French Open Round One - ATP

First topic message reminder :

Surprised no one has created a thread about it yet.

Anyhow...Federer more solid and Lopez less inspired made the task easier for the Swiss that in Madrid.

I wasn't impressed by Federer though. Seemed actually slow today on his legs. Not sure whether he is trying to prevent injuries at this stage of teh year (memory from Halles?), but it is also his FH that I found lacking consistency and pace. All those years of having to hit loopy balls seems to have taken the sting out of what used to be the deadliest shot in history.

socal1976 wrote:i don't know Rafa just doesn't look right to me, no way he would drop a couple of sets to John Isner at Roland Garros in years past.

If Nadal remembers he can sometimes use his backhand in a match, he'll be fine very soon!

Tennis isn't about continuously trying to ONLY hit your forehand, however good it maybe!!!

He actually does have a good backhand, have to agree with sonic there. Rafa to me is dropping the ball too short on the forehand. That to me is one major problem that he has displayed this clay court season. He had these issues before but after the year he had last year I thought that those issues were behind him. He needs to use his up the line forehand more as well he just keeps going cross court all the time. Not a lot of variety to his game right now.

Actually Nadal has a poor BH along the line. He loops it almost everytime, unless he he has to pass the player at the net.

This shows Nadal's approach to the game. Way too risky a shot for him. It's like his volleying, with his cross court or inside out FH he could com to the net much more often to finish an easy point but refuses to do it and prefer to keep on playing from the back.

Those weaknesses are clearly exposed by Djoko and Davydenko.

Nadal has had a poor length all year (pardon the expression...cough cough)

Lydian, lol real didn't want to think about Nadal's length problems outsided of a tennis court.