Mens Tennis Forums banner

In which 1 year period did Nadal played his best tennis

  • From the start of the 2008 clay season until the end of 2009 Miami Masters

    Votes: 37 67.3%
  • In the 2010 season

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • From the Chile Open 2013 until the 2014 AO Final

    Votes: 10 18.2%
  • Other (pls specific in comments)

    Votes: 2 3.6%

In which 1 year period did Nadal played his best tennis?

3K views 28 replies 25 participants last post by  Police of Mind 
#1 ·
I think there are 3 different 1-year time period which are potential to be the best Nadal ever played, obviously these are the most successful periods for the Spanish tennis player:

From the 2008 clay season until the 2009 Miami Masters tournament:
-10 titles overall: 3 Grand Slams (Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon), 4 Masters (Monte-Carlo, Hamburg, Rogers Cup, Indian Wells), Summer Olympics Beijing, Barcelona ATP 500, Aegon Championship ATP 250. By surface: HC-4 titles Clay-4 titles Grass-2 titles.
-ATP Number 1 after winning Wimbledon 2008
-Defeating Roger Federer for each of his GS win, 5 setters at AO and W.
-SF at US Open, didn't play WTF

The 2010 Season
-7 titles overall: 3 Grand Slams (Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open), 3 Masters (Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome), Tokyo ATP 500. By surface: HC-2 titles Clay-4 titles Grass-1 title
-ATP Number 1 after winning RG 2010
-Defeating Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic in GS finals.
-SF at AO, F at WTF

From Chile Open 2013 until Australian Open 2014:
-11 titles overall: 2 Grand Slams (Roland Garros, US Open), 5 Masters (Indian Wells, Rome, Madrid, Rogers Cup, Cincinnati), Acapulco ATP 500, Barcelona ATP 500, Brasil Open ATP 250, Doha ATP 250. HC-5 titles Clay-6 titles
-ATP Number 1 after winning US Open
-Defeating David Ferrer and Novak Djokovic in his GS finals.
-F at AO, 1R at W and F at WTF

It is clear from this that the 2010 season was not that great for Rafael Nadal, winning only 7 titles I wouldn't choose that period for his best form. I added the 2013 period because that was the most successful period for him in number of titles, but only 7 of his titles were Masters or GSs. In the first period this number is also 7 but we should add the olympics there also so it is 8 titles from spring 2008- spring 2009.

For me:
Best period is 2008 obviously best HC-clay-grass tennis
2013 HC tops 2010 HC and vica cersa on clay so those two seasons are pretty close only because of winning Wimbledon i give the edge to 2010.

1. Clay season 2008 - Miami Masters 2009
2. 2010 season
3. 2013 season plus 2014 AO.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Clay Season/Wimbledon 2008.
 
#16 ·
I used titles mostly to decide on the separation and it wouldn't change much, but I agree with you about 2010-11. I considered that really much but in the end my choice was to let it be only 2010.

About 2008 both his 2008 Miami loss and 2009 Miami loss came from 2 of his nemesis, Davydenko and Del Potro respectively. In 2008 he did reach the final, but the draw is a factor there as well.
 
#6 ·
That 2008-09 stretch was insane, it was weird to see him losing to Murray at USO after that kind of form. Overall he was unbeatable in defence plus his fh was killing everything, bh wasn't just a defensive shot and serve wasn't massive failure either. His best year on clay and on grass.
2010-2011 saw more matured Nadal, he won 3 slams including his best service wise tournament US Open, there was the best Nadal I've ever seen. But for me, his overall 2010 form wasn't that good, it was more like Fed's 2009, his main opponent was missing and Murray and Djokovic still had problems.
2013 was Nadal's best on hc for longer period, it was pleasure to watch his more agressive approach, he was coming to the net more frequently. But his clay form wasn't even close to 2010 or even 2008, grass form was atrocious.

So yes, clay 2008-AO 09>2010>2013
 
#11 · (Edited)
yeah competition was just too strong for him to win something significant outside of clay. I agree with you overall in 2014 we witnessed peak nadal considering pure level of play from him.
 
#13 ·
2006. Since his game is extremely reliant on movement, he was at his best when he had his freshest legs and some experience.
 
#14 ·
2008 to early 2009. Peak movement coupled with a deadly backhand (something he did not possess in the other periods) makes this Nadal's best period. Despite losing in the U.S. Open to Murray, I thought he played better competition that year in NY than in 2010 (which you have to admit was an extremely soft draw) and 2013.

The difference for me in 2008 was the backhand. He never really captured the magic on that wing again.
 
#24 ·
On the other hand Rafa did improve his serve especially at 2010 USO. Also his dtl fh has improved. On other hand his NA hard court swing was impressive as well.

On clay and grass it's hard to pick between 2008 and 2010.

But we know from MTF that Nadal can only play on clay, despite beating Federer at Wimbledon/AO and beating arguably the best hard court player ever at USO final, twice...

Best of the best.
 
#15 ·
Actually he was very good in the first half of 2012.
barely losing the AO final but served and moved really well, then dominating the clay season.
 
#20 ·
2001-2014 are his peak years obviously.
 
#21 · (Edited)
2008 for clay and grass, 2013 for hardcourts
2008 physically, 2013 technically

it's hard to choose between them otherwise, even if I appreciated more the way he changed his game to play great on hardcourts in 2013

2010 was clearly worse imo, and people may not really remember but he played a lot of bad matches, with bad backhands, in that period
 
#22 · (Edited)
Definitely 2008-09, that was vintage Nadal especially with his groundstrokes esp confidence on his backhand, footwork, crazy good placement on his forehand and insane stamina.

I would say his sweetest victory in 2008-09 was when he beat Novak in the semis at the Olympics on hard courts which I certainly didnt expect given Novak cleaned his clock at Cincy 2 weeks before that match.
Im saying this win is the sweetest for Nadal given his reaction after winning the match as it pretty much guaranteed him the Gold Medal. Also, Djokovic has always been his worst matchup on hardcourts

The H2H between Roger and Rafa really took off in Rafas favour in 2008-09. Beat Roger in both the Wimbledon and Aus Open finals. He proved himself to be a very worthy world #1 and he took the #1 ranking off Roger who had held it for 237 consecutive weeks.
 
#25 ·
Nadal's form in 2013 NA HC swing was just incredible, especially his aggressive intent. He was really stepping in and those DTL forehands were awesome, unplayable. I don't have the stats but it would be interesting to compare the average number of outright winners he achieved across those three tournament wins compared to other years.

But I can still recall his ability at net and amazing BH passes from 2008, and the significantly greater movement. Added to his already beastly forehand. So his 2008-9 shades it for me.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top