, take the ball early. You basically have to do it all.
“We’re not teaching our players to be clay-courters. We’re not going to change into a clay-court nation anytime soon. But we certainly feel it is a huge part of the developmental process for kids to become all-around players,” he said.
While McEnroe would like to see younger players embrace more of the clay-court game, he acknowledges it comes at the expense of the attacking, aggressive style favored by Americans on the lightning-quick hard courts.
“Most of our great American players are attacking players; we don’t want to take that away as our mentality,” said McEnroe. “We want to keep that. But at the same time we want our kids to know how to build points better, use all the court better and how to be fitter.
“If you play on clay you will automatically get fitter because you play more balls and you have to create more shots rather than going for broke all the time,” he said.
The USTA has invested close to $15 million a year in regional training centers and coaching initiatives to help find and develop players to arrest that slide.
“The rest of world has caught up,” said McEnroe. “We believe we’ve been lacking in having a systematic approach to how we teach our kids overall, a coaching philosophy. We’re reaching out to as many coaches with the philosophy we have when it comes to understand how to play tennis as opposed to how to hit the ball.
“I don’t believe that you can necessarily create a champion but you can create an environment where you’re setting yourself up to find champions easier,” he said. “We’re trying to find players we think can become legitimate professionals and we believe that in the long run the more players you have there the better chance you are going to have finding the next Pete Sampras.”
The WTA players are in Stuttgart, Germany this week for the first major stop on the European clay court swing. Just like all the other events in Europe this time of year, the tournament is on red clay. Unlike all the other events, though, this one is indoors. This Stuttgart event used to be part of the ever-dwindling Autumn European indoor season, but as part of Larry Scott’s “Roadmap 2009,” the event has been moved to April. Because of the change in season, the event has changed their indoor hard court into an indoor clay court, the only one on the WTA Tour.
The player response so far has been positive. Argentine Gisela Dulko, who upset Victoria Azarenka here, said that it was nice to play on her favorite surface without having to worry about managing the wind or the sun. It is unlikely that she would have had to deal with blazing sun, but the indoor court does mean that this weekend’s impending showers will not be an issue.
On the other hand, having seen several of the matches in Stuttgart so far, there is something unnervingly sterile about the way the court is playing. There is no wind swirling the clay around, no sun illuminating the red court, no movement of any kind. Playing on clay is not just about being on another physical surface, it is about contending with the elements and finding a creative way to win when none of the circumstances are cooperating. Players who love clay talk about how the surface is unique because it feels so organic, but moving it indoors can only make it more artificial. Watching Jelena Jankovic dismantle Dominika Cibulkova in the first round, I could not help but think that the match might as well have been on a hard court. It was missing that special challenge.
Name: Raphael Nadal
Country: Spain
Birthplace: Manacor, Mallorca
Residence: Manacor, Mallorca
Plays: Left Handed (Double Handed Backhand)
Highest Singles Ranking: 2 (25-Jul-05)
Highest Doubles Ranking: 26 (8-Aug-05)
Scouting: Everyone knows who Raphael Nadal is. He is the current 4 times champion of the French Open, but not only is he dominant on his favourite surface clay, but his game is improving every year on all of the other surfaces. This is currently being shown when he has already reached the Wimbledon final twice.
What most people dont know is that Rafa used to play double handed on both sides so normally most players try to attack his backhand, but this is a lot more consistent that his forehand. Rafa likes to play at a consistent depth on the baseline so movement within your ground shots is vital. Plus you would really need to serve well because his return of serve is so important to his game. When playing Nadal the only chance you have is to keep points very short, try to hit one big shot in each rally and of course you must capitalise on it. Mixing up length of shots is important and also trying to bring him to net whenever possible. Rafa is one of the greatest clay court players I have seen in a long time, but his game on other surfaces can break be broken down, but definitely not easily.
