It’s another measure of how good Rafael Nadal’s season was that, even as he took home three majors and three Masters and finished No. 1 for the second time, he did it without having to survive one of the drawn-out, see-saw, viciously physical nail-biters we’ve come to expect from him. There was no Rome 2006 against Federer or Madrid 2009 against Djokovic. But just when it seemed like it was too late, Nadal, maybe for old times sake, made his last victory of the season a vintage walk across the tightrope. Now we’ve got one more to add to his reputation as the game’s premier closer: London 2010 against Andy Murray, the 3rd-best match of the year.
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Like virtually everyone else, Murray has a losing record against Nadal, but he’s still a tricky match-up for him. As you can see from a long early rally here, there aren’t a lot of places Nadal can go. Murray’s backhand is his stronger shot, so Rafa can’t work the rallies with his crosscourt forehand the way he would like.
For him to break open a rally against Murray requires some extra effort, a strong inside-out forehand that gets Murray scrambling to his forehand side and opens up the other side of the court. Naturally, at 6-5 in the first set tiebreaker, the most important point of the match to that point, that’s exactly what Nadal does. His forehand drop volley to win the set reminds me of the backhand drop volley he played to save a set point against Murray at Wimbledon. Both times, Nadal went bold at the crucial moment; both times it worked. Part of me wonders why he doesn’t play a bolder brand of tennis all the time, but that’s a little like asking why he almost exclusively hits his serve to Federer’s backhand side. Surprise is a tactic, too. And why mess with success?
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I’d forgotten about the little forehand crosscourt flick that Nadal sends past Murray at the net (and which, for some reason, he apologizes for hitting). That shot reminds me of seeing Nadal very early in his career in Australia. He could bruise you from the baseline, but I knew he was something special, and a tennis player by DNA, when he came up with a similar little forehand around the net. That’s been one of the great aspects of following Nadal’s career. He can do things you might not expect a player of his style to be able to do so well. Besides the touch around the net, who would think that a baseliner who’s not known for his serve would have the fiercest overhead in tennis?
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This match turned on the forehand. Murray had used his backhand as a major weapon in beating Nadal in Australia at the beginning of the season, but Rafa wasn’t going to let that happen again. He made Murray beat him from the other side. At times, Murray was up to it; he went bigger with his forehand than normal, and he closed out the second set by sending one up the line for a winner. But Nadal has a better version of that shot, which from a tactical standpoint makes his life much less complicated. He knows the play he needs to use—work the point so he gets an inside-out forehand—so there’s never much doubt about what he should be doing. For Nadal, it’s a matter of having the confidence to make the right play.
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Nadal breaks early in the second set by jumping on a backhand return and forcing Murray to miss a volley. He did the same on an important point against Roddick earlier in the tournament. You can serve and volley against him when you go wide in the deuce court, but in the ad court it’s much tougher.
Later, when he has match point, Nadal misses a much easier backhand return long. The one place where he regularly shows his nerves is when he has to return a second serve at break point. If I’m playing him, I might consider intentionally missing my first serve in that situation.
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In the closing stages, I expected Nadal to pull it out; I have a hard time remembering him ever losing a match when it’s close in the decisive set. But when Murray went up 3-0, I thought Rafa was finished. Now that I see it again, when Murray hits the shot to go up 3-0, he doesn’t react with any assertiveness. Instead, he looks concerned. When Nadal hits a forehand winner to make it 4-4 in the tiebreaker, he has no trouble showing how much he wants it. There’s just a little bit of doubt or hesitation in Murray’s mind.
From a tactical standpoint, what can Murray do differently? You might say he should come forward more, because he is one of the best natural volleyers among the singles players. But I just got through writing a post calling Nadal the best passer of all time. What did work for Murray in this match was hitting big into Nadal's forehand and going from there, but that's risky, too. Murray tends to miss that flat forehand up the line pretty regularly. Just watching Nadal, I would say you have to concentrate on his backhand and see what happens. Murray does have the ability to push him wide on that side.
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Like I said, this one comes down to the forehand; two of them to be exact. At 6-6, Murray goes for an all-out, inside-out winner. He misses by an inch of two; with his stroke, he just doesn’t get the topspin he needs to hit that type of shot with a ton of safety. At 7-6, it’s Nadal’s turn to go for it all with an inside-out forehand. He makes it, by the same couple of inches that Murray missed his.
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Late in this match, I also got the feeling that part of Nadal wanted Murray to win. I’m probably wrong in that, but there’s a little added commiseration from him when they meet at the net. Nadal is about to go out and accept his victory applause, at which point he has to forget his opponent’s defeat. But he pats Murray on the back one more time. The look on his face when he does says that on certain days, victory can come with a little bit of regret, too.