French Open 2008 was such a one-sided final. Roger Federer, world number 1, only managed 4 games against Rafa. It was a massacre through and through. Sometimes it can be rather stupefying watching a relentless Rafael Nadal own a player of Federer's calibre like it happened today.
Well, today, like the rest of the past 2 weeks, Rafa played perfect tennis. Without a doubt, he has improved further on clay, and today's final was a complete annihlation. Bagel in the final set. ouch. ouchhh.
What was sad to see was how easily dispirited Federer gets. Sure, its easy to sit on your couch and commentate, but watch Nadal, after he makes a (rare) unforced error. He curses under his breath, and then does his routine again, walk to the back, strings, sweeps the line, spits, hair, bounces, picks his shorts, get on with it. Roger? shoulders drop, curses, plays tentative on the next point. Of all people, he should know that at that level of tennis it is all physical and mental. And clearly, everytime he faces Rafa (on clay), he already starts off on a losing foot with his mental outlook. Somehow, and I actually think it is a matter of ego, he can't quite come to terms that he being the world number 1 for the longest time ever, being considered possibly the best player ever, is being ridiculed in such a manner.
Well Roger, face it. We might as well accord Nadal the title of best player on clay, ever. Let's talk tactics. When an average player faces a clearly better player, the average player is extremely unlikely to outplay the better player. He has to play to his own advantages and bring the better player out of his comfort zone. Then, he has a chance. He might still lose, and lose even more, but there is a better chance of winning. Otherwise it is still 80-20 in the better player's corner. And that's exactly how it panned out. I think Roger still cannot believe he is inferior to Rafa on clay by this much; his approach should then be to try different shots and plays that he himself seldom uses to surprise Nadal. Granted, some effort was done today. More volleys, drop shots. So what went wrong?
1. Fed's volleying was poor today. It was poor during the entire French Open. 30% of the time it is good, and it looks elegant and beautiful. But he still loses on 70% on other times.
2. The top spin backhand. Nadal has been going to Fed's backhand for 4 years (in Paris), and Fed almost always insists on hitting back his top spin back hand. and 80% of the time it is a mid court ball, which is Rafa's money shot area. I felt he could have sliced more today. Yes again, he might have lost in any case ... simply because ...
3. Rafa was just amazing today. Some of the volleys to the back of the court were returned exceptionally well. Passing shots, lobs, you name it. Rafa played perfect tennis today.
Somehow, the idea of winning got lost for Roger. In tennis, foremost to any player, is to win. And to win is to score points. Yet somehow one gets the feeling that Roger is going for the beauty shots, as if he will be crucified whenever he wins ugly. As for Rafa? Today's game was seemingly a cake walk. He broke Roger so many times early in the set, and if I was him I would think, if it ain't broken, why change my gameplan? Roger's throwing me the trophy! Heavy balls back to his court, and let him attempt his line cleaning shots.
Watching Federer is like watching a dance; elegant, artistic, enjoyable. Watching Nadal is inspiring. I like Federer -- don't get me wrong -- but there is much to learn from watching a grinder like Nadal play as well. At the very least, at the amateur level, we can grind better than we can play drop shots 1m from the net.
Aside from the match, I thought it to be pretty funny that Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander came out and said Roger had a good chance to win (prior to the match, obviously). Surely, if they have been following the events of the past 2 weeks, it was clear that Rafa was playing at the top of the clay court game the world has ever seen. I honestly put the match at 80-20 to Rafa. I think deep down, Borg probably wanted his record of 4 French Opens in a row not to be bested by anyone, so rooting Fed was probably right. And if Borg went on record to say Nadal was surefire to win, I think Fed would have even less belief in himself facing Rafa!
Another aside: Didn't anyone think that the commentators were severely biased towards Roger? I mean, I like Fed, but I'm sure the Nadal fans would be seriously annoyed by his constant prejudice. Everything he talked on was from the viewpoint of Roger, seriously, everything! Rafa's fantastic play today deserved so much more praise than was given by the commentator. Perhaps this is something the TV station needs to take note of.
Aside #3. I was quite looking forward to this game, even though I predicted a whitewash. Nevertheless, I offered 4/1 odds to a friend for Fed to win. This friend (who shall not be named -- suffice to say he is a Fed fan) refused to take up the odds! haha. So much for support! (just kidding dude) As the game went on, it was quite interesting to see that Fed odds were given 7/1 , then 10/1, and on the final set at 5-0, an amazing 201/1 !!!
All in all, great play for Rafael Nadal, extremely deserving of his 4th consecutive French title, and very possibly many more to come. For the sake of tennis too, I do hope Roger gets his act together and puts on a good run in Wimbledon.
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