How do you resolve a lefty like Rafa Nadal? A take a look at Roger Federer’s technique

PARIS — Within the early phases of his profession, Roger Federer had an issue with left-handers. He misplaced 4 of his first seven matches, and eight of his first 20, in opposition to them. One thing in regards to the completely different spin, the completely different look, threw him off.

Over time, as he honed his sport to develop into the world’s finest participant, he discovered methods to take care of it. Now he has an issue with simply certainly one of them: Rafael Nadal.

“I used to hate it,” Federer mentioned at Roland Garros, the place he’ll meet Nadal within the semifinals on Friday, climate allowing. “Now I find it irresistible, you realize, as a result of it is an enormous problem in opposition to these guys, and he is the very best one which I ever confronted. I am wanting ahead to the check.”

Helped by his swap to a bigger-headed racket in 2014, Federer now drives by Nadal’s serve, with topspin, the place as soon as he tried to slice it again after it kicked up excessive to his backhand. Of their latest battles, Federer has been extra profitable on returns; within the closing in Australia two years in the past, he hit eight backhand winners within the closing set alone, having hit solely six within the 4 earlier units.

Like Novak Djokovic does, Federer additionally targets the Nadal forehand when he returns on the backhand from the ad-court, stopping the left-hander from enjoying from his favourite place on the court docket, simply to the appropriate of the middle line, hitting inside-out forehands.

It’s a tactic that has labored fantastically.

“That is one of many two huge variations on why he [Federer] beats Rafa the final [five] occasions,” Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ coach, informed ESPN.com in Paris. “He stopped returning with slice on the backhand, and within the rallies, each time Rafa was enjoying a bit shorter, he would step in and hit the ball on the rise, in order that’s an enormous distinction.”

From being bullied across the court docket by the Nadal forehand a decade in the past, Federer now assaults all through. He involves the online, serves and volleys at occasions, mixes issues up and even makes use of the drop shot, a stroke he as soon as known as a “panic shot.”

That is what it takes to beat Nadal.

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However — and it’s a huge “however” — Friday’s semifinal is on clay, on Courtroom Philippe Chatrier, the place Nadal has misplaced simply twice in his profession and gained the title a document 11 occasions. The pair haven’t performed one another on clay since 2013 and haven’t met in Paris since 2011.

The world’s finest gamers, in any sport, are masters in short-term reminiscence loss, capable of overlook latest defeats and focus solely on the following likelihood to win. Nadal is not any completely different.

“If I had performed him two, thrice in Madrid, Monte-Carlo, Rome … I may let you know how I really feel about him, see him proper now,” Nadal mentioned, requested to evaluate Federer’s sport. “However I have never performed him lately … so these items, I’d really feel them on the court docket, and it has been a few years we’ve got been enjoying in opposition to one another [on clay].

“We’re in semifinals … and we’re a part of the 4 finest gamers of the match. That is the truth. Past [that], I can not let you know something. The semifinals are at all times very troublesome matches, regardless of the opponent. And with Roger Federer, I do know it is going to be even one step larger.”

On clay, Nadal has made Federer’s life depressing, successful 13 of their 15 matches, together with 5 at Roland Garros, 4 of them in finals. As Dominic Thiem, the Austrian additionally nonetheless going sturdy in Paris this 12 months, mentioned in Madrid lately: “If it was not for Rafa, I feel Roger would in all probability have gained 4 or 5 French Opens.”

Federer’s total document in opposition to left-handers is 131-36, successful the previous 21, a run relationship again to a loss in opposition to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Shanghai in 2015. However dealing with somebody who hits with the opposite hand, makes use of completely different angles, performs with completely different spin, is a problem, particularly if it is Nadal.

*-Rafael Nadal38Jarkko Nieminen15Feliciano López13Alejandro Falla8Fernando Verdasco7(*-15-23 versus Nadal)

Federer’s lone French Open title got here in 2009, when he beat Robin Soderling within the closing after the Swede had taken out an ailing Nadal within the fourth spherical. Ten years on, having not performed in 2016 by damage and skipping Paris in 2017 and 2018, the Swiss is again within the semis at age 37 and once more finds 11-time champ Nadal throughout the online. Nadal would be the sturdy favourite, however someway the dynamic has modified between the 2 gamers over the previous couple of years, with Federer successful their previous 5 matches, together with the ultimate of the Australian Open in 2017.

Federer is aware of what he has to do to have an opportunity. However he has to do it completely, or he is aware of what is going to occur.

“It is by no means pure in opposition to any lefty, Rafa or one other lefty,” Federer. “It is simply all the things adjustments. We play 80 p.c of the time in opposition to righties. And after we play a lefty, it is only a completely different match. It is an attention-grabbing match.

“I’ve performed 5 guys [this tournament] which might be righties, so for me, it is a full switch-around. Simply the best way the ball goes out of your strings with the completely different spins, it is simply completely different. So you must get used to that rapidly; you do not have a lot time to waste. That is why you must be fearless, to some extent, to tackle the spinny balls, the sliding balls, the kicking balls, and that is what I’ll do on Friday.”