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AO R1: Nadal def Mayer 6-3 6-4 6-4

4K views 45 replies 29 participants last post by  Sombrerero loco 
#1 ·
Routine from vintage RAFA. This AO is his to lose :yeah:

:worship: GOATdal :worship:
 
#5 ·
Solid - no BPs faced from memory, but it was tough to see Mayer be able to hurt Nadal on a consistent basis, on this type of surface.
Nadal used the body serve quite effectively.
 
#8 ·
Nadal was solid but nothing more, he could still make QF or even SF if he can be more clutch with this kind of play.
 
#10 ·
Nadal can go far given his draw. Looked decent out there. Potential for a good run for sure.

Wouldn't be pre ejaculating as a Nadal Fan though, too many times I have seen Nadal fans scream "Nadal is back" on these forums for it to blow up in there faces.
 
#12 ·
Nadal can go far given his draw. Looked decent out there. Potential for a good run for sure.

Wouldn't be pre ejaculating as a Nadal Fan though, too many times I have seen Nadal fans scream "Nadal is back" on these forums for it to blow up in there faces.
:devil::worship:
 
#16 ·
His serving is close to AO '09 level but not the groundstrokes so far. If he can improve the baseline play a bit more that'll be great.
 
#23 ·
Solid from Rafa. I am quite surprised by his serving, hopefully he can keep it up for a couple of matches in a row. His movement was pretty crisp too.

Baggy is next.
 
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#24 ·
:lol: It is hard as a Rafa fan these days. In his own words, "his opponent is favourite, no?" but only that it is 100% true these days. Cannot watch AO(01:00 AM to 11:30AM :banghead:). I can hopefully watch his R3 on Saturday, Good luck. Can someone post the stats please?
 
#25 ·
I wonder how many Rafatards in here actually watched the match :scratch: This was a crapfest for the most part.

"Fearhand is back"? 25 FH winners sounds good but if you compare with his 16 FH UEs, it isn't very convincing. There were more shanks than from Federer's BH on a bad day.
Mayer's form is atrocious, the guy's movement is slow as hell and his shot selection is terrible. Against a half-decent player Nadal would have lost at least a set today. Well, no matter.

I expect Rafa to raise his game. Otherwise he'll be out before the SF again.
 
#27 ·
agree and disagree. Nadal was hitting the ball reasonably well most of the match. you're right in that he was hitting far too many errors, but one would hope that its more of a mental focus issue that (presumably) would or will get better if he gets through a few rounds.
Nadal traditionally, even when in his prime, would sometimes take a few rounds to get hot so

Mayer's shot selection is always goofy, but that's sort of where he can occasionally find magic

if Nadal can improve the serve a bit and stop the stupid errors on routine shots then he could get far in the event. on a positive note I think his power and speed looked okay this match. Granted like you say, Mayer is hard to gauge given he's fairly old and never was particularly speedy
 
#26 ·
Nadal was okay

I think his movement and ballstriking is fairly good for the most part. However, his serve is pretty patchy and he's not hitting it very big. Also still seeing signs of lack of confidence or focus where he'll hit uncharacteristic errors (occasional power groundstroke like 5 feet long, missing classic down the line forehands, screwing up the occasional smash that maybe he should let bounce)

all and all a fairly solid opening win considering Funky Flow can be an extremely awkward player with his crazy shots at times. Mayer was not in great form though so its not super telling.

I think if Nadal can clean up his errors he could be dangerous, he actually has a decent draw (who's in his section? Monfils? Zverev? Raonic? he'll probably like his chances against them)
 
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#31 · (Edited)
I have to assume the "Nadal is back" comments are at least kind of joking.

I'm a big fan of Funky Flo, but the guys record on the tour after coming back in 2015 is:

0-7 on hard
3-10 on clay (d Youzhny, Montanes and Bachinger)
2-2 indoors (d Robredo and Paire)
Admittedly, his beautiful 9-4 included some good wins, but those were all on fast grass in Germany. Note that the players he beat off grass were either out of form, done, or in Bachingers case a never was. He never really had the physical part of the game anyway, but at this point he has no speed or stamina at all.

Assuming they both make it there, I am eagerly awaiting the odds on Zverev beating Nadal.


**Reading the rest of the comments, I see my point has been well established already.
 
#34 ·
Good win, any win is nice these days for us Nadal fans. :yeah:

I have a bad feeling about A. Zverev, I hope we won't say ''damn, even X almost beat him in 5 setter earlier, he survived and then beat Rafa ;('' this time as we did say similar things about Pouille last year.

Anyway, good luck for the next match Rafa. Being able to watch you on court is already a great feeling.
 
#36 ·
RAFA wasn't going to be facing BP with the way he was serving today. It feels like AO '09 or USO '10 all over again except without the best groundstrokes ever. One thing is for sure, his serve is gonna be crucial for his DCGS if he were to win it,
 
#39 ·
Raonic gave everything he had to Brisbane and still only beat Nadal by one break, on a surface far more helpful to Raonic.
In fact if Brisbane was best-of-5-sets, I doubt Raonic would have been able to beat Nadal.
Raonic had to take maximum risk in order to break Nadal.
And at the AO, Nadal in straight sets over Raonic, or maybe Raonic can win a set via tie-breaker, but Nadal will break him in most sets on a surface like the AO.
 
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