Rafael Nadal Out Of The French Open 2009
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| Rafael Nadal losing at the French Open 2009 Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images |
Rafael Nadal’s hopes of winning another French Open in 2009 are finished.
Robin Soderling has played an excellent match and managed to dethrone the king of clay by 3 sets to 1.
I didn’t see the match today (only the last tie-break) so I cannot comment much, but from what I saw, Soderling played the right tactics; attack Nadal’s short balls and stay in the long rallies when he had to.
I believe Nadal got this aura of getting everything back and passing on every ball, but that’s of course not true.
He is just a human and doesn’t get every ball back and doesn’t pass you every time you come to the net.
Soderling showed no fear of Nadal’s passing shots and scrambling ability and kept attacking the same way as he would any other player.
Soderling played the ball and not the name. That’s an important lesson for every tennis player who competes in tournaments.
The French Open 2009 is now wide open and Roger Federer is probably now the biggest favourite to win it. There is still a lot of work to be done and there are many excellent players in the field like Murray, Roddick, Gonzales and others.
I’ll be watching Federer tomorrow and it will be interesting to see whether he somehow reacts to Nadal’s loss – by either playing more safely or really letting it go.
If he doesn’t react to it and keeps his mind clear and just plays the next ball that comes over the net, he has a chance to make history now.
Do you think Federer will make it or do you see someone stopping him again from winning the French Open 2009?
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May 31st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I don’t know Tomaz, I haven’t been thoroughly impressed with what Federer has shown so far in the tournament. I liked where his game was heading in Madrid, and would have hoped to see the FH UEs decrease even further in Paris. So far he has looked a bit too erratic for my taste, but I am hoping he still has his second-week gear to kick in.
Murray’s draw obviously opened up considerably today as well. If he can make it past Gonzales and Davydenko/Soderling unscathed that is. If Federer does find his form, I would very much like to see a final between him and Murray. A final in which looping balls to his backhand isn’t enough to win.
May 31st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
We all know Rafa has to loss someday, but it’s still shocking when that day is today…
Soderling played very well today, he was on fire! His form was really great and was attacking furiously with both forehand and backhands, and really took advantage of how far Nadal stood behind the baseline. One interesting thing I notice was Soderling’s relentless attack to Nadal’s forehand, which either won him the point there, or drew a short ball. Another important element was Soderling was attacking every one of Nadal’s second serve, which put a lot of pressure on the Spaniord.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:15 am
This is pivotal for Federer. Let’s hope this drives him to steam roll the rest of the field so he can grab career Slam.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Here is what i have to say about it …
http://outtoday.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/nadaldefeat/