Operation Doubles Tennis: Rafa Wins The French Open

Rafel Nadal is 21-0 at Roland Garros, having won his third straight French Open title by defeating Roger Federer today, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Nadal is the first player since the great Bjorn Borg to win the title three times in a row.

Certain things have gradually emerged from Nadal's claycourt play.

The most important thing I think is that Rafa relishes pressure like the great major league pitcher Nolan Ryan, who said, "The greater the pressure, the more I like it." In fact, Matthew Cronin writes that Nadal "appeared to be revelling in the opportunity to participate in the high-risk moments."

Remind me if I ever need a champion to play a match my life depends on, I want Rafa to play it for me.

Another thing about his game that emerges is his serving. It isn't all that great, but his first serve percentage is consistently remarkably high. Plus, you don't know what kind of serve you're going to get from him - again like a major league pitcher. And he does what it takes to get that first serve in, saving himself much trouble with the returns of second serves. Today his first serve percentage was a whopping 77%. A lesson on how to take care of a vulnerable serve.

Rafa's winning percentage on first serve was also very high, at 70%, though he served only 2 aces.

His winning percentage on second serve was respectable too, the same as Roger Federer's at 55%.

That serve of Rafa's is no weapon, but he keeps it from being a liability by smart strategy and tactics.

Another aspect of his game that was in evidence today is how carefully he positions himself depthwise. Whenever the ball lands a little short in his court, he moves up to play shallower, constantly adjusting to the depth of the shots in the rally. He doesn't hesitate to back way off when the ball lands deep. In other words, he "goes with the flow" of depth rather than dig in on the baseline and play from there no matter what.

When you think about it, that makes sense. We position laterally according to the Angle of Return (angle of possibilities). Why should we think we needn't take the ball into consideration in positioning longitudinally as well?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, refusing to be driven deep is a virtue on fast surfaces, but I'm beginning to think that it a bad practice on clay. The surface is too slow for playing shallow to help you much, so mostly all you accomplish is making it harder to control your shots.

Other Winners:
Women's singles: Justine Henin
Men's doubles: Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor
Women's doubles: Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo
Mixed doubles: Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram