Why?

Hi


I was just watching the match between the match b/w Nalbandian & Davydenko. Nikoli was in prime form b4 this match. He’s such an aggressive baseliner. But when when he comes against Nalbandian and Federer, he just seems to forget his game. I was just thinking if someone could tell me what the problem is that he faces that when he comes against players of this caliber.
The same thing can be seen I mean look at James Blake ( He was at fire in US open and later on in some master series on hard courts) and I think it was Miami when he reached the finals. He was playing so well prior to that but in the finals against Federer, he was just wiped in straight three sets.
Is it the length that he(Fed) keeps or the height of the returns. Blake has a huge forehand as well. But I think Fed is the most beautiful wristy player in the tennis world.

I have watched a lot of tennis for a long time but unfortunately have played very little due to my schedule. So any of regular tennis players can explain me why this happens.

You think that Davydenko and Blake suddnely slump when they play top players, but I don't see it that way. I'm far from a regular tennis player (I don't play at all), but as far as I see it Davydenko/Blake are simply out-played on these occasions, nothing else.

Davydenko certainly didn't forget his game the last time he played Federer, or indeed the first three times they played, all of which went to three sets. Even against Nalbandian, he had a golden opportunity to break in the fourth set and take the match to five.

Yea yea yea...I used to feel like same way about Nalbandian v. Federer, Roddick v. Federer, and I am starting to feel the same way against Federer v. Rafa.

Well Blake has beaten Nadal two times and Nadal is at love against Blake. May be its the game style of Blake that gives Rafa some trouble but Not Fed.

A lot has to do with players having no belief that they can win, but it also has to do with matchups like you said. For example, Federer plays Blake completely differently than Nadal in that he feeds him lots of low bouncing shots via the slice BH which foreces Blake to hit up thereby neutralizing his power. So it's a combination of matchups and pshychological factors whenever you see one player all of a sudden "lose his game" against a player. Then there is simply the fact that someone can play like total garbage even if THEY hold the pshychological advantage and the matchup advantage i.e. Agassi vs. Chang at the 96 US Open where Agassi played like a total chump.

i think NYCtennisfan has answered my query. Game styles are different that enables Blake to beat Nadal but not the same against Fed. However just beats blake in straight sets; however this doesn't happen when he plays Nadal. Yes Nadal doesn't play the BH slice; that can be a good tech against players who have a big forehand like blake.