Nadal is a left-handed player which, in conjunction with his other attributes, is a key part to his success, according to Chang.
Clay is the natural surface for Spanish players, with about , red-dirt courts across the country - even most small villages have them. So it is not surprising that Nadal is the latest in a long line of Spanish success - albeit far more sustained than his predecessors - at Roland Garros. Nadal's 13 wins, plus triumphs for Sergi Bruguera two , Carlos Moya, Albert Costa and Juan Carlos Ferrero, means the nation has accounted for 18 of the past 25 male champions.
Playing and learning on clay is natural for Spanish people. Majorca-born Nadal first stepped on to clay aged four, starting to practise at his local tennis club in Manacor with his uncle Toni - the man who developed and coached him until retiring in The clay courts stay in good condition in the good weather and means you can practise on them all year round because of the weather.
Nadal has only lost twice at Roland Garros - he pulled out before his last match against fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers in with a wrist injury. Long-time rival Djokovic was the last person to actually beat him on court, winning in straight sets in their quarter-final.
Djokovic went into the match as the favourite, being the world number one and on a match winning streak. Nadal's first defeat at Roland Garros, however, was a seismic shock. A last victory in earned Robin Soderling, an unheralded Swede who had never previously checked into the second week of a Grand Slam, a place in the sport's history books.
There is no other way of beating him on clay. You have to take the initiative. Analysis and opinion from the BBC's tennis correspondent.
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Listen to nocturnal mixtapes specially curated from his music collection. Rafael Nadal won his first French Open aged 19 in , claiming his 13th title in This is an updated version of an article published after Nadal won his 11th French Open title in June Top Stories.
Australia stun Pakistan to reach final. In the season, Nadal has taken home three titles—one in Monte-Carlo, one in Barcelona and one in Italy—proving that he is simply better on clay than he is on hard courts.
At the Australian Open, Nadal made it all the way to the finals before squaring off against Novak Djokovic and was then barely edged out in the longest match ever for a Grand Slam title. Clearly Nadal knows his way around a hard court—he won the Australian Open and the U.
Open—but as of late it has been breaking him down physically. In Miami for the Sony Ericsson Open, Rafa was set to face off against Andy Murray in the semifinals, but had to withdraw because of knee problems.
Hard courts are obviously not as soft as clay and therefore not as forgiving on injuries. This shows just how better suited Nadal is for clay rather than hard courts. Not only is dirt a better fit for Rafa physically, but it also matches his style of play. RPMs or revolutions per minute , which in tennis describes how much spin is produced by a player when hitting a shot.
These four players are some of the hardest-hitting players in tennis history. However, they never utilized topspin as much as Nadal; instead, they used their power alone and would generally hit the flat ball, meaning that barely any spin was produced.
Combine the freakish physique, and the way he plays the clay surface was meant for him. Since the surface is slower, he has more time to set up and generates a shot with high amounts of power but with much more topspin. As a result, his opponent knows that he hits hard, but they don't know how high the ball will bounce after the first bounce. With more topspin, there is more pop and spin, which results in the ball bouncing higher. This effect on the ball forces opponents to change their footing, back up, and rewind, which causes them to rush their shot.
As I mentioned before, his playstyle is also one reason he is so fit for clay. His two main shots are his forehand and serving slice out wide on the ad side. This puts him in advantage since he plays left landed. Since the majority of players on tour are right-handed they are not accustomed to playing against left-handed players. When they do they have to readjust all their positioning which puts the favor on the match for the lefty from the beginning.
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