What it will require for Rafael Nadal to be officially “back” is a matter of opinion. But the following is a fact: for the first time since Rome in 2013, Nadal has defeated two top-4 players in the same tournament.
The Spaniard maintained momentum from his 6-3, 6-2 World Tour Finals beatdown of world No. 4 Stan Wawrinka to crush second-ranked Andy Murray 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday afternoon. Nadal needed just one hour and 32 minutes to take complete control of Group Ilie Nastase and perfectly position himself for a spot in the semifinals.
This match progressed in eerily similar fashion to Nadal’s previous tilt with Wawrinka, although Nadal was unquestionably better than he had been on Monday and Murray–despite a disappointing performance–was nowhere near as hopeless as Wawrinka. The Scot broke right away in the first game of the match only to give it right back, just as the Swiss had done against Nadal. Like Wawrinka, Murray did not break again the rest of the way and he did not even generate another break point.
Consistently playing on top of the baseline and using every imaginable angle on the court, Nadal turned this into a rare occasion on which he simply pushed Murray around on an indoor hard court. By the second set, the two-time major champion looked out of gas in both the physical and mental departments.
“Obviously when he’s inside the court he’s extremely, extremely good,” Murray said of Nadal. “He can move his forehand around very well. He can use all the angles on the court and make you do a lot of moving.
“He’s clearly playing better tennis now than a few months ago. Also I didn’t help myself out there today. I served (at an) extremely low percentage (43 percent). That’s not good enough against someone as good as Rafa.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/667007010311946243]
“(It) is an important victory, obviously, because that put me in a good position to try to be in the semifinals, and at the same time I [had] a big day against a great player [on] a tough surface,” Nadal explained. “It’s just another step for me be able to play at that level against such a great player. (It) is good news. Happy for that. Just want to try to keep working the same way to keep confirming that I am (going) in the completely right direction.”
Speaking of the right direction, an aggressive Nadal ventured into the net 13 times and won 11 of those points.
“I go to the net when I am confident,” he explained. “I go to the net when I am hitting the ball well; when I’m able to play aggressive. When that happens (it) is because I am playing well.”
“I go to the net when I am confident,” he explained. “I go to the net when I am hitting the ball well; when I’m able to play aggressive. When that happens (it) is because I am playing well.”
preach it, Rafa!
Vamos!
He needs to go to the net more often than he does until his success rate drops. That’s been a constant.
No different than serving 95% but only winning 60% of those points.
Vamos!!!
Amazing result for Rafa, I really didn’t think he would beat Andy in this sort of surface but he’s definitely proved me wrong. Vamos Rafa!