Nadal Reverses Blake...
Until yesterday, Rafael Nadal had never beaten James Blake. James Blake has one of the most powerful and dangerous forehands in men’s professional tennis, but Nadal chose to direct many shots to that side. Nadal’s strategy was to hit to his Blake’s strength in order to expose his weakness, i.e. Blake’s backhand. It’s actually
a very smart approach which is often not employed enough or executed well. The challenge is to carefully choose when to hit to the stronger side, but if these shots are well-chosen, then one is able to hit even more forcefully and effectively to the weaker wing. This strategy can be effective if the player, such as Blake, is used to running around backhands to hit forehands and therefore is surprised by having to run and cover more shots wide to his forehand. At the same time, the backhand side is even more exposed. The risk of this strategy is that Nadal could hit too weak a shot to Blake’s forehand and end up even more on the defensive than if he’d played to Blake’s weaker, backhand side. It’s a clever strategy, but its success ultimately lies in the execution.
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