[sexybeast]

It is amazing how comfortable Nadal is dominating with his FH on his serve. Berdych always looks completely lost trying to return it, even the 2nd serve is a huge problem for Berdych.

It seems Berdych's pace is always intercepted by Nadal who is always ready to use it against Berdych, if a rocket comes down the middle the FH swing is ready to just pull the trigger.

Berdych has some trouble changing direction on his BH and this is specially true for the Nadal serve, maybe it is the spin that he just cant do anything about?

Even when Berdych is playing at an ultra high level as in Australian Open 2012 (first 2-3 sets or so atleast), all he can hope for is get to tiebreaks by holding his serve.

In Wimbledon final he was never anywhere close to even having break points on Nadal's serve and this was after dismantling both Federer and Djokovic and having no problems putting constant pressure on their serve.

I wonder if there is anything Berdych could even do? One handed bhs do a better job putting pressure on Nadal's serve, even Dimitrov's poor BH did a better job yesterday.

Ofcourse I always held true that Nadal's offensive weapons are among the most underrated in modern tennis, if you want to see why just watch Nadal play Berdych.

 

[feuselino]

It's baffling, to say the least. He really can't do anything on Nadal's serve, while he is far better at returning Federer's superior serve... good example of a match-up issue, I guess.

 

[Kyrgyros]

Great thread, I think it's because of Berdych's flat shots, they are very problematic for Fed, especially to his bh. He also reads Fed's serve much better than Nadal's and his fh return on deuce gives Fed a hell. On the other side you have Nadal, who serves wide on ad side instead of deuce side, and Tomas' bh return at stretch is much worse. He has a similar problem to Fed's one, they can either hit bh dtl (both are bad at it) or crosscourt, which Nadal murders. Even return deep middle doesn't work, because Nadal halfvolleys are great. The deuce side serve isn't that effective, but Berdych doesn't have a chance in rallies and he knows it, that's why he plays very risky return play, but even there Nadal has his numbers. So the result is clear, Nadal wins almost all the ad serves and majority of the deuce serves, there is no chance for Berdych overall.

 

[Floki]

Berdych is Nadaltard. That is his problem.

 

[tribalfusion]

Berdych is Nadaltard. That is his problem.

Actually the problem is not Berdych's but yours: you don't know anything about tennis and troll nonstop.

 

[sexybeast]

It's baffling, to say the least. He really can't do anything on Nadal's serve, while he is far better at returning Federer's superior serve... good example of a match-up issue, I guess.

Federer is not as quick on his feet to react to Berdych's rockets aswell, Nadal seem to know exactly what Berdych is going to do in all occasions. His swing is ready for any kind of rocket and to turn it right against Berdych with a perfect banana DTL (with Berdych's pace).

I think Berdych is the perfect opponent to put NAdal into a nice rythm, he will probably want to play Berdych in RG QF

 

[RocketMan70]

Federer is not as quick on his feet to react to Berdych's rockets aswell, Nadal seem to know exactly what Berdych is going to do in all occasions. His swing is ready for any kind of rocket and to turn it right against Berdych with a perfect banana DTL (with Berdych's pace).

I think Berdych is the perfect opponent to put NAdal into a nice rythm, he will probably want to play Berdych in RG QF

This, sad but true.
Birdman has the weapons to beat Nadal, but just repeatedly sends the ball into Nadal's hitting zone.
Although it was close for a while, he never looked like beating him.

 

[Time Violation]

Berdych winning ~3 points on Nadal's serve in the entire first set is comical, utterly clueless.

 

[RNW]

It is amazing how comfortable Nadal is dominating with his FH on his serve. Berdych always looks completely lost trying to return it, even the 2nd serve is a huge problem for Berdych.
It seems Berdych's pace is always intercepted by Nadal who is always ready to use it against Berdych, if a rocket comes down the middle the FH swing is ready to just pull the trigger.
Berdych has some trouble changing direction on his BH and this is specially true for the Nadal serve, maybe it is the spin that he just cant do anything about?
Even when Berdych is playing at an ultra high level as in Australian Open 2012 (first 2-3 sets or so atleast), all he can hope for is get to tiebreaks by holding his serve.
In Wimbledon final he was never anywhere close to even having break points on Nadal's serve and this was after dismantling both Federer and Djokovic and having no problems putting constant pressure on their serve.
I wonder if there is anything Berdych could even do? One handed bhs do a better job putting pressure on Nadal's serve, even Dimitrov's poor BH did a better job yesterday.
Ofcourse I always held true that Nadal's offensive weapons are among the most underrated in modern tennis, if you want to see why just watch Nadal play Berdych.

Very nice post and analysis. You really wonder, I wonder too. It is a match-up issue yes.
But in the case you are rooting for Berdych in those match you always think that he must do something or change something. As it is that easy to change it. Maybe stand into the court and take the ball enourmously early.

 

[KendricksSister]

I think Nadal just pretends to serve well because he keeps a high service percentage. Against players like Berdych who go after second serves only, this works.

 

[chalkdust]

I guess it must just be he cannot return well on the stretch on the ad side. In rallies, I notice that he just doesn't get any width going. Novak kills Rafa with width, but Berdych it seems cannot really do this effectively.

 

[Il Mancio]

One handed bhs do a better job putting pressure on Nadal's serve, even Dimitrov's poor BH did a better job yesterday.

Just because Dimitrov's OHBH did a better job than Berdych's embarrassing stats on Nadal's serve doesn't mean OHBHs return better Nadal's serves though.
Nalbandian often eat that serve for breakfast so did Dolgopolov.

 

[Il Mancio]

Berdych winning ~3 points on Nadal's serve in the entire first set is comical, utterly clueless.

Amazing :haha::haha: Challengers journeymen would have better stats.

I guess it must just be he cannot return well on the stretch on the ad side. In rallies, I notice that he just doesn't get any width going. Novak kills Rafa with width, but Berdych it seems cannot really do this effectively.

Exactly.

 

[sexybeast]

Just because Dimitrov's OHBH did a better job than Berdych's embarrassing stats on Nadal's serve doesn't mean OHBHs return better Nadal's serves though.
Nalbandian often eat that serve for breakfast so did Dolgopolov.

I was obviously comparing only Berdych's ROS against Nadal to onehanded backhanders in general.

 

[Fogmeister]

Berdych is just a pathetic mug, it's his main problem. :shrug:

 

[NID_BTFO]

How Berdych was able to straight set Nadal in AO 2015 with a bagel included remains a mystery to this day.

 

[HugoStiglitz1987]

It's baffling, to say the least. He really can't do anything on Nadal's serve, while he is far better at returning Federer's superior serve... good example of a match-up issue, I guess.

Agree, anyways it's not just vs rafa
When opponents make berdych doubt about his game, he loses his mind very easily.
He has no others strategies than hitting stronger.
He belongs to the WTA.

 

[sexybeast]

How Berdych was able to straight set Nadal in AO 2015 with a bagel included remains a mystery to this day.

It was not Nadal that day. Just the worst match Nadal has ever played in a slam.

 

[sexybeast]

Agree, anyways it's not just vs rafa
When opponents make berdych doubt about his game, he loses his mind very easily.
He has no others strategies than hitting stronger.
He belongs to the WTA.

While Berdych is absolutely owned by Djokovic he does not have the specific problem of returning the Djokovic serve.

Ofcourse he is broken more often againt Djokovic aswell.

Against Nadal he has always had a very specific problem.

 

[blackwell]

It's strange. Berddych is a very decent returner overall and has a good backhand