CAMELOT FANTASIES

I agree Lady TT.  Nadal-Isner should be interesting.  They made it the earliest match - 12 pm.  Not sure if it helps anyone or not.

But what I don't want to see is this:



You don't see him, but Nadal is actually returning from the fourth row in the stands.    He ended up winning the tiebreaker anyway...

On one hand this is Isner, so I can't blame him too much, if he returns from downtown Rome tomorrow.  But he also did this sort of thing against Murray on his weak second serve, when most players these days are about a meter inside the baseline looking to hammer his second serve.

In my opinion, Rafa really needs to get closer to the baseline, especially on clay.  He's sending the wrong message ("I am afraid"), and it is tactically weak - his return tends to land shorter from so far back, especially considering his current fitness, and it gives the server more time to prepare for the return, and risks getting beat by shorter angled spin serves).   On return he needs to hit the ball on the rise more, taking a shorter back-swing.  He doesn't need to use the full topspin cyclone of death on return, which requires the massive swing which can only be safely hit when the ball is on it's downward arc.  He has a decent half-volley. He shouldn't be afraid of taking the serve on closer to the baseline and giving the opponent less time, similar to what Murray is doing.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Wow, what a graphic. That's pretty bad. I do wonder why Rafa plays so far back, but I guess it's just years of playing defense and falling back into what's comfortable. But considering that it does cause his balls to fall short, I'm surprised that he isn't working to improve that. I guess he just likes swinging as freely as he wants to, but it's definitely a tactical error.

Not that I'm advocating firing Toni, that's never going to happen anyway, but I think one of the problems is that the Rafa/Toni dynamic has changed so severely. It was one thing to be obedient as a child, but as Rafa has gotten older, I don't think he feels it necessary to listen to Toni as much as he used to. He has gained his independence from Toni, but he could still benefit from adding someone new to his team.