Doha R2 previews and picks: Djokovic vs. Verdasco, Nadal vs. Haase

January 5, 2016 Ricky Match previews 95

Nadal wins 1Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will continue their Doha campaigns during second-round action on Wednesday. They are going up against Fernando Verdasco and Robin Haase, respectively.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Fernando Verdasco

Djokovic turned in a well-documented dominant 2015 campaign in which he won three Grand Slams and finished it off in style with a triumph at the World Tour Finals. His encore performance in 2016 got off to an expected start at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Monday at the expense of Dustin Brown. The world No. 1 cruised past the German qualifier 6-2, 6-2 in a mere 51 minutes.

Verdasco also got the job done in straight sets in his first-rounder, but it was far more interesting affair. The 49th-ranked Spaniard fought off Malek Jaziri 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in one hour and 56 minutes on Tuesday night. Verdasco will not have much recovery time before facing Djokovic for the 12th time in his career on Wednesday afternoon. The 32-year-old is an extremely respectable 4-7 lifetime in this head-to-head series, but he last defeated Djokovic in 2010. They most recently squared off at the 2015 Australian Open, where Djokovic cruised 7-6(8), 6-3, 6-4. The underdog can be somewhat competitive in this one if he serves like he did against Jaziri (12 aces, no double-faults, 74 percent of first serves in play), but Djokovic should advance without too much trouble.

Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 5-7 games

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Robin Haase vs. (2) Rafael Nadal

Nadal and Haase will be going head-to-head for just the second time in their careers when they meet again on Wednesday in Doha. Their only previous encounter came six years ago at Wimbledon, where Nadal survived a second-round thriller 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 on his way to the title. Speaking of final sets, both Nadal and Haase needed them in their Doha openers. Haase overcame qualifier Aslan Karatsev 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 on Monday, while the Spaniard battled past countryman Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 on Tuesday.

Recovering from a dismal first eight months of last season, Nadal picked up the pace in the fall–a stretch that included an undefeated performance during World Tour Finals round-robin action. The world No. 5 also won the Abu Dhabi exhibition event last week. Haase registers at 66th in the rankings after compiling a mediocre 15-21 record at the ATP level last season. This should be a more straightforward affair for Nadal than what he endured in round one.

Pick: Nadal in 2

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95 Comments on Doha R2 previews and picks: Djokovic vs. Verdasco, Nadal vs. Haase

  7. Basic question

    Rafa who was playing reasonably well in Abu Dabhi, stepping inside the court and hitting BH DTL and even FH DTL, CC..why was he not stepping into the court on his FH much here? Why did he resort to older patterns of play again at many moments in the match? Rafa needs to commit to hug the baseline continuously.

    Reply

  11. Rafa won the 1st set. Just watching live scores. Got to go now. Hope vr and luckystar are watching and will give their analysis later. vr focuses on what Rafa’s doing right, Lucky on what he is not doing right. Between the two of them, they give us a good analysis!

    Reply

        • hawkeye is grateful for the support hm gives him when he himself is not certain what is his point. She drives away all who question his argument by regally expressing total contempt for logic!!! I suppose that is why the curious case of analyst hm. Mutual back scratching???

          Reply

      • hawkeye,

        Thanks again! Appreciate your support! I wonder why vr and lucky aren’t here also doing some live blogging.

        Reply

  12. I just checked the score online and saw that Rafa won the first set 6-3. I am trying to get on tennistv to watch the rest of it.

    Reply

  15. Rafa is hitting his DTL forehand really well. He’s stepping into the court and taking the ball early. Another great DTL forehand on Haase’s serve. Rafa now has two break points!

    Reply

  17. Rafa is also hitting his DTL backhand really well. He’s looking sharp with his groundstrokes, controlling the baseline in rallies.

    Reply

  21. Yes! Rafa breaks Hasse again! Rafa leads 5-2. At least this one is going to be more straightforward than PCB. Looks like Ricky’s prediction is going to be spot on!

    Reply

  22. Rafa is really having his way in this match, constructing the points so well and using both his forehand and backhand effectively. He’s also standing inside the baseline to hit his shots. I am impressed with how Rafa is hitting his backhand. Better than I have seen him hit in in a while, especially that DTL backhand.

    Match points for Rafa!

    Reply

    • yup! I was also really happy about the way he was hitting his backhand! He is giving very few short balls and getting really good penetration. It is definitely the case that he has finally developed a backhand DTL on which he can rely to use as a weapon, not just as a tool to spread the court. He has hit good backhand DTL in some matches in the past not consistently enough. He has surely worked on it. No need to back paddle like crazy to hit inside in forehands just to find his opponents backhands!

      Last season, post USO, i kept saying that rafa’s playing much better but his movement toward the backhand side is not explosive enough and it is something he needs to work on. I think he has made progress in that department too! Even though the real test will be against a baseliner who spreads the court really well but I already think it’s a tad tougher to exploit his backhand side now.

      As we already discussed, rafa is at the moment not as consistent as he would like to be with his new game plan. The new one is not quite new , it just has some modifications but it would require some time and big wins to really get ingrained in his tennis.

      Reply

  25. They are interviewing Rafa on court now. Next up for him is Kuznetsov. Rafa looks very happy and pleased with how he played.

    Moving on, Rafa!

    Reply

  26. Looks like Rafa got the message from Benny!

    I just hope someone posts an insightful animated smiley gif soon so we can have some closure on Rafa’s nice win today.

    I will forward said link to Benny for Rafa to see.

    Reply

    • hawkeye,

      Were you able to see the match? No comments from you, so I assume that you weren’t able to see it?

      Please keep Benny in the loop! 🙂

      Reply

  30. Rafa playing well enough to win. He still can up his level when there’s a need. I feel both Rafa and Novak just playing well enough to win, their respective opponents are definitely no match for them.

    Reply

  32. For myself, this was the first chance that I had to see Rafa. I didn’t see his first match. It’s true that Rafa did enough to win, but I was impressed with how he was hitting his groundstrokes, his court positioning and movement. I realize that he was able to dictate play and it may not be that easy against other opponents, especially Novak. But it was still nice to see him looking sharp. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had seen his match with PCB, which was tougher.

    I can’t see anyone stopping both Rafa and Novak from getting to the final.

    Reply

  35. Marta Mateo ‏(Sports journalist. Tennis writer): ¤¤ I asked Rafael Nadal about the COACH schedule this 2016.
    Francis Roig will join the team at least for the previous week of AO with Toni.
    Nadal: “I liked the experience in Beijing and Shanghai and I love having both of them here in Doha. If something works, let’s keep it that way. Let’s try to have them together more weeks than in the past.” ¤¤

    https://twitter.com/marta_mateo/status/684810248528510977
    https://twitter.com/marta_mateo/status/684810554414907392

    Reply

  36. I saw some numbers and want to make some observations here.

    We know rafa’s changed his racket. Why did he change? He said last year that the design of the new strings will ,in theory, give him additional POWER as well as TOP SPIN. This is rare because usually, there is a trade off between these two attributes so Rafa thought that Babolate, at least in theory, have done a commendable job. Now, has is it going for him?

    In his two matches here in Doha, he has averaged approximately 3350 RPM on his forehand. In the past, rafa’s forehand has averaged around 3300 RPM so the element of topspin is almost the same, if not slightly higher. HOWEVER, he is clearly doing it without compromising on pace! He is hitting HUGE forehands and still getting the same number of rotations! In his USO 2010 final , he averaged 69 mph on his forehand. In his USO 2013 final his forehand averaged 73 mph and today, he was averaging almost 79 mph! I know that this comparison is not entirely fair as the opponent matters too. Novak will make him hit more defensive shots so avg might go down but a 6 mph increase in avg is SIGNIFICANT. Apart from numbers, it is clear he is trying to hit his forehand bigger.

    I have also noticed that he is hitting slightly more forehands that end in an across-the-body follow through rather than his trademark over-the-head finish. THis is good to see! He is making adjustments.

    He has only played two matches so hard to make too many deductions but I just wanted to share what I observed/noticed so far.

    Santoro said during IPTL that rafa told him the main reason for changing the racket is to get more spin! Shows you how fundamental topspin is for him. He wants to get more penetration but overall, he also wants to keep the topspin element fairly constant. He can lose some control with the new racket but he is adapting well now.

    Novak-Rafa final looks set..

    Reply

    • AT 1:49 AM.
      —We know rafa’s changed his racket. Why did he change? He said last year that the design of the new strings will ,in theory, give him additional POWER as well as TOP SPIN.
      Santoro said during IPTL that rafa told him the main reason for changing the racket is to get more spin! —
      ===
      .
      Rafa talked about a string pattern. The racket he used in April (in Monte Carlo & Barcelona) had a more open string pattern than his regular racket. His current racket has the old string pattern, but he started to use new strings in December.
      It’s an incorrect translation of Santoro’s words. He said that Rafa changed the strings of his racket (not racket).

      Reply

  37. I know Djokovic’s win over Nando in Australia was a best of 5 sets and Rafa’s win over Pablo was a best of 3 sets, still, describing one as a cruise and the other as a battle is funny:

    “….They most recently squared off at the 2015 Australian Open, where Djokovic cruised 7-6(8), 6-3, 6-4..

    “…..while the Spaniard battled past countryman Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 on Tuesday.”

    🙂

    Reply

  38. Interesting analysis of Rafa’s new racket and how it is impacting his game. I remember how he and his team tried it out during the clay season with disastrous results. I think the timing was bad because Rafa was still battling his confidence issues. Also, it can take time for a player to get comfortable with a new racket.

    I remember Fed trying out a bigger racket and initially it didn’t seem to work for him. But then he tried it again and now we can see that it’s paid dividends for him.

    I remember Rafa struggling in Barcelona. I think that was when they tried the new racket. He said that the racket gave him more power, but he lost some control over the ball. I guess Rafa has had time to get used to the racket, so the loss of control is not the problem that it was last year.

    I have been wondering how or when Rafa was going to get the power back on his forehand. That shot just wasn’t as effective for most of last year. Now he is hitting it so much better. Along with the new racket, Rafa is taking the ball earlier and hitting from inside the baseline. The commentators were talking about this during his match with Haase.

    I think this new racket, combined with Rafa’s renewed confidence and mental focus and his aggressive play on or inside the baseline, has made a big difference. Little by little, it’s all starting to come together. This is just his first tournament of the new year and already we can see the results of his hard work and the adjustments that have been implemented.

    Reply

  39. Rafa was interviewed on BeIN Sport and they asked him about his ticks. He said he is cutting down on them, for example, he said he now walks on the lines. He said he thought the rituals would help him concentrate but he doesn’t think they are necessary and may just put more pressure on him.

    Reply

  40. Rafa has confirmed he has tried to make changes to his game.
    .
    According to the stats shown on TV during Rafa’s match on Wednesday, he is returning almost three meters further than what he did last year in Doha.
    He said at his post-match press conference: “I’m playing more inside the court, losing less court than a year ago. That’s important for me. I am playing with a little bit more confidence on the return and on the winner shots”.
    .
    At the press-conference in Doha on Monday, Rafa was asked questions about his practice sessions. He said he has tried different court positions, to play more inside the court and practiced return of serve.
    An excerpt from the transcript:
    ¤¤ Question: “When you say you worked well in your practice, what exactly does that mean?…”
    RAFAEL NADAL: “…we worked a little bit different, different thing. We try to find different positions on court, try to play more inside and we work a lot on the return, too.
    We feel that we need a few things that are different than other years but on the same time without losing the character of my game. It’s obvious that we were able to play and practice all the things that we wanted to practice because I didn’t have injuries. That’s so important. ” ¤¤

    Reply

  41. augusta, shhh… hawkeye is a doctor of philosophy from sm U. He is working on another thesis which would dazzle the world with outrageous theories supported by new fallacies created and used by the great sm scholar. Some of the fallacies are hawkeye’s 2 tier fallacy, hawkeye’s complex fallacy of post hoc, fake authority and missing the point…..he is ably supported by hm…his brilliance boggles the mind and has led to large scale migration of his followers to cuckoo land…

    Reply

  42. Nadal said that for the first time, he felt the fear of not being able to play tennis and pointed out the mental challenge that had kept him from being the 14-time Grand Slam winner that he is. “For the first time in my career I went on the court with ‘fear of failure,’” Nadal said, reports Tennis World USA. “Not of losing, but of not being able to play.”

    http://www.ibtimes.com.au/rafael-nadal-reveals-fear-failure-first-time-career-1495484

    This is what an anxiety order is. It is anxiety to the point that it significantly affects your performance. It caused most of his losses last year and as Rafa said, he was worried about not even being able to go on court.

    That’s how bad it got for Mardy Fish.

    Reply

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