There are those inevitable events for which we refuse to prepare. Too painful. The announcement of Roger Federer’s retirement is undoubtedly one of them. No one wanted to imagine what tennis would be like without the Swiss. But now we have to face the facts. The Swiss finally said stop, after 20 Grand Slam titles in almost 25 years of career. Before the last strokes of the master’s racket, from Friday during the Laver Cup, 20 minutes devotes a series of articles to the one who will remain a legend of the game. Fourth and penultimate episode this Thursday, on how Federer completely reversed the balance of power with Nadal in the last years of his career.
In the twilight of a career, numbers matter. Roger Federer will not say the opposite, from the top of his 103 titles on the ATP circuit, including 20 Grand Slam tournaments, and his some 1,300 victories. This is how in the rivalry between him and Rafael Nadal, the Swiss will remain the loser. The Spaniard is the big winner (24-16) of this duel disputed in 40 rounds, spread out between 2004 and 2019. However, and that is the beauty of sport, the numbers are not enough to tell a story either, especially when it is written at these heights.
In recent years, Rodgeur has completely reversed the balance of power, after being martyred for a decade. At the end of 2014, the Mallorcan led 23-10 in what was quickly called the “Fedal”, including an outrageous 15-4 over the period 2008-2014, started with the most painful defeat of His Majesty’s career, in its Wimbledon garden, the scene of one of the most beautiful matches in history. Next ? The Swiss will only lose once in eight matches. To Roland, of course.
When attacked, the Empire strikes back
Having established these statistical bases, let’s move on to what interests us. HOW? ‘OR’ WHAT ? Because anyone who has done a bit of sport in their life knows this feeling of helplessness in the face of an opponent who has the gift of ruining our lives. And knows that we do not put an end to it in a snap of the fingers. Let’s start with how Nadal went about rolling Federer. No need to go far, the Spaniard summed it up himself in his autobiography, “Rafa”, released in 2012:
With Federer, the only thing to do is not to let go of his backhand, force him to hit the ball high, the racket at neck height, put him under pressure, undermine him, thus seek the fault and undermine his morale. »
In other words, left-handed Rafa used his huge forehand topspin to pound the backhand diagonally from right-handed Roger, who had a hard time managing the height of the rebound and the spin of the ball with his one-handed grip. – try controlling a washing machine drum with one hand, you, too.
Unsolvable? Not for Federer, whose tenacity we can salute in passing, he who found the resources at 34 brooms to upset a whole section of his game. And not to make less effort, quite the contrary. When the Swiss said that Nadal, with “his shots nobody else has”, was the player who had pushed him more than anyone to question his game, it was not words in the air. In short, the Master’s counterattack rested on four pillars:
In 2014, he dropped his historic 90-inch screen to switch to 98 inches. Not a small revolution, since it is necessary to manage an additional weight and new benchmarks, in particular in the control of the ball. But in the end, a power gain beyond measure. “I really think my backhand has improved,” he said. looking back, in 2017. I now feel super comfortable with the racquet, and I think I have gained confidence in being able to get into the ball more. » Necessary prerequisite for what follows.
- A shot earlier
In order not to suffer permanently and to give Nadal less time to prepare his famous “lasso forehand”, Federer began to take the ball almost in half-volley. Easy to say, but incredibly complicated to do. Evolution analyzed by Patrick Mouratoglou in 2017, for Eurosport : “Against Nadal, Roger played with a lot of effect, height. Since the start of the season, he has been playing tighter backhands, closer to the net and his ball is faster. And by playing shorter, Federer leaves less time for Rafa to squirt on his shots. That makes all the difference. He plays perfectly in tune. »
- NEVER slice back (or in any case as little as possible when Nadal passed his first)
To decipher Federer’s new attitude towards his best enemy, the specialists released their most beautiful palettes in Doudouce, in NASA engineering mode. Also in 2017, Andy Murray’s former coach, Mark Petchey, made a long demonstration on the set of Sky Sports. He had demonstrated how much less Federer used the slice to return Rafa’s serves than those of other players (49% slice on the first serves of others, 29% on the second serves vs 10% on the first serves of Nadal … and 0% on the latter). This is called playing aggressive. For the practical application, we let you watch this small anthology of the most beautiful points of the final of the Australian Open 2017, monument which consecrated the resumption of power of the Swiss.
Who says offensive tactic says risk taking, and therefore unforced errors. The temptation is great, when things don’t work as we would like, to step back to take a little more leeway. This is where the mind comes in. Example in Melbourne: Nadal leads 2-0, then 3-1 in the 5th set. The rest is the Swiss who talks about it best. “I tried not to lose sight of the plan. I said to myself “Play free. Play the ball, not the opponent. Be free in your head, free in your shots”. I could have been discouraged but I kept fighting and believing it. That’s what made me play my best tennis at the end of the match, which surprised me a bit. »
Only clay resisted this reversal. On all other surfaces, Nadal did not see the light of day, until what will remain the last Fedal in history, in the semi-finals of Wimbledon 2019. A real masterstroke. After paying tribute to Federer through the prism of his greatest defeats, we owed him to put his rivalry with the Spaniard into perspective.