In the last of my blogs on the successes (the standard of play during the year) and failures (the damp squib of Shanghai) of season 2008 on the ATP tour, I've decided to blog on the biggest success story of the year - Rafael Nadal (left).
2007 had been one of Roger Federer's best. It seemed that the Swiss had even closed the gap to Nadal on clay and might go on to win the French Open this year, the only Grand Slam eluding him.
Away from clay, Nadal struggled to dictate points with his forehand because it sacrificed power for too much spin. Although still a formidable opponent, he appeared predictable and lacking ideas on hard and grass courts against the very best.
Nadal's technical changes for 2008
In the off season, Nadal made some subtle changes to his game. He modified his grip to give his forehand the extra power it needed to be a weapon away from the clay. The changes he'd been making to his serve also started to bear fruit.
The Spaniard's serve had never been a weapon to win quick, easy points which meant long rallies and resulted in late season fatigue. As a result, Nadal's body started to let him down despite having the best physique on tour. Nadal started to hit first serves harder, winning more cheap points and spending less time on court as a result.
Video taken from TennisOne's YouTube channel.
As the video shows, he starts from a wider base than in previous seasons and extends up through the serve better to get more power, hitting the ball at its highest point. Nadal's well established technique has always allowed him to serve very accurately, which added to the extra power he started to generate in 2008 has made him one of the ATP tour's most underrated servers.
Nadal the all-court player
The changes in Nadal's technique allowed him to perform better on faster surfaces in 2008. Whereas in the past the majority of Nadal's tournament wins came on clay, the Spaniard added more variety to his game to pick up victories at Wimbledon, the Olympic gold medal and the Toronto Masters among others.
His relentless groundstrokes from the beginning of every point put the Spaniard's opponents on the back foot and didn't allow them a route to attack in the point. Nadal ruthlessly exploited this tactic on the quick grass courts at Wimbledon in particular where because he was more aggressive he became dominant in the point earlier and cruised through the early rounds before the epic final against Federer.
Nadal's my player of the year... But what do you think?
The changes that the Spaniard made to his serving technique and the improved tactics he introduced on quicker courts won him the most (six) tier one events this year and make him my player of the year for 2008, but what do you think?
Maybe you think Andy Murray's meteoric rise up the rankings make him the player of the year?
Or what about Novak Djokovic's stellar start and finish to the season?
Maybe you think Federer winning a 13th career Grand Slam deserves your vote.
You can vote in the top corner of my blog, or below to add to the debate.
Disagree entirely?
If you think someone else is the player of the year, please feel free to leave a comment below!
Picture by photoAtlas on Flickr.
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