NADAL AND THE RED DIRT…..(written before the French Open 2008)

Whenever a bull sees red….it goes berserk. Especially when the bull concerned is a certain Rafael Nadal from the Spanish island of Mallorca, the significance of RED assumes Herculean proportions. By the way for your information, you might be wondering who Rafael Nadal is----Ohh!!…I forgot to mention- he is a 3 time defending champion at the French Open and health permitting would be holding aloft the musketeers cup for a 4th consecutive time in a weeks time( Nadal is already into the quarterfinals of this years open at the expense of just 22 sets….and a blistered foot).
After all there has to be something very special in this muscleman man from Spain that all the players at the beginning of the clay court season run helter skelter at the prospect of facing the southpaw. Only two people have been able to find themselves as winners against him on the red clay over a period of 4 years and 112 matches running , that too courtesy fatigue and injury hampering him respectively on the two occasions. Let us take a brief sojourn into the land of the variegated repertoires found in this unrelenting warrior’s game. The journey would be nothing short of awe and inspiring…..

Clay as a surface is the slowest of all the surfaces on which tennis is played. Here the ball bounces much higher than the other surfaces and the pace of the ball once it lands on the surface considerably slows down. This explains why serve and volleyers over the years have found that surface menacing .I just wish Sampras to have said “ Clay is for bulls” akin to Ivan Lendl’s famous comment “ Grass is for cows”. That explains why clay court specialists generally under perform on faster surfaces.

So what is that magic potion that has kept Rafael Nadal way ahead of his contemporaries when it comes down to playing on the red dirt. There are many clay court specialists in today’s game but none of them stand a chance when playing against Nadal. Reasons: Many. Apparently it seems that the mitochondria count of Nadal exceeds his peers by a huge amount, which is why even after a long match, Nadal always seems to be fit enough to play another match. But this alone cannot be the reason for this seemingly impossible record on the most difficult of surfaces. There must be something in his game.

Firstly Nadal has a serve which may not be the most powerful but is extremely effective on clay. He serves to the wide of the player and uses the court to his advantage. His serve involves a lot of top spin which imparts considerable bounce and pushes the opponents way off the court. That gives him ample time to use the court to his will which he does wonderfully even staying way behind the baseline. Moreover statisticians would find it interesting to note that Nadal’s first serve percentage in most of his matches on clay is alarmingly higher compared to the other surfaces. What sets him apart is his defensive abilities , with the added advantage that the ball travels slower than most surfaces, Nadal is always there to retrieve the ball. This puts the opposition under immense pressure as they go for winners more often than not , as a result of which their unforced errors creep, and the end result- another Rafael Nadal win.

The story does not end here. Any thoughts of Nadal winning only because of his defensive abilities vanishes when you watch this man execute his attacking game. The striking feature is that he keeps opponents perplexed, as most of the time he plays the waiting game and suddenly changes gear unleashing one of his vicious forehands down the line or an unbelievable cross court backhand winner. The opponent in most of the cases is nothing but a sitting duck.

Now the question comes who can master him on Clay?? At the moment I feel nobody can beat him precisely because of his belief that he will win under any circumstances. Ask Mr. Federer, no one has suffered more at the hands of Nadal than the current world number one. At Hamburg this year, Federer was leading 5-1 and had set point against a half fit and fatigued Nadal, went on to lose the set-5-7. This sums up the never say die attitude that Nadal possesses. You cannot try and become a Federer but you can try and become like Nadal- he is an inspiration to all and sundry – he never gives up till the point is lost. When the chips are down , very few players can play in the manner in which Nadal plays. Watching him on the court is a much better option than attending self-confidence gaining lectures. Even after being so dominant, he says "I feel when I go on court I can lose every day and I feel I have to play my best tennis if I want to continue winning”.

Talent coupled with such grit has merged into lethal weapon –which has destroyed the self belief of his opponents when they take on him on clay. Sometimes it looks as if the players just go there to complete a formality-i.e. play the match. If he has to be beaten on that surface, then self belief is the most important ammunity.In the case of Federer there have been so many occasions where he could have emerged out victorious , but he just needs that self belief that he can beat him-because he has the game to beat him on clay.
Federer won Wimbledon in 2007 because he believed he would not lose. He somehow has to transcend that same confidence which he possesses in the hallowed grass of SW19 to Paris to beat Nadal. Its just that he has to be patient, wait for the opportune moment to attack and more frequently employ his sliced backhand so that he can fulfill his long cherished dream of winning in Paris on the 2nd Sunday. If not every time he would fall short of this Bull from Mallorca and time is fast catching up with him as he is getting no younger.

I just wish by the time Roger hangs up his racquet he can add a French Open crown to his glittering CV else children of the future generation might have to remember another famous last words as part of their general knowledge curriculum. Those last words would be that of a certain Mr. Roger Federer, a one time tennis player, who died as the CEO of EVERADY INDIA LIMITED uttering his last words as: “GIVE ME RED”.