Turning the Federer tide: the rise of Nadal

In 2008, after the epic Wimbledon Final in which Nadal triumphed over Federer, Brough Scott of the Telegraph wrote: "while the most a fevered media could extract from the courtly Roger Federer was the admission that Nadal's endless delay on serve used to be a bit irritating."
Telegraph article

This suggests that this was the way Nadal has always played against Federer. Basically he puts so much effort into the point, he uses the time between points to catch his breath and to regather his focus for the next point.

Because of the stop start nature of tennis, and the fact you can rehydrate (drink) and refuel (eat) after every two games and after every set ... this sets it apart from other "endurance" or "power" sports. That is I don't think you need "juice" to keep going ... you simply take a little more breathing time and drink and eat during the match. The key to tennis endurance is you keep warm and don't allow your muscles and joints to "freeze" or cramp up during the stop start transitions, i.e. you need to keep the muscles loose and stretched. It's a question of being ultrafit and having a match strategy that doesn't allow for an oxygen and fuel deficit to build up.

The Federer - Nadal wimbledon 08 final took 4.5 hours, which was about 1.5 hours less than the AO2012 final, which perhaps is an indication of how the game is shifting [1]

I think this also shows just how great Federer was (/ is). That the only way to beat Federer was to change the game as it were - increasing the time between points (due to the immense effort required to not lose the point against Federer early in the rally / match). Since the umpires etc allowed it, there was nothing Federer could have done. He should have changed his tactics against Nadal, but he didn't ... and the rest is history.


[1] Note: after a match, e.g such as the Djoko vs Murray AO2012 semi-final, it is essential to have a proper warm down, massage whatever, to recover the muscles and joints etc for the next match.

Rafael Nadal game r so long coz he never gets free points on serve, every serve come back at him, Rafael Nadal as to work so hard 4 every point he gets in a match, if he had Federer world class serve, u could half his match time, when Federer serve in full swing, it sum times only taka 1-2 min 2 wrap up a game, if only Nadal had Federer serve, Federer best weapon his is serve, the accurate & angles he gets is just pure quality.

Djokovic was not around to teach Federer the nuances of Tennis when Fedal played, otherwise ball-bouncing may have been an option for Federer, or perhaps waiting 30 seconds to challenge a line call (a la Del Potro).