He hits his forehand flatter and with less topspin than during his prime. Nowadays, while it is still a topspin forehand, it's not really that much different from the average FH used by the rest of tour.
Carlos Moyá said as much:
"His forehand is still huge, but in a different way. Maybe the ball doesn't bounce as high as before, but we've tried that it picks up more speed across the court. Balls are heavier now, so we have to adapt in order to do damage in a different way."
This isn’t news. Anyone who has watched RAFA this year knows this. When he was hitting with spin back in 2015 he was hitting incredibly short and basically giving his opponent freebies as winners. Hitting it flatter has given him more sucess vs the rest of the tour but hurts his chances vs Federer.
Maybe. But when he's under pressure he reverts to his basic pattern: defensive moonballing.
Sadly post US Open only Federer and Cilic have managed to put him under pressure. Before US Open Querrey, Shap, Muller, Kyrgios were able to do it. Hopefully some other players take cue and establish that the US Open champion has not been great on hardcourts since 2013.
Maybe. But when he's under pressure he reverts to his basic pattern: defensive moonballing.
Sadly post US Open only Federer and Cilic have managed to put him under pressure. Before US Open Querrey, Shap, Muller, Kyrgios were able to do it. Hopefully some other players take cue and establish that the US Open champion has not been great on hardcourts since 2013.
It's still debatable whether or not Moya helped Rafa so much. We have enough evidence that hitting flatter spoiled Rafa's competitiveness against Roger and we don't know if these adjustments would be useful against Nole and Andy.
He is a bit more aggressive but he is still defensive , he take full advantage of this era, and judging by the devotion he gives, I think he deserve it, but I feel this style far from beautiful.
Nadal never was a moonballer.
Moonballs are not heavy topspin balls.
Moonballs are balls that go high in the air like lobs but used as rally shots.
That's how they got the name "moon" ball, because the moon is up high.
Look at the 1998 US Open match between Agassi and Kucera if you want to see what a moonball is, Agassi used it in the 4th set of that match.
Nadal significantly flattened out his forehand 2008 Wimbledon onwards. It was a moon-balling flat forehand complete with his whipping follow through but hit with more pace. That's what got him all those slams outside clay.
No doubt at all he's not hitting high balls as much these days. We have one major reason why. Thank you Novak Djokovic. Djokovic from as early as 2009 was showing how you could eat those moonballs up and punish Nadal if he decided to lob them up.
However sometimes it's too late to change what the viewers think. It's too late for Nadal to change the view that he's not defensive.
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