Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in one of the best Grand Slam finals of all-time. The match was actually the longest Grand Slam final in the history of the game, with a duration of 5 hours and 53 minutes. Djokovic won 5:7 6:4 6:2 6:7 7:5
Djokovic was clearly the better player throughout this match, but Nadal ended up almost winning the match anyways because of his incredible mental toughness and fighting spirit!
Rafa is clearly the greatest fighter I have ever seen on the tennis court! Djokovic dominated most of the rallies and Nadal was way behind the baseline for most of the match. Nevertheless, Rafa did not get frustrated and kept fighting back, hitting incredible winners from defensive positions!
Nadal has now lost the last 7 matches against Djokovic and it is obvious that Novak is the better player at this point.
The only way for Nadal to beat Djokovic is to stay in closer to the baseline and play more aggressive! Rafa knows this but has not been able to put a more aggressive game plan into action!
So why can’t he manage to play more aggressive and beat Novak Djokovic ?
The 2 Reasons Why Nadal Loses To Djokovic
1. Nadal’s backhand is too weak on average
Nadal has been struggling with his two-handed backhand and this is in my opinion the main reason why he hasn’t been able to play more aggressive and beat Novak Djokovic!
His backhand lands short a majority of the time and as a result he started slicing a lot. His slice is not very good either though and this just puts Djokovic in the driver’s seat!
2. Nadal is too used to playing far behind the baseline
Rafael Nadal has spend his entire tennis career playing pretty far behind the baseline and he has been very successful with this approach. This makes it extremely difficult for him to stand closer to the baseline, which is what he needs to do against Djokovic.
Many players that were successful in their junior years playing a rather defensive game are not able to change this approach later in their career even though they know they should be playing more aggressive. Nadal has won a lot of matches by getting a lot of balls back and playing percentage Tennis. His tendency will always be to stick with this approach and only with a very conscious effort can he overcome that.
Watch The Highlights Of Nadal Djokovic
Watching the match you get the feeling that Djokovic is dominating a large percentage of the points and Nadal is trying to defend most of the time. This is not the way Nadal is going to start beating Djokovic!
Nevertheless, Nadal has proven many times in his matches against Djokovic that he can stay in closer and play aggressive!
He seems to be able to do so only for short periods of time though!
So what could Nadal do to turn things around ?
In order to turn things around Nadal needs to develop some real confidence in his backhand. He needs to get comfortable hitting through the shot again and really going for it. In order to achieve something like that you have to create drills and situations that force you to do practice the right things!
Here are a few drills that could help him:
1. Play practice sets where he is not allowed to run around the backhand and also where he is not allowed to slice the backhand. I do this a lot with my students that need to improve their backhands. Basically the idea is to create drills or situations where you are forced to hit topspin backhands and develop some real confidence in the shot!
2. Play practice sets where he is not allowed to retreat way behind the baseline. Oftentimes I will put a line maybe 5 to 6 feet behind the baseline and tell my students they are not allowed to go behind it. This forces them to stay closer to the line and play more aggressive!
For more detailed information on the rivalry between these two players see my article: Djokovic Nadal Rivalry
