The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal is arguably the greatest to ever play the game on the red clay. Why is he so good and why has he been able to carry his success over to other surfaces?
Nadal’s first advantage is that he is a lefty which helps greatly as it matches his strength – his forehand – up against most players’ weakness – their backhand. Even if his opponent has a great backhand on the clay they are hitting off balance and above there shoulders too often to be as aggressive as they would be on a faster surface with lower bounces.
Nadal’s second advantage is the incredible amount of spin that he generates off of his forehand wing – this makes timing very difficult for his opponents. They are constantly having to take the ball on the rise to hold there position on the court. Nadal’s court coverage, foot speed andknowledge of how to construct points on the clay are a huge advantage. He has the patience and the killer instinct to wait for the right opportunity to force an error from his opponent or to hit a winner while inside the baseline.
Nadal has the ability to work/construct the point on clay to where his winning shot is most likely his easiest shot of the point as his opponent is either so far out of position or too tired to even try to get to the next shot. This ability is what has allowed him to translate his success to other surfaces. You may be asking why can’t players like Tommy Robredo, Nicolas Almagro, Jose Acasuso, Gael Monfils do the same as they are born and breed clay courters with great knowledge of how to play and construct points. The reason is that most clay courters are either incredible movers who chase everything down and wear their opponents down or they are great at constructing points on the clay – which wins them easy points.
Nadal has the ability to not only do the above but he is able to move into the court and muscle the ball that he has taking on the rise and then move in behind it to finish the point off with a volley. He is comfortable doing this on surfaces other than clay where your staple clay courters try to play clay court tennis on hard and grass courts.
I would like to see Nadal take a nice long break after Wimbledon to heal his body and knees which will make him fit and strong for the hard court season as I believe he would be a great player on the hard courts if he was able to play select events and stay healthy. If Nadal was able to have a great end of year and not fade away like he has done in the last two years then watch out. He would be a serious contender at the Australian Open if he didn’t have to take December to heal but instead to train.
VIVA RAFA!
I think Federer is a better example of multi-court success. Nadal has done great on grass, granted, but on hardcourts he has a collection of semis and quarters, instead of titles, and especially on Grand Slam events.
Djokovic will make even a better case.
Great article Steve! Simply put, his FOOTWORK is so ridiculously Good and no one is tougher mentally. Everything is possible with those 2 qualities and he’s got them in abundance!
PIERO: Federer is such a genius i find it so difficult to use him for comparison, cos he makes it look so easy, but you are right! About Djoko…..i’m not so sure???
The 2 biggest reasons Nadal does so well on all surfaces is that he’s the mentally toughest player on the planet, and he’s the STRONGEST. He can muscle the ball from any part of the court, no matter how low the ball bounces, and come back with a winner. Not only a winner, but sometimes with curling topspin that will bring a ball from 10 feet wide back into the court. Just phenomenal.
And this incredible strength really does work well on all surfaces. He’s won Slams on clay and grass, and reached the semis of the US open and Aussie. Not a bad record overall.
I do think though, that his heavy degree of physicality will work against him too. Eventually his body will become fatigued, as the years go on, and this may decrease his quality of tennis. But during that stretch, I expect him to pick up a fair number of slams, about 8 to 10. Nothing to shake a stick at.