Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the end of the semi final round match at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships at the AELTC in London, UK, on July 12, 2019. Photo by Corinne Dubreuil/ABACAPRESS.COM
Rafael Nadal has declared that the “one thing” Roger Federer “got wrong” in his career was allowing the Spaniard to “repeat shots on his backhand” in their rivalry.
The Mallorcan also highlighted the fact that Federer made a “very important change” by moving to a bigger racket and adopting a “much more aggressive” approach to combat this issue in 2017.
Prior to the 2017 season, Nadal had dominated the pair’s rivalry and held a resounding 23-11 record, having previously had 23-10 and 6-1 advantages.
Nadal found huge success using his superb, left-handed heavy-topspin forehand into Federer’s one-handed backhand – a pattern the latter had struggled to find an answer to since their first clash in 2004.
This changed in 2017, however, when Federer switched to a racket with a larger head and adopted an ultra attacking mindset that saw his backhand become a weapon in a resurgent season.
Federer won all four of his encounters with Nadal in 2017 and six of their last seven meetings overall as the head-to-head finished at 24-16 in the Spaniard’s favour following the Swiss’ 2022 retirement.
In an interview with El Pais, Nadal discussed the adjustments Federer implemented to great effect in his impressive 2017 comeback and how it impacted their rivalry.
“When he returned in 2017, after his injury, he made a very important change. He moves to a bigger racket, which hits harder, and makes a mental change,” the 37-year-old said.
“Since he knows he can’t run like he used to, he becomes a much more aggressive player, and that really hurts me. He was better than me on hard, but up until that point I think I had beaten him more often on hard.
“But he reinvents himself and takes another turn in his game: hyper-aggressiveness. My tactic of punishing his backhand still works, but it has less effect because he doesn’t let me do it: he plays very fast. He doesn’t allow me to rehearse against his weak point.
“That’s one thing he got wrong in his career: he let me repeat shots on his backhand. His answer was a sliced backhand, and I have a very good shot when it’s sliced, it doesn’t bother me, I like to return it, and I return it hard, I’m not uncomfortable.”
Nadal defeated world No 98 Dominic Thiem 7-5, 6-1 in the opening round of the 2024 Brisbane International on Tuesday in his first match in almost a year.
The Spaniard brought a high level as he broke the former world No 3 and US Open champion three times and did not face a break point on his own serve in a convincing victory.
The former world No 1 had not played a singles match since suffering a hip injury in a defeat to Mackenzie McDonald in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open.
Nadal will take on world No 102 Jason Kubler in the second round of the ATP 250 tournament on Thursday.
