Now that we know that Nadal has injured his hand he uses for the back hand DH BH , Will the rivals try to take advantage by putting the ball on the Back Hand more.
In a way they were already doing that whenever they can because of the much FEARED FEARHAND but will they try that even more ...
Previously NAdal used to run around backhands on slow courts to take them on the forehand but since he lacks the "ETERNAL YOUTH" ala Federer , he cant keep doing it every time. So that will force him to play more BH in conjunction with what his opponents do.
I expect that there will be some tactical changes coming in NAdal matches and not just how Nadal adjusts his game , but also how his opponents adjust theirs.
Truth be told, his opponents have tried that for years and he's managed a forehand-dominant game. Why would that change now?
If there were a time to do it, it would have been when his confidence was severely struggling with that shot due to in large what Djokovic had done to it, he was staggering in his movement on that end, and every third or fourth ball he gave up from it was full of air.
They tried to avoid Rafa's forehand before but Rafa has sufficient time to move to his forehand side on clay. Not sure about it on hard court. Hope Rafa will recover asap.
If Rafa's right hand doesn't recover before USO, and he still decides to play, he'll obviously slice 90% of the shots because his usual backhand is very right hand dominant.
For his opponents a good tactic would be to pin him in the backhand corner with cross court shots and then go for an approach shot to the backhand again and force Nadal to pass.
This is when Rafa's strong right hand usually comes into play and he hits those unreal passing shots on the back foot.
rafa doesn't need a backhand to beat 99.9 percent of the tour tbh, but djokovic will exploit his lack of backhand.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Mens Tennis Forums
18.5M posts
87.7K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to male tennis players and enthusiasts. Talk about everything from the ATP, NSMTA, to college Tennis and even everything about equipment. It's all here!