Tennispros2

Tennis Pro Analysis and How to Beat Them...

Rafael Nadal

Despite having a very good serve, he is a little bit side-on which means that you can stand to receive his serve a fraction to the right because he finds the T serve to the deuce court and wide serve to the ad court more difficult. His head stays up too far and too long which means that he can serve long or over-compensate with his arm and dump it into the net. You can take advantage of this on 2nd serves by chip charging the net. His neck and chest will then develop more anxiety and you can be rewarded with some double faults and some panic on his passing shots. His groundstrokes are beaut but his grip on the forehand favours high balls so you can slide a few slice backhands/fh's short and low to his forehand. When coming into the net, play short and low, will work better to his forehand side. He is not the best volleyer so the drop shot is a great option. I would not bother lobbing him except for early in the match to keep him guessing. He is a great athlete and has a superb smash. Because of his slight forehand grip on the volleys, he does not like low forehand volleys and high backhand volleys. He will favour playing his low fh volleys cross-court, high ones down the line, high bh volleys x-court and low bh volleys down-the-line. He has great passing shots in all directions and a superb topspin lob so if you can't drop the approach shot short, approach with caution. It would be better to bring him into the net. Ranking..He will be near or at the top for a long time. He plays well on all surfaces but he is more dangerous on clay. Prediction...his ranking will stand tall.