Twenty-times Grand slam champion, Roger Federer praises his arch-rival and the ‘King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal for evolving as a player on the hard courts and the grass courts and his ability to dominate on all the three surfaces.
Rafael Nadal has tried to shorten the points over the years. Known for his defensive play, the Mallorcan started to stand closer to the baseline while receiving the second serve and hence trying to play more aggressively than before in the 2019 season. This tactic also helped the 33-year-old to put less pressure on his injury-prone body.
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Talking about Nadal’s ability to evolve on hard and grass surfaces, Roger Federer said: “Rafa (Nadal) really can hurt anybody on any surface. He’s that good. He’s not just a clay-court specialist. He has improved so much over the years on this surface. He’s playing also very different than he used to. He’s serving way different.”
During the 2019 Australian Open, Rafael Nadal had tweaked his service motion, which looked to be more straight than usual. The Spaniard changed his serve motion and got some few-extra miles per hour on his delivery as he started to hit the serve with less topspin on it.
Nadal changed his serve motion to reduce stress on his ankle as his earlier service motion would have put much more weight on his ankles, however, he tweaked it to stiffer, and quicker.
Roger Federer also recalled how the 19-time Grand Slam champion used to serve earlier and how strong he has become on his serve now. The Basel native noted that the US Open 2019 champion now finishes the points much faster than earlier.
“I remember back in the day how he used to serve, and now, how much bigger he’s serving, how much faster he finishes points,” Federer concluded.
