| OK Roger, I stayed up mad late dissecting and analyzing the Nadal match. LISTEN UP!
Rog, this is how you beat Nadal, LISTEN UP. I think his gf Mirka lurks on this board, so Mirka if you are here, please print this out and give it to Roger.
1. STOP PRESSING SO F'ING MUCH WITH TRYING TO FORCE WINNERS AND SIMPLY RALLY MORE. You said "I make so many errors against him because I have to go for winners, I am the one who who forces the action" or something to that effect. Nadal thrives on that. Make Nadal go for the winners. Nadal wants to counterpunch, make Nadal get aggressive with you. Your defense is freaking suberb, you have to go in with a defensive mindset because Nadal will run down everything you throw at him, your winners are not winners against him, you get frustrated, you force more and you make more errors. Go in with the mindset of playing as clean a match as possible and be ready to trade groundstrokes all day if that is what it takes. If you have to stay out there for 7 hours, stay out there for 7 hours, your mindset must be "at the end of the day I know my strokes are better than his and I will not give him this much through my own errors. If he wins he wins, but I will not keep dumping the ball in the net or outside the lines"
2. STOP ALLOWING HIM TO CHEAT WHEN YOU ARE SERVING BY WAY OF HIM PUTTING HIS HEAD DOWN AND HIS HAND UP OR WALKING AWAY THEREBY DISRUPTING YOUR RHYTHMN AND CONCENTRATION. Don't you get it dude? He is taking your serve when he wants to take it. The game is played at the server's pace. The next time he puts his head down and tries to cheat like this serve the ball anyway. You have got to stop allowing him to play these psych out mental games with you. You have got to be mentally stronger in terms of so many things with Nadal. Your level drops off way too much. Nadal's level never drops. You must go into the match thinking "Nadal never drops his level or focus or intensity. I will mirror him. I am going to be Rafael Nadal's mirror in terms of intensity, concentration, focus"
3. YOU HAVE GOT TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON HIM WHEN HE IS SERVING, YOU PUT ZERO PRESSURE ON HIS SERVE AND HE PRESSURES YOUR SERVE LIKE CRAZY. All he wants to do on his serve is basically dump it in the box and rally. The key here my dear Roger is to start his serve games off by returning the serve to that part of the court which will give you the advantage oonce the groundstroke exchange begins. THAT MEANS TO HIS BACKHAND! You cannot handle Nadal's forehand on clay. It's clear as crystal. You can barely handle his backhand either but that's where you have to go because your one handed backhand cannot handle the cloud high, viscious spin, he throws your way. His backhand is amazing, but you have to go there more than to the forehand side. Make him play defensive backhand after backhand and dont count on him to miss. If you need to get into an 96 shot extended rally to his backhand and with him running down everything you send to him side to side. Get ready to to do it.
4. NADAL IS A FLAT OUT ANIMAL ON DIRT. HE IS A CLAY COURT BEAST AND A FLAT OUT MONSTER, PROBABLY 10X BETTER THAN YOU ON CLAY BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CANNOT BEAT HIM. YOU HAVE TO GO INTO THE MATCH WITH A HUNTER'S MENTALITY, LIKE YOU ARE STALKING A RABID WILD BULL. That means patience, stalking, defense, mental strategy, only going for the kill shot when you have it.
hope this helps. it sure as Heck beats what you are doing now and I am still your number one fan, it is just frustrating to me when you keep doing the same things over and over and keep getting beat by Rafa.
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