Nadal Wins Fourth French Open

Rafael Nadal has won his fourth consecutive French Open title, dismissing Roger Federer with stunning ease: 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Playing better than ever, Nadal cruised through this year's Roland Garros without dropping a set. Federer needed to play his very best and try some new tactics to have any chance, but he played far below his best, and except for coming to net a little more often, Roger played with essentially the same tactics that lost to Nadal in their previous three French Open meetings. For 20 minutes or so during the second set, Roger was able to push Rafa with some deep, hard, relatively low forehands, often followed by a volley, but Roger's margins for that forehand are precariously small, especially on clay, where unpredictable bounces make timing and racquet positioning much more difficult, and he ended up missing more than he made. Rafa has no problem with margins, because he hits his massive topspin several feet above the net and usually nowhere near the opponent's baseline.

Roger's one-handed backhand has always been vulnerable to the high bounce of Nadal's topspin, and Rafa attacked it relentlessly. At one point late in the match, NBC television showed a graphic of Nadal's first-serve placement; 100% of Rafa's first serves had gone to Roger's backhand. Rafa uses a topspin-slice first serve that has enough topspin to kick around shoulder-high on Roger and enough lefty slice to stretch Roger wide on the backhand, especially on the ad side. A righty would use a twist serve to get a similar result. On more than 90% of his backhands, most of which were at least chest-high, Roger tried to hit topspin, which is difficult on a high ball, and his attempts often ended in error. On the relatively few occasions where he sliced the high backhands, his percentages seemed better.

Photo Lesson: The One-Handed Backhand Sidespin Slice
Photo Lesson: The Topspin-Slice First Serve
Photo Lesson: The Twist Serve
Photo Study of the Roger Federer Forehand
Photo Study of the Rafael Nadal Backhand