If Roger wants to start beating Nadal regularly he will have to start using some of this advice. Nadal leads Roger 23-10 in head to head meetings. Why do you think that Nadal beats Federer with such ease? and why does Nadal not fear his opponent? These are questions that need to be answered and I am going to analyze both strenghts and weaknesses of both players.
In Nadal's 2nd round match at Wimbledon 2014 he came up against Czech player Lukasz Rosol. Rosol had beaten him two years ago on centre court in a shock upset and Nadal wanted revenge this time around. One of the first things I noticed in Rosol's approach to the match this time around was the way he use psychology against Nadal. Nadal always likes to take his time, placing his bottles of water in the exact same spot beside his feet while sitting down. Nadal always comes out to the court 2nd from beside the umpires chair so he can receive the loudest cheer. Rosol decided to wait for Nadal to go out first and Nadal kept waiting for his opponent to get up and start the warm up first but Rosol kept playing a clever game and waited until Nadal finally got up reluctantly to start the warm up. This is exactly the approach needed to beat Nadal and that is what Federer needs to start implementing in to his game. It is probably not his type of thing to do but to be honest his record against the Spanish giant is very poor and as a coach I would suggest that Federer starts getting into Nadal's head instead of the other way around.
When we start to look at the style of play that both have it becomes apparent that Rafa imposes his game plan on Federer everytime. Nadal likes to loop his forehand drives into Fed's backhand which Federer loops back with to much height and then Nadal steps around the backhand to drive his forehand for a winner. When Djokovic or Murray use the two handed backhand flat hit, Nadal doesn't like this at all and struggles to get into a rhythm. For Federer to win next Friday should the two meet he will have to use some small psychology, will have to serve more aces and will have to play more forehand drives including volleys too. If all this can be implemented then Roger will have a good chance to beat his nemesis.
JB
In Nadal's 2nd round match at Wimbledon 2014 he came up against Czech player Lukasz Rosol. Rosol had beaten him two years ago on centre court in a shock upset and Nadal wanted revenge this time around. One of the first things I noticed in Rosol's approach to the match this time around was the way he use psychology against Nadal. Nadal always likes to take his time, placing his bottles of water in the exact same spot beside his feet while sitting down. Nadal always comes out to the court 2nd from beside the umpires chair so he can receive the loudest cheer. Rosol decided to wait for Nadal to go out first and Nadal kept waiting for his opponent to get up and start the warm up first but Rosol kept playing a clever game and waited until Nadal finally got up reluctantly to start the warm up. This is exactly the approach needed to beat Nadal and that is what Federer needs to start implementing in to his game. It is probably not his type of thing to do but to be honest his record against the Spanish giant is very poor and as a coach I would suggest that Federer starts getting into Nadal's head instead of the other way around.
When we start to look at the style of play that both have it becomes apparent that Rafa imposes his game plan on Federer everytime. Nadal likes to loop his forehand drives into Fed's backhand which Federer loops back with to much height and then Nadal steps around the backhand to drive his forehand for a winner. When Djokovic or Murray use the two handed backhand flat hit, Nadal doesn't like this at all and struggles to get into a rhythm. For Federer to win next Friday should the two meet he will have to use some small psychology, will have to serve more aces and will have to play more forehand drives including volleys too. If all this can be implemented then Roger will have a good chance to beat his nemesis.
JB
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