Rafael Nadal Often Measured Through a Roger Federer-Centric Lens

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 7, 2013

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The ease with which Rafael Nadal cut through Tommy Robredo and the rest of the players he's faced thus far at the 2013 US Open seems almost unfair.

Nadal has played so well this summer that he is starting to look as dominant on hard courts as he’s historically been on clay.

The Spaniard hasn't had his serve broken a single time on route to the semifinals of the 2013 U.S. Open. In the quarterfinals, he faced only a single break point—which he subsequently saved.   

Despite Nadal's dominance off clay this year, one still has to wonder just how long this player will have to live in the shadow of past greats.  

Although Nadal has delivered such an innovative approach to the top levels of the sport, it's arguable that his distinctive style is being lost in translation because of imperfect comparisons to former players.  

Players that barely resemble Nadal.  

A perfect example of this is illustrated by the popular characterization of Rafael Nadal as a "match-up problem" for Roger Federer. 

Use of the phrase in that particular context is about as far off the mark as Christopher Columbus was when he landed on North America while shooting for Asia.

Framed in this manner, "match-up problem" is a not-so-subtle way of describing Federer’s troubles with Nadal as "technical" in nature. Inferring somehow the high-bouncing spin Nadal generates off his forehand is too much for the one-handed backhand of Federer to handle.

In this context the word "technical" also sounds a lot like the word “unfair.”  

The worst part of this revisionist phrasing is that it unquestionably detracts from the sensational drama that characterized their matches and instead attempts to dismiss this epic rivalry as a some sort of predictable afterthought.

At minimum, it’s an incomplete way of framing wh...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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