He indeed attacks a litte more at the AO and takes the ball earlier. But to say he is an "aggressive" player would be an insult to all true attacking players like Federer. His game is still more or less about pushing.
BTW, did Nadal hit an around the net shot in the 5th set against Monfils??? , I´m sure I saw it, I think it went below the net heigth and as much as I dislike Nadal, I did like that shot, maybe one of the few I really liked from Nadal but his fans here are not commentating on it so I´m not sure if I did see well
I think he means less about hitting straight out winners, but rather about dictating play
We've seen Nadal dictate play and win events many times throughout his career where he didn't necessarily hit a lot of winners. the two don't necessarily go hand in hand. Forcing errors rather than waiting for them is what I imagine him talking about more
for example, he WAS dictating play in the first two sets against Monfils. Monfils felt uncomfortable and was on the backfoot most of the time. Partially Monfils just being Clownfils strategically, and part of it was Nadal being somewhat aggressive on the serve and hitting deep
I think Nadal speaks more about keeping his opponent back and neutral. When he is serving well and hitting the average groundstroke deep he generally maintains a good grasp on how a match is going.
You're never going to see a Nadal go out and hit winners at a level of like Federer, but obviously he can control a match in what would be regarding as an aggressive fashion by throwing his opponents from side to side and not letting them step up against him. he'll need to do that against Raonic for example
RAFA doesn't hit as many winners but that doesn't mean he is NOT an attacking player. RAFA's creates insane angles on his groundstrokes primarily to FORCE errors from opponents which is equivalent to attacking. So the high number of winners doesn't imply attacking tennis. RAFA is incredibly underrated as an attacking player. Alongside Stanimal, he is the most attacking player left in the draw.
if dull hit flat and played attacking tennis, we all know he would have zero slams. His tennis is about constricting his opponent like a BOA constrictor. It's disgusting to the core of tennis and humanity, but what can you do?
He doesn't play controlled aggression like Djokovic, he just moonballs to opponent's bh and runs around like a rabbit :lol: I guess that's still better than Fraud's junkballing, not to mention Mugray's pushing.
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