{"id":3567,"date":"2013-06-06T13:41:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T13:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/?p=3567"},"modified":"2013-06-06T13:58:26","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T13:58:26","slug":"nadal-djokovic-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/nadal-djokovic-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadal Djokovic Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are set to meet each other in the 2013 French Open semifinals. This has been the predominant rivalry in men\u2019s tennis for a while now and these two definitely bring out the best in each other!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong>Do You Remember The Epic Australian Open Final 2012 ?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span data-mce-mark=\"1\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mm2j1PzOmq0\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">In this post I want to take a look at the keys to the match and and share my thoughts on who will win.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Head To Head<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">First I think it is important to take a quick look at the head-to-head between these two great competitors. Nadal has a slight edge here with 19 victories over Djokovic\u2019s 15.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong>Novak Djokovic has won 7 out of the last 10 matches between these two though and I think the momentum is definitely on Novak\u2019s side!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">On clay the two have a 3-3 record since 2011. Nadal obviously has been almost unbeatable on clay but Novak in my opinion has all the abilities to beat Nadal on clay and he has proven that several times already.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">One last thing to note is that Novak beat Rafa in their only match on clay earlier this year in Monte Carlo 6-2 7-6.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Keys To The Match:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">So what are the keys to this match ? These two are playing at the absolute highest level and I expect another epic battle of the highest quality. In the end I believe it comes down to this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong>Whoever plays aggressive from both sides (forehand and backhand) and doesn\u2019t miss much will win this match!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">And this is exactly the reason why Novak Djokovic has had an edge on Nadal in recent years. Novak manages to play super aggressive his with forehand and backhand whereas Rafael Nadal was oftentimes only able to play aggressive with his forehand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">He sliced a lot of backhands and did not hit his topspin backhands very aggressive!<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Keys For Novak Djokovic:<\/span><\/h4>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span data-mce-mark=\"1\">#1: Stand In Close And Play Very Aggressive<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong>The big key for Novak to this rivalry has been his ability to take Nadal&#8217;s forehand topspin shots early with his backhand, positioned well inside the court.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">From this position he can take balls on the rise either down the line or cross-court to really open up the court and he has been able to hurt Nadal significantly with this strategy!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">This allows him to execute an overall aggressive game plan, where he remains close to the baseline and oftentimes finds himself well inside the court!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong>Here Is A Typical Rally Dominated By Novak Djokovic:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-mce-mark=\"1\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ppKEZu7kCPw\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">No other player on tour has been able to do this with Nadal&#8217;s heavy forehand topspin shots on a regular basis!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span data-mce-mark=\"1\">#2: Punish Nadal For Runnind Around The Backhand Too Much<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Nadal runs around his backhand excessively on clay, oftentimes leaving the court completely open. It does not cause him much trouble against most players because they are not able to attack Nadal&#8217;s high bouncing forehand shots, even when they land short.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Djokovic is a different animal though because he has managed to attack those shots relentlessly with his forehand and backhand. This requires a lot of courage because Nadal&#8217;s forehand shots do bounce extremely high but Djokovic has the confidence to do it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">So Djokovic needs to be looking to do this over and over again. Take those shots on the rise whenever possible and hit into the open court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">#3: Look To Take Balls Out Of The Air To Finish Points<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">When you manage to control the rally against Nadal you still have to finish him off and that is extremely difficult. One strategy to get it done is to take balls out of the air. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Djokovic has done this a bit in the past but I believe he could make even better use of this strategy, looking to hit topspin volleys and finishing off those points where Nadal is already way behind the baselin!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">#4: High First Serve Percentage To Nadal\u2019s Backhand<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Starting the rally off on offense is a big key to this match-up and it is also difficult to win free points off of your first serve. As a result, I think it makes a lot of sense for Djokovic to hit lots of first serves to Nadal&#8217;s backhand, focusing on a relatively high first serve percentage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Nadal is not very confident in his backhand return and oftentimes leaves it short around the service line.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Keys For Rafael Nadal:<\/span><\/h4>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#1: Hit Confident Topspin Backhand Shots<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Nadal has been hitting way too many slice backhand shots against Novak Djokovic and oftentimes he does not seem to have the confidence to hit lots of aggressive two-handed backhands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>The big key for Nadal is to avoid the slice backhand and hit confident topspin backhand shots throughout the entire match!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#2: Do Not Run Around The Backhand Too Much<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This is closely related to the first key for Nadal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Nadal needs to run around his backhand less and hit his backhand with confidence so that the court geometry works more in his favor.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The way he played in the past, Nadal had to do a lot more running and Djokovic controlled the centre of the court. To change that Nadal needs to run around the backhand less!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#3: Stand In Closer To The Baseline<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">As a result of #1 and #2, Nadal should be able to stand in closer than usual and take control of more baseline rallies. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#4: Attack The Djokovic Forehand<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Nadal is used to hitting heavy topspin shots to his opponents backhand until he gets a short ball. Unfortunately for him, that strategy does not work very well against Djokovic because of his excellent backhand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>Nadal should try to hit more aggressive shots to the Djokovic forehand wing. This would surprise Novak a bit and his forehand is also slightly vulnerable under lots of time pressure.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#5:\u00a0<span data-mce-mark=\"1\">Serve To The Djokovic Forehand More Than Usual<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Nadal is used to serving to opponents backhands and then taking control of the rally with his forehand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Again this does not work very well against Novak because his backhand return is probably the best in the game. Novak&#8217;s returns are weaker on the forehand wing (against first serves) and that&#8217;s why Nadal should hit lots of first serves to Djokovic&#8217;s forehand!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">#6: Try To Hit Some Backhand Winners<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">In my opinion, Nadal&#8217;s goal should be to hit at least a couple of backhand winners in every set. That will put him in the right mindset with the backhand and get him out of his standard strategy that has not been working that great against Novak.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">My Prediction<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span data-mce-mark=\"1\"> Even though the bookies think differently, I believe Djokovic is the favorite to win this match. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">He was in superb form against Tommy Haas and he has a proven strategy to beat Nadal. If Djokovic plays at his highest level, which I expect in this match, then he has a very good chance to win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>What Do You Think About The Match ? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/ad.retargeter.com\/seg?add=742370&#038;t=2\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are set to meet each other in the 2013 French Open semifinals. This has been the predominant rivalry in men\u2019s tennis for a while now and these two definitely bring out the best in each other! Do You Remember The Epic Australian Open Final 2012 ? In this post I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinetennisinstruction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}