As the tennis world awaits the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal needs to time travel to the recent past of tennis' Renaissance of the 1970's during this absurdly short "off season" in the tennis calendar (which, by the way, is another topic worthy of column space as pro tennis has never seemed to figure out how to schedule in a rational fashion). Uncle/Coach Toni must exhort the energetic Rafa to receive inspiration from the original King of Clay, Bjorn Borg. Borg's six French Open titles in 8 years (1974, '75, '78, '79, '80, '81) is and will be the benchmark for all who toil on the red dirt.
But what elevates Borg to top five all-time status of course is his even more phenomenal five consecutive Wimbledons, 1976-'80. His sudden, stunning and lasting success on the slick, low-bouncing grass should provide hope for Nadal - if he takes the Swede's cue and alters his game significantly.
Borg desperately wanted to perform well at tennis' premier event and so he and coach Lennert Bergelin worked tirelessly for weeks before the 1976 Championships by training exclusively on grass and developing a potent first serve and capable volleying skills. Clearly the work paid off.
In Nadal's case it is not just trying to show he can play on grass. The Spaniard already has improved his grass court skills - where he showed off his underrated net play at Wimbledon - and surprised most seasoned observers by reaching the finals at Wimbledon this past summer - and perhaps just a blown volley separated him from a Wimbledon title. But he has still yet to take advantage of his southpaw ways and develop an effective slice serve. He'd be well advised to develop such a service weapon this winter as he enjoys the Mallorcan sun. I do believe a Wimbledon title is in Nadal's future.
The chief area of concern though is with the hard courts. Again, he can look to the Swedish icon for inspiration. Borg also struggled on the hard courts and he did fail to win a US Open but his improved serve and net game did yield results at Flushing Meadow where he reached three US Open finals on the hard courts, in addition to the '76 final on Har Tru. If he is to triumph at either of the hard court Slams - Australian and US Opens - Nadal will need to employ similar techniques that he used at Wimbledon.
His disappointing result at the this year's US Open where he lost to Mikael Youzhny exposed Nadal's flaws. Youzhny took advantage of the lack of depth from Nadal and continually forced Nadal into a retreating, scrambling position. The Russian also followed one of the oldest tenets in sports - attack the opponents strength. He relentlessly assaulted and eventually broke down the typically impenetrable Nadal forehand.
Now the slower hard court in Melbourne may suit Nadal's game better but he still needs to focus on keeping the ball deep and he should actually pretend he is playing on grass. It almost appears that Nadal actually prefers the grass to the hard courts now. At Wimbledon, it's almost as if he knew that he had to alter his game significantly if he were to have any chance of success. But on the hard courts, it appears that he is more indecisive. Because hard courts do allow baseliners to perform nearly as well as all-court players, Nadal almost has too many options and relies far too much on his clay court ways rather than his new-found Wimbledon methods.
While it may seem anathema to Rafael to suggest such a thing, perhaps a change in coaching is in the cards - not a wholesale change but rather one of augmentation by bringing in a service expert to develop the afore-mentioned slice serve. Nadal is obviously very comfortable with his Uncle Toni overseeing his play but he needs to acknowledge that something has to be changed in order to raise his level of play.
For the record, it also must be stated that just because a player, a great player for that matter, decides to embark on an intensive effort to change their playing style, doesn't guarantee the desired result. The clearest personification of this is Ivan Lendl. Lendl's aversion to grass was well known but he did attempt to conquer his kryptonite. He even went so far, in an act of folly and betrayal, to skip his beloved French Open in order to prepare for Wimbledon in 1990. Lendl's efforts never paid off in London, losing the Wimbledon final twice ('86, '87).
And lest I forget another all-time champion from the Open era, Jimmy Connors. Connors, after years of grinding out points, finally took some pressure off himself by developing a new serve in 1982. (Granted, he also took advantage of Borg's sad exit from the sport as he hadn't beaten the Swede in several years). He tossed the ball out in front of him more and the few free points he earned from it quickly yielded results as he took both the Wimbledon and US Open titles that year.
Nadal's continued pursuit of Federer and their wonderful, still developing rivalry is crucial to the health of professional tennis. Nadal's lefty ways and indefatigable spirit allow him to compete with Federer harder and more consisntely than anyone else. Most players bow to the #1's throne and seem excited to often just win a set. So before Murray or Gasquet or Berdych make significant progress in their pursuit of the Swiss star, Nadal remains the one hope of keeping the sport competitive.
