Rafael Nadal finally beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon. After five consecutive championships, Roger relinquished the crown in five sets. Even McEnroe finally beat Borg in 1981. Pour toute la gloire du monde…
Nadal’s game has the sense of inevitability about it: his athleticism, the longer rallies, Federer’s unforced errors, the sense he gets the ball back (with a lot of power and spin) and the opponent screws up….
Eventualy, it all caught up to Federer. Had he taken advantage of his break points, he would have been in a much better position. But he needs to develop new strategies to face Nadal; it was always the Spaniard who had the championship points in their Wimbledon final. As the match wore on, Nadal’s focus was tenacious, Federer seemed to lose control at times.
Occasionally, Federer was deep in a rally and went for too much. He felt that he couldn’t win the point unless he did something extraordinary. I think he should try to break down the matches into smaller pieces, game by game, point by point. There are many little things that Federer could practice which would enhance his highly skilled game by adding a little more power.
Federer had a clear advantage in serve and volley and aces. I think it would benefit him to try to shorten points, with more angled serves, deeper backhands, more spin and slice shots. I think he could go to the net more and he shouldn’t run around his forehand as much. Federer’s number two in the world now but he’s not as far back as the public believes.