What now for Rafael Nadal?

Without doubt Rafael Nadal has been the biggest casualty of the Australian Open thus far. Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams and perhaps Jelena Jankovic have provided shocks but none more so that the king of clay himself Rafael Nadal. This article will ask what next for Rafael Nadal?

2015 – an upward curve?
Us fans of Nadal thought we were witnessing the green shoots of recovery following the disappointing 5 set lost to flamboyant and flakey Italian Fabio Fognini. Rafael Nadal had an uncharacteristically good Autumn on the hard courts of Asian and Europe. Further confidence was built at the Mubdala World Tennis Championships in Abu Dhabi over the festive period as Nadal powered to the title defeating Milos Raonic in the final. The swagger and most importantly the forehand was back. 2016 would be the year that Nadal takes the fight back to Novak Djokovic

Things seemed to improve further as Rafael Nadal’s form improved with the Doha tournament, confidence seemed to be rocketing and the forehand seemed to be dominating the courts and opponents once again. Following 4 victories in the opening rounds, Rafa would get a chance to measure his progress against his nemesis Novak Djokovic but few would have predicted what they saw. Djokovic who for years has been playing his backhand down the line to Rafas backhand suddenly changed his style.

In the past we have witnessed Djokovic grind Nadal down and make him miss his groundstrokes. In Doha, Djokovic attacked Nadal ruthlessly exposing him making him look slow on court.Nadal was unable to cope as the Serb added a vicious attacking edge to his game. He went for the corners and was simply ruthless as he broke Nadal at will. Nadal lauded the Serb’s performance stating he had never seen tennis like it. The final score was 6-1 6-2, a thrashing by all accounts.

Heading into the first grand slam of the season Nadal would have been quietly confident. Ofcourse he had been demolished by Djokovic but whats new, Djokovic is playing unbelievable in his own era of domination and many have suffered a similar fate. But who would have predicted that veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco would defeat Nadal in the first round? The last time the two met Verdasco finally got one over Nadal after numerous matches. Verdasco clearly watched all Nadal’s matches and would surely have taken inspiration from the 2009 Aussie Open semi final in which Nadal won, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Aura Gone?
An ultra aggressive performance from Fernando Verdasco in which he fit 90 winners over 5 sets saw him beat Rafa in 5 epic sets in what was the shock of the 2016 Australian Open. Players like Fernando Verdasco, Dustin Brown and Nico Almagro have surprisingly beat Nadal. It is clear that the locker room power and aura that Nadal has is diminishing. Fellow players have realised that by hitting the ball flatter, harder and playing high risk tennis is the key to beating Nadal. Look how many have tried and succeeded. Others to will try and succeed in the future.

Failure to change?
So where now for Rafael Nadal? What can he do to get back in the game? At stages last year Nadal seemed to intimate that he needed to practice more to get his rhythm his feel and his power especially after being out for so long in 2014. Nadal now has matches under his belt, his rhythm is good against players other than Djokovic yet he is still suffering losses. Many have questioned Toni Nadal and his conservative simplistic approach to the game as part of the problem but Nadal has always disputed it.

Nadal has improved elements of his game, he now has an effective first serve in which he can get a few free points off but fundamentally Rafas game has remained the same. Djokovic is evolving,Federer has added net rushing and the SABR return to his game but Nadal has worked on improving his own game rather than evolving it. The truth is the game has evolved. Players are much more likely to take on the ball and take away an opponents time. All great champions have an element of ignorance to them and belief that their correct way of playing will always be the best way to approach the game. Nadal is now at a crossroads. Playing like he does he will never beat Djokovic however if he adapts his game then at least he has a chance.

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