The real reasons behind the Nadal debacle

I genuinely believe that the majority of the analysis made so far is missing the point. Nadal did not lose the match because he was outplayed. He lost because he could not fully express himself on court. He felt, for some reasons that I am going to quickly outline here, somewhat inhibited in performing what, many believe, is the real secret of his success: his legendary antics!

Let'see in more detail why his antics did not work as effectively as usual during the final:

The alignement of the bottle: was Nadal overly concerned that clumsy ball boys could spoil the perfect geometric alignment of the bottle of water? This is obviously only a guess, but it's undeniable that Wimbledon has some of the youngest and clumsiest ball boys, and that Nadal did look every now and then at the bottles with some apprehension.

The leg towelling thing: It is no secret than Nadal hes been always at the forefront in the towels-mania which characterize modern tennis. Maybe to differentiate himself from the lot or, maybe, because of increased ball boys dexterity in handing over the towels he felt he was serving too quickly; Nadal recently introduced a new appalling feature : the toweling of the legs. I am of the opinion that Nadal, for some reasons, didn't towel is legs as freely and as often as at Roland Garros, during Wimbledon.

Clean up of the baseline: for obvious reasons Nadal had to adapt himself to the different features of centre court , including: giving up the cleaning of the baseline before starting the point, which would have had the perverse effect of cancelling the line, rather than clean it up.

The bottom scratching antic : this is surely one of the Nadal's trademark. Why did he feel inhibited in doing it? Did he fear to be exposed by a Djokovic's impersonation? Did he feel sort of uneasiness in performing this antic in front of the royal box?

And you, what do you think about it? Did Nadal play poorly because he could not perform well his antics?

Disagree. He started superbly, breaking down the little kid with Downs Syndrome by making him wait at the coin toss for ages, so was off to a great start.

After that I saw no variation from the bum/ears/pocket routine on serve. He may have been upset at having to wait longer to receive than his opponent, something that Djokovic has supplanted him as GOAT at.

This is a humorous take on his debacle.

I did notice that when the two were coming out of the dressing rooms to centre court that Djokovic's body language was very positive and Nadal's was subdued but I'm not sure if that's usually the case with Nadal? I was surprised by Djokovic's body language though, he'd never made a Wimbledon final, but you'd never have known from his body language.

Agreed bogbrush, I thought Nadal was bad with making others wait but Djokovic takes it to another level!

luciusmann wrote:Agreed bogbrush, I thought Nadal was bad with making others wait but Djokovic takes it to another level!

I am not sure about that. We have teh impression Djoko takes more time cause he bounces the ball longer but he is quicker to the service position than Nadal.

I'd think Djoko is probably 5sec shorter than Nadal. Plus where Nadal takes lots of time is with second serve and let serves.....That where he goes way beyond the 30s reaching 55secs. Though I suspect he cut that down in slams cause the rules are a bit stricter.

What's going to be interesting now is that if Nadal loses this invicibility and teh attention shifts to Djoko, will Nadal be given the same treatment as when number one or are the referees going to be a bit more on the clock from now?

bogbrush wrote:Disagree. After that I saw no variation from the bum/ears/pocket routine on serve. He may have been upset at having to wait longer to receive than his opponent, something that Djokovic has supplanted him as GOAT at.

Very strange, I was so sure he did less of those odd routines in the final. Shame that nobody keeps some stats about it: they would help enormously in the post match analysis......

Might aswell turn the 20 seconds rule into 40 seconds, then the players will have no fault but their own if they abuse it..

If they did apply rigorously a 40 sec rule, taking the time after each point and displaying the time remaining, visible to all on court, I believe this would be the end of Nadal. It's quite clear he exceeds 40 sec at least a couple of time each game......

Wasn't it more of a case that he couldn't keep with Novak's antics?

The legendary ball bouncing before he served was timed to perfection. Enough to irritate Nadal but just about within the bounds of acceptability as far as the umpire was concerned.

His posturing was top notch too. He's toned down the Tarzan impressions a bit though the eating of the grass ritual at the end just about takes the biscuit.

The legendary ball bouncing before he served was timed to perfection. Enough to irritate Nadal but just about within the bounds of acceptability as far as the umpire was concerned.

His posturing was top notch too. He's toned down the Tarzan impressions a bit though the eating of the grass ritual at the end just about takes the biscuit.

Jealous much

JM I'm reminded of the joke about the American footballer who was asked if he preferred grass or astroturf.
"Don't know." came the reply. "Never smoked astroturf".

Djokovic > Nadull

No more whining until the next slam please

I love the fact that some people seem to be taking a satirical article at face value!

I would however add that although Nadal was clearly off form with the bottle-aligning, leg towelling, bottom scratching, the one thing that stopped him losing in straight sets was his impeccable (as always) Gordon the Gopher impersonation

Gordon the Gopher



and there's me thinking he looked like Danger mouse.

His squeals of anguish during the match were quite amusing