Looking Ahead at the US Open: Potential Nadal / Del Potro Semifinal Matchup

My answer will be short because it's pretty late at night...or early morning, however you see it. The shot that helped Federer win the Madrid final was the backhand slice. He hasn't been using it too much in the past a with that shot being used, it didn't allow Nadal to be as aggresive with his forehad as he usually is. I predict a Federer - Nadal final. Del Potro won in Montreal (I was at the match), but I think that if Nadal can be fit for the match, Del Potro won't be able to beat him in a 5 seter.

Karel

del potro only won because rafa was not healed 100%. Nadal will beat del potro and i think that will be very entertaining to watch the Federer-Djokovic semi . Hope it will be close not like in the last rogers final

so like agree with you

Federer was much more aggressive with his serve, and particularly his second serve in that match. Nadal was making weaker returns and he jumped on them and kept points short by taking those returns earlier and approaching the net, especially off the forehand return. Nadal forehand return has a tendency to bounce shorter in the court, but because of the ridiculous amount of topspin, it bounces high and deep, so a lot of the time players end up hitting it from a neutral position. Federer took those returns on the rise and hit them aggressively.
Another thing federer did was not hit his slice backhand as much. He usually hits it crosscourt, into what is most players' backhands. But since nadal is a lefty fed's slice goes right into Nadal's forehand. Even though the slice keeps the ball low, Nadal can hit his forehand pretty aggressively because his crazy topspin will bring the ball back down into the court.
Federer played really well that day, and didn't let up at all the entire time. The combination of aggressiveness of serves and service games and lack of slice backhand, and the fact that he stuck with what was working won him that match

Sometimes winning a tennis match is more about what you didnt do, than what you did do. Let me start off by saying Roger Federer is by far the most safisticated tennis player the world has ever seen. There are a few things in tennis that hold true, percentages. Now in reality all you have to do to win a tennis match is find a way to win the most points. Sounds easy enough. So the real question is how do i put myself in a possion to win the most points? That is the question in this match.
How did Federer win? Did he slice more, more loops, backhands down the line? exc...
It happens to be none of the above. Nadal dominates from the corners! It dosent matter who he is playing if he gets a ball in the corner he going to win that point over and over and over again. But at the same time Federer dominates from the corners as well. So weres my Answer? Federer has a more well rounded game than nadal, he vollys better, he serves better, he has more varity... ect.. Federer wins the majority of the points over nadal in a number of different possions on the court. Nadal kills federer with the cross court. BUT... That is the only thing nadal has going for him. All federer Did was keep the ball in the middle of the court, or to nadals backhand. Because nadal cant hit a crosscourt angle to feds backhand from the middle of the court! Federer simply took away the one possion on the court that nadal dominates from. And guess what happened, Fed won in strate sets. Without nadal winning 80% of the cross court battles he cant win. Its really that simple, federer is a far seperior player than nadal in all assets, than one, it just took hin 3 years to figure out that sometimes less is really more.

Federer basically attacked Nadal's Backhand instead of both of Nadal's wing.Since Federer was attacking,Nadal was being pushed back few feet from the baseline.Thus,Federer would use his lethal dropshot while Nadal was few feet behind the baseline.Nadal had to run for the dropshots when he was few feet behind the baseline.The dropshot he used was effective.He did not use his slice backhand often as Nadal would be able to return it.He used his topsin backhand which is faster and which kicked high on clay while the slice lies low and it travels slow.Federer occasionally comes to the net to break Nadal's rythem.Federer serves to Nadal's backhand with his slice serves to take Nadal off court and come in for the volley finish.There was one point when Federer just attacks Nadal's backhand consecutively for 3 times and it works.Federer hit his forehands and backhands deeper into the courts and takes his balls on the rise to limit Nadal's time to react.Federer hits his balls away from Nadal instead of hitting back towards him.Nadal has to run to get the ball and the pain on his knees adds pressure to Nadal.Federer was maybe trying to make Nadal bend his knees with his attacking style of play.Federer apply his attacking play instead of usual defensive play.He came with a mind that he would win Nadal once again.

It was a combination of new approaches that Federer used. Not necessarily in this order, he did the following:
--In situations when he would normally have been expected to serve to the backhand--and in expectation of this Nadal was leaning backhand--Federer served to the forehand, Nadal's stronger side. And he used this tactic in successive points, thereby introducing a new unpredictability.
--Federer also came to net early in the match and did so successfully, thereby introducing that as a viable weapon in the match. Thereafter even faking a charge of the net altered Nadal's behavior.
-Federer all but abandoned his backhand slice, hitting almost none of a shot Nadal had previously been able to attack--and instead favored the topspin backhand to Nadal's backhand when possible.
--During rallies, Federer played more often and aggressively--even in counterintuitive situations--to Nadal's backhand, thus reducing the offensive opportunities Nadal usually enjoys with his heavy topspin forehand and interrupting his strategy to set up favorable angles.

Technical changes:
Fed hitting extra TOPSPIN DEEP pass the service line rather than the way he used to, which is go for more ball speed, bounce lower and short into the court to create sharper angles.

Tactical changes:
1) use less slice, nadal is able to rip slow, less pace and various bounce balls with he great footwork and setup.
2)squeeze nadal's backhand. Deep and high bounce to nadal's backhand, as long as the ball rises, NOONE can attack it. Nadal was not able to create sharp angles if he couldn't take the ball on the top or lower than shoulder height with his backhand.
3)Attack conservatively. especially on his insideout-forehand, Fed still went for ball speed BUT make the ball land deeper(pass the service line) rather than short and sharp angles, if he was not confident to one-shot Nadal. This avoids Nadal counterattack, pull an wider angle with his huge amount of topspin.
4) All those above keep Nadal away from his comfort contact zone/point. If Nadal still tries to create the same top spin hook forehand under those conditions, there's great risk to make mistakes. Nadal plays the best percentage tennis, it's almost written that he wouldn't take this risk to donate points.
5) The guy who knows Nadal the best is his rival, Federer. He knows Nadal won't hit those hooks, Fed can confidently stand more toward to his backhand side when rallying. And if Nadal really hit to Fed's forehand in an rally, most likely Nadal is going to miss or hit an neutral shot. So, it's harmless or Fed could pull the trigger with his forehand.

Federer camped out on his backhand side to keep himself from getting pulled off the court. He also kept aiming at Nadal's backhand, which is Nadal's weaker stroke and has much less topspin than his forehand. Nadal would aim his shots to Federer's backhand, but because Federer was camped out on the backhand side, Federer would either hit deep inside-in forehands or deep topspin drive backhands down-the-line to Nadal's backhand, keeping Nadal from running around his backhand to hit his forehand. Nadal did not hit crosscourt to Federer's forehand because hitting to Federer's forehand is one of the fastest ways to lose the match. This allowed Federer to keep Nadal honest and on the defensive, so Federer could choose when to pull the trigger and hit an inside-out forehand. When Federer did this, the inside-out forehand was either a winner or a defensive crosscourt reply from Nadal. If Nadal was able to get to the shot, Federer could either hit the next shot into the open court with a drive or volley, or hit a drop shot down-the-line, because Nadal was far behind the baseline and would have had to run further since he was diagonally from the drop shot, so Nadal would not be able to retrieve it. This strategy was Federer's reason for his victory.

Quiz answer
First, I want you to know I am not interested in the prize; I am just trying out and see if I was right.

I'll explain briefly a rally settlement so you understand my point correctly.

Usually, tennis is played diagonally. Remember the easiest ball to hit is the one following the same path it followed prior impact. This is why people tend to play Forheand to forehand, backhand to backhand or inside-out to backhand.

You want to play the rally that gives you an edge. In order to change the rally direction, players aim down the line. The standard response is a Cross-court, hence why they mostly play slower, but heavier balls down the line when they want to change the order.

Here what is special is that Nadal is a lefty which means the standard is always forehand to backhand.

Now, as you explained his game is about pulling you off the court, giving high bouncing balls and controlling the rally direction to get his forehand on a righty's backhand.

What Federer has done? He neutralized Nadal's forehand. About each forehand Nadal was using was played in a difficult position, on the run... it couldn't be very offensive and wasn't any damageable to Federer's game.

How has he done it?
3 things.

He served almost exclusivly to Nadal's backhand.
He used his Backhand and inside-out Forehand mostly down the line.
He made Nadal run and came in often.

At the first set, 1-0 (0-0), Federer served a slice. He came in right away and used a forehand drive volley right in the opposite corner. The next point, 15-0, He serve a kicker as his first serve right to Nadal's backhand. He idmediatly follwoed the ball and cleared it in the opposite corner. 30-0, He tries the slice serve and volley, but this time, Nadal succeeded at running to the ball.

At this point, Nadal understood Federer was going to serve to his backhand. 30-15, Federer serves about body, a bit on Nadal's backhand. Nadal runs around and hits inside-out to Federer's forehand. Here, Federer will do what he never used to against Nadal: he plays it back to Nadal's backhand, exactly on the side Nadal is standing.

This opens the Down the line. Nadal tries to change the direction on his second backhand. But, Federer was already replaced and had time to run around. He goes for a Inside-out down the line. Then, when Nadal is well placed there, he goes inside-out cross-court, Nadal wasn't well positionned and he sent a short ball. Federer attacks on the open court and win the point.


This point represent well the story of the game. Despite the positionning disadvantage it might have created, Federer continued to ATTACK Nadal's backhand very deeply. Pushed behind, off his backhand, Nadal was either forced to aim for the center, try a very risky shot he will miss more often than he succeeded at trying or he ran around. Of course, running around your backhand of Federer's forehand isn't fairly easy. You have lesser time and it was almost impossible in this position, this far behind, either inside- out or on his backhand to aim for the blue box in the cross-court.

Then, stays the option for Federer's backhand corner. But, the Swissis in control, already commited his position to run around or go down the line. He is standing in the second blue box on this side.


By establishing a parrallele pattern rather than a diagonal one and by consistantly risking his position to attack Nadal's backhand, he forces Nadal to play his game.

Why Federer won? Because he has adapted Nadal's strategy to his game and showed Rafael his own receap, Federer's style.

You ask how he negates Nadal's ability to attack the blue box? He is almost standing in one of them, he plays down the line and aim at Nadal's backhand. It is almost impossible for Nadal to play an attacking shot that goes out enough on Federer's backhand side and he couldn't make a good cross-court attack off such balls.

it video is useless beacause gonzalez is going to win.

you wish xD

Federer won because of several reasons:

1. Aggressiveness from the back in the court. In matches past, particularly last year's Wimbledon, there were points where Federer was somewhat conservative in his ball striking from the back of the court, with emphasis on his forehand. When Federer was conservative with his forehand, he looked to have no control in the point whatsoever and could not dictate play. In Madrid, he was extremely offensive with his groundstrokes. His aggressiveness reeled in alot of short balls from Nadal which virtually gave him the point.

To more directly answer your question, asking about court positioning, was Federer's strategy from the baseline.
He took away the angles by not giving him angles! He rallied from the back by keeping the ball deep but *not giving him angles*. Instead of going for corners, he kept the ball deep in a more linear fashion. A coach once gave me a great piece of advice concerning angles, which is *Every angle sets up another angle*. He didn't allow Nadal to hit those tricky lefty short angles by not giving him any. He kept the ball deep, but yet didn't swing it to those wide angles that would give Nadal the opportunity to create another angle that would give Nadal an opportunity to use it to create another one. An important reason Nadal's game is so deadly is his anglework. Because Nadal hits with so much topspin, the angle shots he hits are going to kick away from the court and pull his opponent out of position more than anyone else in the game. If you take away Nadal's ability to utilize his angles to pull opponents at his advantage, than you're in control. Federer did exactly that. The only time Federer swung the angles is when he was in absolute control of the point, not during rallying. In short, Federer didn't give Nadal any angles to work with at all, thereby taking away one of Nadal's strengths.

He also exploited Nadal's backhand, which was sub-par at Madrid. He really looked to attack it, especially with the serve.

Federer also demonstrated incredible variety. He never gave Nadal a particularly pattern to work with at all, mixing up slice, topspin, flat groundstrokes with unpredictably placement, which threw Nadal off his balance.

Federer was also willing to win some points "ugly". Federer is known for his grace out on the court, but at Madrid he was willing to win points in ways that weren't necessarily graceful or stylish looking-he just did what he needed to do to win the point.

I think the key to Federer's success in the Madrid final was that he used a trick to force Nadal to play shorter. He used to pretend that he was getting to the net after a groundstroke (by making a few steps forward), so that Nadal would think he was really trying to, but actually, he wasn't. Instead, he would get back to the baseline and Nadal would play short expecting Federer to come to the net and trying to make him hit a difficult volley. But, as Federer didnt't move from the baseline, and Nadal hit a short shot, Federer took the advantage of Nadal's short play to finish the point, mostly with a forehand winner.

Another key point in the match was Federer's ability to run around his backhand and hit great forehand inside/out shots, I think.

Federer's change is simply to hit his backhand to Nadal's backhand. There are two advantages when Federer executes the strategy. First, he can have more easier backhand shots. Second, he can maintain the chance to attck with his forehand. But that is all becuase Federer has coverage and power in his forehand.

Federer used to hit his backhand crosscourt safely without great speed and without wide angle, partly because Nadal's forehand has more topspin and better command of making angle than backhand, and partyly because the route of crosscourt is much longer which makes the ball bounce higher. Therefore, it is never smart to let Nadal hit his forehand a little comfortably. Even if Federer does, avoid Nadal to hit his forehand crosscourt to Federer's backhand. Therefore, if Federer is not able to hit his backhand fast enough or produce enough angle crosscourt, he returns balls to Nadal's backhand side to avoid Nadal's crosscourt forehand topspin. Then, once the groundstroke goes in Federer's way, he can make sure the ball is easier to handle for his backhand.

Also, hitting crosscourt needs quicker steps for the position and makes his body more unbalanced due to the impact of making shots, so Federer could either have better coverage for his backhand or stay more on his forehand side to earn more chance attacking. Plus, once Nadal's ball is not fast enough, Federer will aggressively hit an inside-out forehand or lock Nadal in backhand side.

Nadal may hit his backhand crosscourt to Federer's forehand. However, Federer 's forehand is too good for Nadal. Federer can either get the ball safely to left or right corner or making his shots so penetrating. So Nadal may hesitate to decide shot direction when hitting backhand, which causes more defensive shots.

All in all in Fed's backhand, he plays defensively to Nadal's backhand and aggressively to Nadal's forehand. To Fed's forehand, he owns such power and control that allows him to do anything. Thus, the strategy is able to make Nadal's shots weaker and lock Nadal in two corners.

Federer's change is simply to hit his backhand to Nadal's backhand. There are two advantages when Federer executes the strategy. First, he can have more easier backhand shots. Second, he can maintain the chance to attck with his forehand. But that is all becuase Federer has coverage and power in his forehand.
Federer used to hit his backhand crosscourt safely without great speed and without wide angle, partly because Nadal's forehand has more topspin and better command of making angle than backhand, and partyly because the route of crosscourt is much longer which makes the ball bounce higher. Therefore, it is never smart to let Nadal hit his forehand a little comfortably. Even if Federer does, avoid Nadal to hit his forehand crosscourt to Federer's backhand. Therefore, if Federer is not able to hit his backhand fast enough or produce enough angle crosscourt, he returns balls to Nadal's backhand side to avoid Nadal's crosscourt forehand topspin. Then, once the groundstroke goes in Federer's way, he can make sure the ball is easier to handle for his backhand.
Also, hitting crosscourt needs quicker steps for the position and makes his body more unbalanced due to the impact of making shots, so Federer could either have better coverage for his backhand or stay more on his forehand side to earn more chance attacking. Plus, once Nadal's ball is not fast enough, Federer will aggressively hit an inside-out forehand or lock Nadal in backhand side.
Nadal may hit his backhand crosscourt to Federer's forehand. However, Federer 's forehand is too good for Nadal. Federer can either get the ball safely to left or right corner or making his shots so penetrating. So Nadal may hesitate to decide shot direction when hitting backhand, which causes more defensive shots.
All in all in Fed's backhand, he plays defensively to Nadal's backhand and aggressively to Nadal's forehand. To Fed's forehand, he owns such power and control that allows him to do anything. Thus, the strategy is able to make Nadal's shots weaker and lock Nadal in two corners.

1. Attacked Rafa's backhand relentlessly powerful deep balls
Federer used alot of inside-in forehands down the line. As Federer's stronger stroke is his forehand, the deeper balls to Rafa's backhand really unsettled him and did not allow him to play those angular shots and move Roger around.

2.Federer played a magnificent net game.
Rafa is very dangerous on his forehand, and he can make shots happen even if he is sent wide by Federer's inside-out crosscourt forehands. However, whenever Federer sent Nadal wide, he would move into the court to reduce the angles Rafa could play and finish the point at the net.

3. Serves
Many serves sent to Nadal's backhand. This resulted in weak returns which Federer could finish off.

4. Drop Shots
Federer's drops shots were exquisite. Art of heaven indeed. He won a few vital points with drop shots, which are disruptive to Rafa's aggressive baseline tactics.

Quiz answer:

Nadal said the faster conditions in the higher altitude of the Spanish capital had suited Federer's game and acknowledged that Saturday's epic semi-final had sapped his strength AND

Federer solved Nadal's short angles by:
o using a top spin backhand instead of a slice. A slice off a topspin is tricky because it accentuates the spin.
o He often went down the line instead of hitting crosscourt and made Nadal run. This is a tricky strategy because unless you are Federer you usually don't want to go down the line unless it is a forcing shot or a winner.
o instead of staying at the baseline to hit the shot he approached the ball at an angle.

Federer really hammered away on Nadal's backhand side. He kept him pinned in that corner for 3-4 shots at a time then would run around and rip a forehand to the other corner to make Rafa run. By pinning Rafa into his backhand corner Fed neutralized Rafa's topspin forehand and prevented him from controlling the point.

Federer was also aggressive in coming to the net when he saw the opportunity. If Rafa was far enough off the baseline, or pushed out of the court by one of those crosscourt forhands, Fed would hit a smash or a little drop shot.

So the combination of Federer's pinning Nadal into the backhand corner and his net play was what did it.

Oscar Wegner, TennisTeacher.com , offered his tennis expertise to Roger when his top form escaped him last year. I am sure Roger's return as #1 is a result of Oscar Wegners' advice.
Please visit TennisTeacher.com for the Truth in Tennis. This is something every tennis player should know.

Federer was able to keep his court positioning by basically taking his slice backhand out of the game. When Fed does his slice backhand, the ball is sometimes short with little pace. When that happens, Rafa can rip his groundstrokes to move Fed off the court. Fed continued to use his top spin backhand which kept him in the rallies and allowed him the opportunity to attack a short ball from Rafa.

Hi will
That is a gd question!!!!If we figure it out, maybe many playes like to thank us a lot 'cause everyone is waiting an answer on how to effectively beat nadal

My answer is mainly on two things , tactic of shot selection, net approach

First, fed is much smarter on his shot selection, whenever in a rally , fed will try to attack on nadal's backhand, either by a down the line shot or fed's forehand cross-court shot. It is of foremoast important. As you attack nadal's backhand, as long as you put it deep and quick, it is difficult to generate angled cross-court shot because backhand is always a weaker side to everyplayer. Nadal is of no exception, fed can get control of the point. Also, even nadal makes it , fed still has a chance to rescue as the ball goes to fed's forehand which is fed's strongest weapon, he can use drop shot to end the rally, as nadal is off the court when hitting backhand or use strong forehand to try hitting a quick winner.

Moreover, if nadal tries to go back to fed's backhand which is always what nadal is doint. It will be a weak shot, because nadal needs to hit a backhand down the line , nadal is going to put more top spin , hoping to generate enough angle for the DTL shot, ball will go high over the net to fed's backhand, fed can approach the net, smash it and end the ball. So, to conclude, that's what fed is doing in madrid open , even fed is not attacking , he still tries to put back the ball in nadal's backhand , waiting a weaker shot , preventing him to hit angled shot

Secondlt, the serving tactic also prevents nadal's chance to hit angled shot. To hit an angled shot when returning serve, you need to stand deep behind the baseline , preparing well to generate good angle. Often you need to put eatra top spin , hoping the ball to fall quickly on the court. If fed is serving and approacing net, the ball is right into fed's position to hit a net ball, he doesn't need to face a ball kicking high into fed's shoulder. Serving direction is also important , Fed will try to serve out wide more often when deciding to serve and volly, first, this pulls nadal out of the court, fed can choose to hit drop shot and nadal has no way to recover. Secondly, even nadal can fight back with angled shot , the shot will be slow and high over the net , creating chance for fed to smash the ball.

You were asking about his shotselection so I start with this one. Usally Federer often uses a slice backhand either to bring some variation into his game or to pull his oppenente into the cort or for defens. That doesn´t work with Nadal for two reasons
1. Nadal just has shots with unbelievable amount of topspin, so he wouldn´t have any problem at all returning a slice with al lot backspin ball.
2. Nadal is a leftie so he would get a relativly slow ball right to his forehand, which is just bad, becaus as I said he will be able to return the ball very well.
When it comes to movement Federer would often just pretend to go for the net but not doing it. That is a problem for Nadal who is usually hitting high balls, which wouldn´t fit for a passing shot, because it is rather easy to volley them. So he is going to be forced to hit a low short ball. Which would be diffecault to return at the net but not, when Federer is staying at the baseline. He is going to be able to do a lot with such shot and dictate game.
Another point might be that Federer was just improving his service game. I´m not talking so much about the first serve which has always been fabulous but about the second. He can use a great variaty of diffrent serves that makes his second serve still quite dangerous.
Generally I would say that Federers game is just a lot more aggressive against Nadal as it used to be. He is going more for short points which fits very well against somebody whose physical fittnes is just so good that even federer loses a lot of the long rallies

Federer won Nadal in Madrid didn't slice that much and since trying that inside-out forehand/backhand slice doesn't work on lefties it benefids him not to use it that much.(i'm so screwed :) ).

Well in that fina (Madrid) Nadal was tired but that is no the case. Federer used a los of serve an volley so Nadal Couldn`t brake Federer a there was also a perticular shot that made it more difficult. Federer motion was like he was going to serve and volley but he stayed in the baseline and nadal ball was short to counter that "serve and volley". then later in the game Nadal has to guess what Federer was going to do (serve and volley or stay in the baseline)

Now federer broke nadal taking the iniciative first and play to nadal backhand almost alway even when nadal used his forehand to federer`s backhand he returned to nadal`s backhand so that he could do an inside out forehand and to his backhand too because nadal defend better with forehand.
He also used dropshots knowing that nadal was tired because that match with Djokovic
Please i want that free month¡ ¡ ¡ THANKS

The key to Federer's success was to keep Nadal off-balance and not let him get set and start teeing off on his forehand side. He did this through various tactics/strategies such as:
1) stepping up in the court and taking his backhands on the rise. Federer avoided hitting cross-court backhands by slicing/going over his backhand down the line only, or running around his back hand to hit down the line (to Nadal's backhand). This reduced Nadal's effectiveness by keeping him off-balance, and not letting him tee off on the forehand to create the angles
2) employing drop shots to bring Nadal forward and again keeping him off-balance. This meant Nadal could not set himself and use the patterns of play that he's so used to and comfortable with
3) federer only employed cross-court rallies when he was attacking Nadal's forehand with his own off-forehand. These off-forehands were also fairly flat and took time away from Nadal. This meant that majority of the time Nadal was on the run and again, could not set himself to tee off on the forehand.
4) majority of approach shots were off federer's forehand (as opposed to his slice backhand for example) and to the middle of the court. This minimised the angles Nadal could create (even on the run) and allowed federer to dictate play from the net.

Overall Federer played the match on his own terms by keeping Nadal off-balance and not allowing Nadal to get set on his forehand.

cheers,
Varun

I'm not sure but I saw two things.

First, as one of the commentators said the ball went to the middle but specially on the serve preventing angels from rafa. Just look at the 68% of points won on Fedrers second serve. He also attacked a lot the Rafas second serve with success (but he normaly does so)
Second, he was much less predictible usssin dropdhos slice balckhands (insted of topspin) and varying the serve. With this nadal wasn't able to start moveement early.

As a side comment I would say that that match was more lost by Nadal that won by Roger. He didn't run as much and made a los of errors. Nadal had 4 breakpoints and he didn't convert any of those !!! while Federer had two and he did

Federer stayed on the baseline or in front of the baseline more often. Since Nadal's strokes impart so much spin, even though his balls land short, it kicks up so much that most players have to back up behind the baseline in order to wait for the ball to drop into their hit zone. In Madrid, Federer stayed mostly on the baseline (and even in front of the baseline) so that he could take the balls a little earlier. By doing this, he was able to take time away from Nadal. Other players who back up behind the baseline usually use defensive strokes to deal with Nadal's high kickers and by the time it reaches Nadal, the balls are usually slow, short, and in a perfect position for him to jump all over to create the angle. Federer did not play into Nadal's game. He took the balls earlier which allowed him to take control of the rallies, it allowed him to attack Nadal's backhand, and it made it easier for him to make dropshots once he pushed Nadal behind the baseline. By getting Nadal on the defensive, Federer did not give him many chances to create wide angles.

Nadal always targeted Federer's back hand and Nadal did that with his forehand. So basically Federer put all the balls to Nadal's back hand and some times deep. With other players Nadal would have hit the ball cross court with his back hand but giving ball to Federer forehand would eventually allow Fed to take control of the point so Nadal had to put the ball back into Fed back hand but he could not create angle and had to hit the ball straight to Fed back hand without an angle. This allowed Federer to eventually walk across and hit the ball with his forehand or even play some superb drop shots.

First of all, at times, Roger beat Rafa at his own game. What I mean by this is that Federer was hitting forehands with much more topspin than normal and aiming them towards the Nadal backhand. This meant that the ball arrived to Nadal's backhand at a greater height than normal warranting short and poorly aimed shots that Federer pounced on at every given opportunity.

Another point to mention is that Federer's backhand held up well against Nadal's vicious topspin. He drove the ball more, taking it earlier than usual and, most importantly, abandoned the slice.

Roger kept most of the balls he hit in the middle of the court. This way Rafa couldn't get the tough angles that he normally does as you specified in your video. I also noticed that he did a lot of "running around" his backhand. As we all know that Rafa loves to play that high kicking forehand topspin shot to Federer's backhand. I don't know how successful Federer will be with that tactic on Sunday assuming they play each other in the final, because hardcourts are a faster surface he won't have as much time to run around as many balls as he would like. As for a match prediction (even though you didn't ask for one) I give the slight edge to Federer, maybe 4 or 5 sets only because of Rafa's abdominal issue. Again all of this assuming they both reach the final.

Federer did couple of things well. He was right at the baseline taking the ball early rather than waiting for the ball come down to him. Then, he used very effectively the inside in forehand which was going to Rafa's backhand.Therefore Nadal didnt get a lot of chances to pull Federer wide with his crosscourt forehand to Federer's backhand

Backhand.

1) ditched the slice

2) ditched the crosscourt backhand. The down the line topspin backhands allowed him to take control

I Think there are three main points: (sorry for my english. I'm peruvian and try to explain the best I can)

1. Federer was hitting groundstrokes to the center ant very deep. This did'nt allowed Nadal to hit his cross winners.

2. Federer was more aggresive than he usually does. By attackin the Nadal's second serve and by making Serve & volley in several points. This forced Nadal to worry about what did Federer gonna do in the next point

3. Federer was changing his hits deep. Especially using drop shots.

The summary is that Fed took out Nadal of his comfort zone using this three tactics.

The way in which Federer won the Madrid Open Final against Nadal in straight sets is due to a number of things.
1.Firstly in Federer's servce games he didn't allow Nadal to get into a baseline rhythm, by playing a lot of serve-volley shots. Nadal normally hits a high deep return(as he wants to get into the baseline rally), so knowing that Federer used it to his advantage to serve-volley. However he didn't become too predictable and serve-volley all the time. Sometimes he would fake the approach, which led Nadal to hit a lower top spin ball that landed near the service line and with the shorter return he was able to dictate the point.
2.Another thing, he finally ditched the slice, cross-court backhand. Normally against right-handed players, in a backhand to backhand rally he would hit the slice backhand deep into the court (almost to the baseline) which would get the short backhand return, allowing Federer to run around it and hit an inside-out forehand to whether he pleased and take control of the point. This doesn't work against Nadal as the slice goes to he's forehand (being left-handed) and he can put some heavy top spin on the ball to either down the line or far-out in the cross court. Either way Federer ends up with a lot of ground he to cover to he loses control of the point.
The fact that Federer didn't use that shot anymore proved he finally had a real game plane against Nadal in that match.
3. Federer also hit some very good precise drop shots. I think it was the only time he did hit a slice backhand. Drop shots are extra effective against Nadal as Nadal always plays about 1-1.5 metres behind the baseline. So if whenever he hit the drop shot Nadal had too much ground to cover and couldn't run down the ball.
4. Finally, when the point did go to a baseline rally, Federer would continually hit cross-court forehands and down the line backhands to Nadal's backhand until he got the short return for a forehand winner or forcing the error from Nadal. If you look at the first set at 4-4 and 30-30 the two points he won to break and then serve for the set are classic examples for that. Federer's forehand was very effective, he was cautious of not going for too much but still aggressive. He also did well with his backhand. He didn't hit backhands cross-court straight back to Nadal's forehand, which gave him a stronger chance in the baseline rallies.

Well that's my analysis for the match, I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks!

Vincent

Rafa was tired after the grueling months(Aussie Open),winning the clay court tournaments!Fed has a mental block against Rafa and it doesn't matter what Fed does,Rafa has stuck to his game plan by pressing on Fed's backhand.His topspin is vicious especially if it bounces over Fed's shoulder.Rafa's serve is underestimated!He sets it up well for his big weapon,forehand.Unless,Fed adjusts his return of serve by getting maybe 80% to Rafa's backhand then I think he has a chance.Of course , Fed has to serve well as he did at Wimbledon.

1) Service Game:

Limit Nadal’s ability of neutralizing Federer’s serves and Nadal’s ability to dictate the forehand and one handed backhand exchange to pull Roger off court

Serve Placement:
- Flat serves to the backhand of Nadal (usually on the Ad court)
- Extreme slice serves to the backhand of Nadal

Shorten up the points with a fake S&V approach or actual S&V (disrupt rhythm and predictability)

2) Return of Serve

Neutralize Nadal’s first serve - Federer’s returns were consistently deep in the middle of the court or to the backhand side of the court for Nadal

Attack Nadal’s second serve - Ran around Nadal’s 2nd serves and hit them to the backhand side

Rally

Federer’s court positioning was consistently on the baseline and in the middle or his backhand side (i.e. opening up his forehand end) to take the ball early and his shots were consistently and continuously deep
- Rally the balls deep and somewhat in the middle of the court
- Consistently attack and pressure using aggressive inside-in forehands (i.e. attacking Rafa’s backhand)

These gave Nadal no possibility to create his usual wide angles (esp. to the backhand). Nadal’s backhand generally couldn’t handle Federer’s heavy shot to create a penetrating return cross court

Made Nadal uncomfortable by neutralizing Nadal’s regular court positioning of deep baseline play - shortened the distance the balls travel using inside-in shots

Overall Game Plan – Eliminate the possibilities of Angles for Nadal:
- Aggressiveness to Rafa’s backhand
- Returning Deep
- Federer’s court position was baseline middle of the court backhand side
- Eliminated using the slice backhand allowing Nadal to dictate
- Eliminated the one handed backhand and Rafa forehand cross court exchange
- Being unpredictable

The most important factor - Nadal was in utter shock and disbelief Federer had a new game plan and couldn’t defend against it :)

Henry

The short answer, I believe, is that Federer effectively used the backhand down the line to Rafa's backhand corner to prevent Nadal from employing his favourite tactic.

Here's my thinking:

Rafa's favourite play against Federer, as everyone knows, is to use his heavily spun forehand to Federer's one-handed backhand. He likes to set up in his forehand corner and hit 2 or 3 hooked forehands to Federer's backhand -- with each shot, he pulls Fed a little further off the court, thus getting a slightly weaker reply, which allows him to step in and hit an even more hooked forehand to Federer's backhand. Eventually, Federer either makes an error or is pulled so far off the court that Rafa has an easy put-away.

The key to why Rafa's tactic can be neutralized with a down-the-line backhand is that it is a 2 or 3 shot combination. What Rafa wants is for Federer to return his backhand cross-court -- back to Nadal's forehand corner -- so that Nadal can continue using his forehand cross-court to pull Federer outside the tramlines. When Federer is playing well against Nadal, he will take the first forehand from Nadal and send it down the line to Nadal's backhand corner. He's not trying to hit a winner, he's just looking to break up the combination.

When Federer puts the ball into Nadal's backhand corner, it leaves Nadal with two basic options. One, Nadal can send the ball back up the line, which Federer can either take back down the line or, if Rafa's shot is short, Federer can run around his backhand and use his forehand to take control of the point.

Nadal's second option is to hit a cross court backhand to try to pull Federer off the court on Fed's forehand side. However -- and I think this is important -- that play doesn't work nearly as well for Rafa. Nadal's backhand is a great shot, but it doesn't have the hook that his forehand does, and thus it doesn't pull Federer off court as extremely. Also, perhaps more fundamentally, Nadal would be hitting to Federer's forehand, which is a much more dangerous shot than the backhand. Nadal can't count on 2 or 3 consecutive tame replies from Federer's forehand. Thus, the "mirror" image of Rafa's favourite play isn't nearly as effective.

The result of all this is that so long as Federer is able to consistently hit his backhands down the line, he can neutralize Nadal's favourite tactic and greatly improve his chances to win points.

Those are my thoughts!

Andrew

Federer was able to maintain better court position than nadal by doin a few changes in his game. Firstly Federer didnt hit the backhand slice. Federer's backhand slice is a very effective short against most players but against Nadal, it is just not an effective shot. Most probably because nadal hit his forehand with an insane amount of topspin on it and his a lefty which means federer slice the ball back to his forehand, his stroger wing. This allowed nadal to take control of the rally whenever federer hit a backhand slice back to nadal's forehand in the past. By not hitting the slice, federer didnt let nadal to take control of the rallies.
During the match when nadal hits a forehand to his backhand, federer tend to hit the ball down the line instead of his normal crosscourt backhands shots. He didnt try to do much with ball but just put the ball back in play to nadal backhand, which is his weaker wing. This avoid Nadal from taking control of the point with his forehand.
Another reason federer had better court position is federer was playing serve and volley on his second serve. Nadal tend to return Federer second serve high above the net and start the point from there. By coming to the net, federer made nadal to keep guessing and make him go for more on his second serve and draw the error from nadal. Federer also keep nadal on his toes with his dropshot and keep him guessing and never really let him to settle down behind the baseline. Lastly federer approach the net by hitting the ball down to the middle of the court. This took away the angel from hitting a passing short. Thus making it harder for nadal to find the angles in his passing short.

Federer won for one reason; he realized that he was God and could smite Rafa at will. He decided to toy around a bit with Rafa, but then he sent him to the lake of fire in straight sets. Self-actualization is what got Darth Federer the victory. He became what he has always been destined to be.....God.

Now I have to win or else God (Federer), will unleash his greatest wrath upon you, just like he's going to do with Djokovic tomorrow. You will feel the full extent of his might if I do not win. Do the right thing, give me the free pass. Not even just a month, but lifetime. You're life is in your own hands. Federer bless you.

Fed kept his shots deep in Nadal's court and often hit to the open court. His top spin backhand was sharp and gave him that effusive phenomenon known as self belief. His inside-in shots hugged the line and he also mixed in the occassional drop shot. This put Nadal on the defensive and he could not dictate the game.

Well there have been many responses already so I will do my best not to repeat TOO much.

The most obvious major change in Federer's approach in Madrid against nadal was his backhand. Nadal and his western grip is simply too consistant to be phased by federer barrage of varying shot selections. The slice is a shot that Nadal loves to see. With so much topspin he can put it anywhere and really take control of rallies. The slices federer used against Nadal in this matchup could be counted with your ten fingers. Only when he was really scrambling did he slice. If he could . . . he WOULD hit a topspin backhand. Give or take a few slice approaches.

Next is fed's appoach / volley / dropshot. Federer was very unpredictable. Instead of playing his typical style against nadal he utlized volleys and dropshots to keep Nadal guessing. He avoided those baseline to baseline rallies and kept the points short !! Short is KEY

I think Nadal's weakness that fed exploited in madrid was how long it takes him to win points. In early rounds he has no trouble but once he gets to the semi's / finals he has to grind out his opponents. He inches up and takes his opponents off the court / pushes them back until he gets his short ball he can put away. Nadal plays pretty 1-dimensionally. Federer was the one who controlled the situations and picked his shots. The random net charging would make nadal wonder if he should hit his shot deep or short. The time Nadal gave federer allowed fed to make decisions and take risks. Fed took those risks and kept the points SHORT. Nadal does not like short points.

Lastly was the serve. I think Fed attacked Nadals 1st and 2nd serve more aggresively than he has in past matchups.

So short points (volleys / dropshots), limited slices, and aggressive serve returns were all key to fed's success.

answer is one word: UNPREDICTABLE. first fed kept is groundstrokes deep and when nadal tried to pull fed off court this is when fed was coming in cutting off the angle (doing this on second serves on returns), causing nadal to either go for low percentage shots or become really defensive which is when he plays way way back and fed was drop shoting him. basically fed added more to his arsenal and kept nadal guessing every point, fed didnt have one thing that worked he had multiple. the answer is NO ONE KNEW WHAT WAS COMING NEXT. we would see the same play and while watching we were thinking okay he just did this play with a drop shot and then we see inside in forehand, fed set up both shots the same he MASKED all of his shots

3 things basically:
1. Rodger served effectively, moving the ball around a lot, not letting Nadal get grooved into a return.
2. More importantly, Rodger kept the ball deep and to the center of the court in the rallies nullifying Nadal's advantage of hitting the angles.
3. Federer used the drop shot a lot, surprising Nadal but that was easier to do because he was able to keep Nadal on defense with the deep to the middle shots.

Hey Will, i know this has nothing to do with what your asking but.......

I love your videos so much, everything i learned about tennis i’ve learned from you . Your videos taught me how to serve, volley, slice, hit topspin, and even control the match more in my favor. My question however is if you are planning on making a video on how to do a successful drop shot and if you ever are thinking of or have ever heard of applying sidespin to a shot such as a serve or forehand. To return slices i usually apply sidespin by striking from under the ball and slicing NE creating a spin that has some topspin and has some sidespin and does amazing things. If it hits the white part of the net it can usually spin over it instead of falling back on my side of the court and when it bounces it doesn’t only move forward but it jumps to the right or to the left by a substantial amount and makes it difficult to return for unsuspecting players. I would love to see a dropshot video to help against heavy baseline players who feel uncomfortable at net and anything you have on side spin cause it is very interesting. Thanks for your time Will and i love your videos

~Shahbaaz Khan

Quiz answer:
Roger played really consistent with his topspin backhand, and his serve was just phenomenal. I think there were 3 critical factors involved in the match results.
First of all, if you take a good look at most of the rallies you will see that Roger played more to Nadal`s backhand, and hit to his forehand only when he could get good angles or power strokes. I mean that he worked hard on the point, making Nadal loses his “balanace” before hitting to his forehand. If he couldn’t get the point doing that, he would star over playing to his backhand. Second, Roger used his slice more as a weapon, nor as a sole defensive mechanism. He slices when he got good approaches or to move Nadal around, but still he used it seldom. Finally I saw Roger changing to his forehand in some critical points that allowed him to pace more over the ball, and attack more aggressively Nadal`s backhand. It was almost all about of working on longer rallies to Nadal`s backhand before attacking. I think Roger strategy was brilliant.

Hey there Will.

I believe there are many reasons why Federer defeated Nadal in Madrid. Firstly I believe Federer went into the match with more confidence than normal. He executed his shots well. Federer, as usual, had a good 1st serve percentage, reported around 68%. But I think Fed's second serve (and correct me if I am wrong) is where the difference in this match was made. He was far more aggressive with his 2nd serves, this includes the placement of his serve along with the pace. He had a low amount of double faults, but this probably made litter difference from his other games with Nadal as he usually has a low double fault count.

Furthermore Federer took Nadal far outside of his normal comfort zone by serving and volleying, even on his 2nd serves. As I believe you (or maybe another commentator I watched) said, Nadal usually returns high over the net (obviously with all of the top spin) and this allowed Federer to come in and put the ball away. Also coming to net more often worked on a mental note for Fed as Nadal would sometimes return thinking Federer was coming to net, which allowed Federer to move up in the court and put the ball away. These shorter returns helped Federer gain a much better court positioning and helped him to not be pulled away from the court by a Nadal passing shot.

Also, Federer made a good use of the drop shot. He used to not be a fan of this shot, and is quoted on his own website saying "I'm not a fan of that kind of play", but seemingly changed his mind and put it into good use against Nadal.

One of the biggest changes I think Federer made in his game was he basically took the slice backhand out of his arsenal. This shot has been very effecting against many other players, but due to Nadal's topspin shots Nadal is completely comfortable with taking a slice backhand shot and hitting it with full force while his top spin pulls it into the court. Fed utilized his topspin backhand more and also used this to set him up with a chance to run around his backhand for an inside out forehand to to take control of the point.

Federer was generally more aggressive, but one of the spots where his aggression really showed was on his serve return. Usually you see Federer just chip the ball back to start the point, but was far more aggressive with his returns. He even ran around a few backhands for a forehand return.

These are the reasons I believe Federer won. These chances combined with (probably) a better mental approach to Rafa brought him home the Madrid title, but more importantly a win against the man that seemingly had Federer completely figured out - or so we thought.

There are several reasons Federer won in the Madrid Final. Here's my take:
1) First and foremost when facing a backhand Rog aimed for Rafa's backhand a lot more. Nadal's backhand although quite solid isn't your typical offensive shot and simply playing to that wing helped Fed's case a lot. Nadal couldn't afford playing too much cross court backhands (even if he angled them) because that way he is going to Federer's forehand which is the best baseline shot in the game. And if he played his backhand down the line (aiming for Federer's backhand) Fed could just return the ball to Rafa's backhand - that way he couldn't get pulled off the court (there is no way to make short angles when playing down the line) and he could wait for a chance to eventually runaround and hit a forehand. That way he kept a good position while retaining his chances to go on the offence.
In their previous matches when facing a backhand Fed tryed to hit short angled cross court shots a lot more but that was't really effective most of the time - Rafa got to most balls well in time and played an angled forehand cross court to Federer's backhand and there is no need to explain what happened next...
2) Secondly Federer tryed (and with very good success) to break up the game, not letting Rafa (with his more exteme and complicated strokes) to get into a rhythm. Fed regulary hit drop shots, approached the net unexpectedly, serve and volleyed, tryed to make points very short and so on. He was very aggresive with his shots, accepting very high risks, which eventually payed off.
3) As you (Will) already pointed out in one of your previous videos Fed diched the slice backhand for most of the rallies. However he used it to good effect when approaching the net eather with a deep slice or a shorter one.
4) Finally we shouldn's forget that despite all the talk it was still a very close match. 6-4, 6-4 isn't what you would call a humiliating defeat. Also one should recall that the day before the final Rafa had to play a very long and gruelling match with Djokovic and before the tournament itself Nadal had played 3 more (and very close) tournaments reaching (and winning) all the finals. /By the way I'm a Nadal fan.../ Some people also point out that because the match was played on a higher altitude the conditions suited Fed's game more.

One of the most important things about the Nadal is that his opponents figured out how to beat him! For a long time, people where attacking him in the way they attack everyone else and then coming to the net after a successful forehand or two, which clearly didn't work against him due to the superb quickness he posses! Once they figured out that point has to be built better in order to get to the net things started working better against him.

But, due to his excellent returns especially from his forehand side, people didn't really attack that side as much. Because of that, Nadal was able to cover much more of his backhand side by positioning him self on the right of the center line, from where he had enough time to reach his forehand and still catch the regular balls on his forehand side.

What Federer (and others as well) started doing was to attack his backhand side much more. The make it even better he used his forehand, which was possible because he ran around the backhand to hit it much more often!

Now with larger space opened on his forehand Nadal had more trouble on that end which made him to cover that side a bit more then he usually does! That left bigger opening on his backhand and finally it was possible to hurt he right there! In Madrid, he looked unsure of his position and him selves, which allowed Rodger to crush him on that day! Very similar tactic was used by Djokovic later on when he beat him as well.

So, in short, Rodger attacks on Nadals forehand (by running around his backhand) with more angled shorts (which is very important here) managed to position Nadal closer to the center of the baseline which opened up bigger hole on his backhand and he was not comfortable there no more!!

Also the fact that Federer cleaned up his service game helped a lot too! One clear adjustment that he did was to move further from the center on the deuce side, which allowed him to use his slice serve more effectively, without sacrificing his down the line serve (it was pretty obvious even last night against Soderling as well).

Fedja

Answer to the quiz:

1. Federer in the Madrid final was very effective on his groundstrokes both on his backhand as well as forehand. He virtually ditched the slicing backhand and went with the topspin backhand the entire match. This took time away from Rafa who, on their previous meetings, would receive many slices from the Federer backhand whenever Fed encounter a heavy, high bouncing topspin ball. The topspin limit Rafa's ability to be aggressive on Federer's weaker side.

2. In the Madrid Final as well as in recent matches, Federer returned to his older tactics of playing very close to the baseline and taking shots early (This is also true on the return of serve). By doing this he was able to use Rafa's pace on the ball against him and take away his recovery time (which also allows Federer to open up the court more often).

3. Last but not least Federer kept his groundstroke near the center of the court while hitting them deep and agressive. This allow him to: (1) limit Rafa's ability to generate the angles of his ground strokes and (2) pushes Rafa back deep behind the baseline into a defensive position.

4. Federer finally decided to go after the Nadal's serve which is slower and more predictable (historically Rafa would spin it to Fed's backhand 90% of the time) than other professionals. The chip return that Fed uses so often was seen much less frequently in the Madrid final because Federer step into the court and take the ball early before it rises out of his striking zone (especially on Rafa's second serve). This allow him to generate two breakpoints which he readily gobbled up to win the match in straights.

hi,
Well I think that in order to creat angles, the best thing to have is a shot close to the line : that way you can hit toward the lines without fearing errors. Now Federer minimised Nadal's ability to do so by working balls in the middle area, and since he gained so much control on his forhand after few months of work after the australian open : he could hit closer to the lines once he gets to the right position for doing so...
I think that by aiming for the middle section of the court and then widing up with either a forhand, backhand or slice backhand drop shot, he made himself work points and gain them by the advantage of having a good position to do so...

Hi Will

Federer was able to develop a deep aggressive down the line backhand which limited Rafa's ability to open the court on Federer's cross-court backhand. Rafa would normally have been tee-off on his forehand, depending on how deep Federer's backhand landed in the court, choosing to either go down the line or cross-court for a winner/set-up, thereby commanding the point.

Federer's ability to nutralise this tactic won him the crucial advantage, as he was then able to dictate the play, and in turn hit into the open court on Nadal's forehand side for either a winner or set-up.

The fact that Nadal had to guard against this meant that he needed to be a little closer to the center of the court on cross-court rallies, limiting his ability to run around his backhand and command the play with aggressive forehand winners/set-ups.

This edge is what was crucial to Federer nutralising Nadal's usual strategy and in turn allowed him to take command of sufficient points to force a win.

Hope this answers the question.

Freddyn

Usually Nadal used is heavily spun forehand and backhand to kick the ball up to federers singe handed backhand pushing federe back behind the baseline making it too high for federe to hit a topsin backhand so he ended up just slicing it back.

However in the Madrid final federer stood up on the baseline and took the ball early on both wings.This meant federer could hit his backhand more aggressivley which he did and it also limited the angles nadal could use meaning nadal coulddnt pull federe ou of court so easily in previous matches. fianlly federer was much more cunning in the madrid masters final as he would hit it aggressively down the middle of the court reducing the angles nadal could use meaning he could use his slice without fear of being pinned in his backhand wing.

I think the answer is quite simple, and no in depth analysis is required. Nadal, at full strength, is the best clay court player on the planet, Federer is the second best. During Madrid, Nadal began to suffer from the tendonitis in his knees that would eventually take him out of the tour for two months. He didnt move as well, or execute as well as he usually does, and therefore Federer was able to win. Having played each other countless times, does anyone imagine that there could be any surprises in each other's games? It's simply a question of who does it better on any given day. Obviously Nadal was not 100% at the French (why else would he have withdrawn from competition immediately afterwards?),which suggests that he was already suffering at Madrid. Not the answer you're looking for, I know, but there it is. I am, for the record, a huge Federer fan.

Gavin

Federer mixed up a lot his play, using long groundstrokes from baseline either coming close to the net using volleys, getting Nadal confused. That's why Nadal was standing way of his baseline with his groundstrokes not to travel longer than the service-line. An important weapon in Federer's strategy was his "new" backhand that allowed him to put some pressure on Nadal during rallies.

Nikolas, Greece :)

Hi Will.
Well I think that there was more than one reason.
Federer had a great first serve procentage, and even on his second serve, he attacked Nadal's return (wich obviously was not so "spiny") From that moment on he dictated the point, and did not allow Nadal to get into the rally. Also, when he was returning Nadal's serve, instead of using dropshots he hit more "drive" returns wich landed deep up, closer to the baseline. This gave Rafa less time to recover from his serve position, and he had a weaker reply shot (wasn't able to aim for the angles) And also Federer was able with this tactic to keep the rallies short.
Well that's my opinion Will, but I'm curious to find out yours as well.

Federer was able to keep Nadal at the sides due to hitting his to the corner often. Also his shot selection was interesting, he hit it to one side about 5 times even though the other side was wide open but I believe Nadal was expecting it to come to the other side for a while. After hitting it consecutively to one side, he then hit the ball to the middle, then placed it back on the same side, which really seemed to take a toll on Nadal since he kept losing a good amount of stamina shifting his weight back to the same side numerous times. Because of placing it in the corners, Federer didnt have to move around the court quite as much cause all the shots were angled in a way that they would come back around the center instead of the sides.

There are several thing what I think Federer did in the Madrid final to get better court positioning, one of them what I noticed is on Federer's serve he would come to the net more often and play serve and volley, because Federer knows that Nadal would play hit the ball up and over the net by a couple of feet, also what Federer sometime did was, I think how you described it was faking coming to the net and Nadal would play it with more topspin and make the ball go a bit lower, and Federer being at the baseline could step forward and attack the return, and Nadal could never really get into the game on Federer's serve.

Federer also stopped using his slice backhand, after realising he wouldn't be-able to get a bad return of that scene as Nadal and just clear it over the net and have the topspin drag it into the court.

One more thing I'm not to sure about this myself but when to me it looked like Federer ran around onto his forehand more than normal, I think maybe he was more confidant. I also thought he was hitting to Nadal's forehand much more, I think this is because not really trying to attack it but wait for a bad return in which he could run around and hit into the open court or, drop shot his backhand, so Nadal would have a lot of ground to cover. I'm not to sure if Federer was going for Nadal's forehand or if it was Nadal going for Federer's backhand, because when I watched the highlights I saw it when Federer was serving, and didn't come to the net he would hit it to Nadal's backhand a couple of times, then make him run, by Federer running round the ball and hitting it into Nadal's forehand, and then either making a drop shot or a forehand into the open court. I've gone of the point a bit and kind of babbled on but I hope you appreciate my answer.

Martin

NADAL VS FEDERER - The Final everybody wants to see!!
They keys to Federer turning around his record against Nadal :-
1. Don't try to hit the corners when hitting the ball back to Nadal unless its with a flat, hard, deep backhand or forehand. If he lets Nadal into the court or even close to the baseline by hitting a high ball, the point is over. We all know how Nadal rips those angles with his topspin from that position on the court.
2. Try to keep rallies in the middle of the court when hitting to Nadal. From this position his angles are not going to be lethally disecting. Again the ball must be kept deep.
3. Generally Federer will want to keep the ball low when hitting to the Nadal forehand for sure. He should not give him too many opportunities to get on top of the ball.
4. Nadal needs and likes time to prepare to rip the ball with his forehand. Federer will have to play shots to rush Nadal on to that forehand.
5. Federer will have to be carefull when using the dropshots. He will want to make sure that Nadal is far back behind the baseline to execute this shot with success.
6. Attack the Nadal serve. With the abdominal injury looming, Federer will want to put pressure early by attacking both the first and second Nadal serve. Attacking the first serve will put extra pressure on Nadal to get in a good second serve. Nadal's second serve involves just kicking the ball high and Federer will want to stand up forward and take it early to attack it rather than stand back and let it bounce like the other players are doing.
7. As we saw on clay in the French when Soderling took Nadal's high ball on the rise and attacked it, the same goes for this surface. Federer will have to back himself to take the ball early and send it back with some heat on it.

I think that there are more reasons why Federer was better in that match :

1st : Federer noticed in the end that he had to change things in his normal routine . What Federer did is that he made Nadal "wait for him" at the net (to keep him close inside the court) , the oposite of what he has been doing before . He broke Rafa's rhythm with a diferent play , thing that made Federer able to dictate the point and win the match . Rafa is used to be in control of the rhythm of the match . Federer also commented after the match "Today we are playing the match on my terms" (so like his rhythm)
2nd : Nadal after that 4h semifinal match was physicaly down , thing that stoped him from beeing 100% and not beeing able to push Federer the way he did the other times.
3rd : It was crucial for Roger to avoid the backhand to forehand rally where Rafa exploits his backhand with loopy topspin. Whenever he got into a rally like that he mostly lost the point with a backhand error. But it didn’t happen enough for Rafa to dominate as usual. He did to shorten points was to employ the drop shot, which once again he executed to perfection. Rafa often plays from way behind the base line which makes him vulnerable for the drop shot.Even if Rafa can get almoust to every drop shot , because he was tierd his movements were off.

Just to ask : Is there one answer thes is the one that is correct?

At the madrid masters series roger did a few things differently.
Firstly although he hit more agressively from the back he mixed it up with drop shots and serve and volley. Federer has added the drop shot to his game and its really helped. Nadal was unsure when it was coming and it put him off.
I think off the serve he hit the ball harder. especialy off the second serve and nadal could only spin the balls back into the middle and leave roger with the volley or a put away shot.
He returned very well and agressivly with more purpose than normal. Against nadal he normaly pops the ball back into court from the return which allowes nadal to dictate.
I think another factor was madrids altidude and this made the balls move faster through the air which also benifits roger.
Nadal does normaly loses to big hitters such as berdych and soderling and this isn't because they dont hit the ball wide its because they hit it wide and that puts nadal off. This mixed with rogers volleys, dropshots and slices hurt nadal and didn't allow him to place the ball where he wanted.

There's definitely more than one part to this answer.

1) Baseline rallies -- Federer would hit deep and to the middle so that Rafa couldn't hit super-wide-angled shots that would pull Federer off the court. This allowed Federer to maintain relatively good court positioning until he sensed an opening, and then he would put away a winner.

2) Service stragegy -- Federer would serve and volley more than usual. This kept Rafa guessing where to hit returns, and gave Federer the advantage of the "high ground". When Federer is up at the net, the option of Rafa pulling him off the court is nullified.

3) Drop shots -- Federer would would hit drop shots (including his new forehand drop shot) after pushing Rafa deep (not hard to do since Rafa plays so deep anyway). If Rafa is rushing up to the net to grab a drop shot, Federer again has the upper hand in court position since Rafa will likely be hitting up on the ball, producing an easy sitter for Federer to put away.

Answer for the quiz:

I would say Federed corrected the mistake he did in Australian open finals.That was,When the ball was hit to his backhand,He was reluctant to take that as forehand even though ball was landing short and eventually donating the point to Rafa.
Unlikely,In Madrid finals,He took most of the backhand shorts as Forehand and hit many Inside-Out shots which troubled Rafa.That was the key I guess!

The answer to your quiz has a few parts. Fist, Roger put alot of pressure on Nadal coming to the net. Nadal had to come up with some tighter shots to pass Roger or when he thought he might have to pass Roger because he came to the net so often. Second, Roger didnt use his slice as often in that match as it doesnt work well on Nadal anyway. And finally, I think Roger avoided alot of cross court base line running battles with Nadal by focusing his returns to the same side repeatedly until he had a oportunity for a winner. As an after note, Rogers serves were better, and he used alot of drop shots to make Nadal more uncertain and uncomfortable to win the match.

Federer ws able to beat Nadal because he kept the ball in the center of the court. Additionally, He began to do something that he should have been doing a long time ago and that was hiting to the open side the court. What I mean by this is, as RAFA would stay let's say on the ad side of the court after a return Fed would try to hit behind him thinking RAFA would be moving toward the duce side. However, Rafa would remain on the ad side. Fed started hiting to the opposite side of where Rafa was positioned which open up the court for Fed.

Federer continually went to Nadals backhand. On both wings Fed would keep hitting to Nadal's much weaker side until he found the opening to hit to the open court, a lot of times with the inside out forehand. With this tactic Roger could often stay up near/on the baseline to cut off angles.
Federer needs to do this again at the Open. On the faster courts he should be able to use his forehand to an even greater effect- running around the backhand and being agressive on every opportunity Nadal gives him. Also, Federer hit some superb droppers when he had Rafa running behind the baseline.

For me the answer to your question comes down to 3 things that Federer did that he was unable to do in previous matches to not be pushed off the court.

1. He was agressive with his backhand. In previous matches Federer just sliced that high ball back, and as the trend went Nadal just ran around it and hit another heavy forehand and pushed Fed back. That shot just gave Nadal more time to set up. But, in Madrid Fed ditched it and used a topspin one hander which took time away from nadal and didnt let him run around it. This put nadal in at least a neutral position if not negative. This let Fed construct a point that took time away from nadal and didnt let him hit shots that he could prep that much for. Therefore most of Nadals shots off of feds backhand topspin were relatively predictable and neutral allowing fed to move to a forehand or construct a different point. His backhand previously was a problem but now it is at least not a negative. This allowed him to position on the baseline as normal and not be pushed back by having to be on the defense.

2. He was not afraid to hit to the middle of the court. Previously Federer has shot for the corners more and more and again as the trend went Nadal would run and hit a great pass or the shot would open up an even better angle for nadal. Fed instead at Madrid really kept nadal from hitting those passes and acute angle shots that draw fed off the court by playing deep and in the middle. He went to the middle past the service line and really made nadal play a few meters behind the baseline not opening up the smaller angles and not letting fed have to go off the court that far. Fed was able to hit and find nadal's backhand in the center of the court or draw him to his forehand and really open up the court without having to run around alot. Feds ability to hit deep and in the center kept fed in a good position in the points and on the court.

3. Finally the thing that allowed fed to have great positioning and not be pushed around was his agressive strategy. Federer is usually an agressive offensive player but in this match he really chose to impose himself by taking all of Nadals serves on the baseline and really atacking his second serves. Fed consequently was rarely put on the defence and because of his choice of hitting in the center of the court and using the topspin backhand he stayed in the offensive position and did not have to chase down balls and let nadal push him off the court. Nadal was hitting neutral balls , being put on the defensive and really being strategically broken down.

Federer really changed his game to take time away from Nadal and not let nadal hit shots that pushed him out of the court.

The adjustment Roger made in Madrid was that he kept the balls deep in the middle of Rafa's court rather than to the corners. Therefore, Rafa couldn't make any real angles.
Only when in a winning position (in a rally) would Roger step up, hit to one of Rafa's corners and move forward.
Regards,
Arthur