Nadal loses to Florian Mayer in 1 hr, 48 minutes! (7-6, 6-3 in Shanghai)
More Nadal return of serve woes against the big serving Mayer:
"He played really well," said Nadal. "I didn't. I felt that I was not playing bad from the baseline. But my return, when he was serving the first serve, was terrible tonight. I only won four points in the whole match [on his] first serve. So I cannot expect win a match when the opponent is playing well, is serving well, is doing very good serve and volleys, returning, and only winning four points with returning the first serve. [I] congratulate him.
"For me today is [a] disappointing day. I think I was doing everything right, practising with good motivation, practising well in general. I had a good result [at the] US Open. I had a good result last week. Today is a tough loss, that's the truth. [It] was not my day. I am out of the tournament. I am going to work hard for the next tournament." ---from atpworldtour.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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Very odd forehand loopers by Mayer to Rafa's backhand corner! Appears to put Rafa on defensive territory.
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Permalink Reply by Mark / The Mayor on
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For those of us that had no idea who Mayer was!
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Ah, the Microgel Prestige! Sometimes, those double handers had that Safin hop as well.
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Permalink Reply by Chin Be on
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For what it's worth, Nadal had to be off his game a little and Mayer had to play the match of his life to play. But the big guy has game too.
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Dude, I love the sound of that looper strategy. This may be the achilles heel of the raging bull. Hmm, could roger learn from this or is he too proud?
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Permalink Reply by Tennis Coach Abs on
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I echo Tim's and Mark's sentiments. Seemed to me that Rafa is vulnerable to moon-balls hit in the middle of a rally, against his two hander . Verdasco did that intermittently to great effect in Cincy 2011 and took him to 3 tiebreaks in 3 sets. Was one of the best matches of this year ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0taA8bTq4dk . At first glance, Roger might be a little too proud to do this, or maybe not , since age is not on his side now..
Only time or 2012 will tell ;-))
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Ah! So Verdasco did that, eh? That tactic is just so smart, because it takes away the vertical game from Nadal and also sets up the drive putaway if Nadal attempts to yank more spin on a ball with little pace. It's almost the same as dueling forehand slice with a forehand slice artist. The first to do the spinning has the upper hand.
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