Nadal Loses a Match! Djokovic Spoils His No.1 Party

It's been a while since Nadal lost a match, hasn't it? He has lost only four matches this year, and two of them have been against Djokovic now. In beating Nadal 6-3, 6-4 today Djokovic spoiled Nadal's #1 party the day after he took over the top spot, and got an important win in the rivalry too. Just how important the win was we will find out in the future, because it is hard to draw a lot of conclusions from a surface which was low bouncing and thus didn't favor Nadal.

I thought the surface was pretty fast as well, but probably more important was that it was low bouncing. We have seen how Nadal has struggled in the past against Federer at the Masters Cup in London, even though the courts are not particularly fast. Nadal thrives when the ball bounces high because the unreal topspin he imparts on the ball causes it to kick high off the court. That play is particularly effective against the Federer single-handed backhand, but it makes it difficult for everyone.

Nadal looked very vulnerable today on this lower bouncing surface. It was really a routine win for Djokovic, who dropped only 6 points on his serve the entire match. It makes you wonder how much Nadal has benefited from the current era with slow, high bouncing surfaces. Only some of the indoor surfaces are still low bouncing, and Nadal has always struggled on them. He has for instance never won a Masters Cup, which is a flaw in his resume.

Nadal didn't choose which era he is playing in, but I think it has no doubt benefited him just like the 90's era benefited the attacking tennis of Sampras. I think that is something to take into account in a GOAT debate, because a GOAT should be able to dominate in any era. I think Sampras would not have done quite as well in the current era, while Nadal would not have done quite as well if he played in the 90's. I think Federer still has a better GOAT claim than these two because of this factor.

When Federer was in his prime the courts were not quite as slow yet as it is today. He beat Sampras on fast grass at Wimbledon 2001 for instance. Federer tends to be more of an attacking player and would no doubt benefit more from faster courts, but he is brilliant in defense as well. There is a reason he has won a French Open and made 4 more finals in Paris, losing to the best ever on clay in all those finals. Anyway I have gone off topic a bit.

Lets get back to today's tennis. After all the Nadal dominance of late I found today's result refreshing. I respect what Nadal has been able to do but it gets boring after a while. Today's result blew new life into the Djokodal rivalry and tennis. Nadal dominated the year and deserves the #1 ranking, but he was trounced today. He tried to rally in the 2nd set and break back but he never even saw a break point. It reminded me of that match where Federer defeated him 6-3, 6-0 at the Masters Cup.

He really seems impotent on the lower bouncing surfaces. As for whether Djokovic changed anything in his game plan from their last three meetings the answer is no. He didn't need to because he was able to blast winners and finish the point from the base line on this surface. That is why I don't read too much into this result in terms of the future of the rivalry. I'm not sure how high the ball bounces in Shanghai but I can see Djokovic beating him Paris or London again.

But then it's the Australian Open again where the ball bounces high, and even though it's Djokovic's best slam he may run into trouble against Nadal again if he doesn't work on his net game. A couple of wins now against Nadal won't matter much if he loses to him in Melbourne. So hopefully Djokovic realizes all of this and plans on improving his net game. It was nice to see Djokovic outplaying Nadal the way he did the day after he took the #1 ranking from him though.

He made a statement that he was not gonna just stand by while Nadal occupies the #1 spot. He wants it back. In Tokyo today Del Potro beat Raonic 7-6(5), 7-5. I guess Raonic will still have to wait a while before he wins anything bigger than an ATP 250 event. For Del Potro it was his 16th career title and yet he still hasn't won a Masters Series event. Raonic is now in touching distance with Federer, Stan, and Gasquet for the race to London with three events left to play, while you would think Del Potro is safe now.

Tomorrow the Masters Series event in Shanghai starts of course and you can view the draw here. Djokovic, Ferrer, Federer, Gasquet, and Tsonga are in the top half, while Nadal, Berdych, Del Potro, Wawrinka, and Raonic are all in the bottom half. The bottom half looks like the tougher half to be in and the potential 3rd round matches between Federer vs Gasquet and Wawrinka vs Raonic will be important for the race and should be interesting to watch.