Inspirational Nadal wins Us open 2013;2nd us open;13th Grandslam

                                                         

If my life were a song the title would be 'The Comeback Kid.'-Stefano Langone 
A quote which perfectly reflects upon Rafa , an amazing 2013 it has been for the Spainard .

Rafael Nadal won the US Open after slugging it out for three and half hours against Djokovic in the Flushing Meadows. Nadal produced some amazing Tennis to win the match 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. As Djokovic hit the last point into the net, Nadal crashed to the ground in tears. Rod Laver, who was present in Arthur Ashe Stadium just saw another extraordinary tennis player overcome his record of 12 Grand Slam titles. Djokovic, though he put up a brave fight could do nothing against the Spaniard, pepped up after returning from injury

In the first set, it was all on Nadal who comfortably won it 6-2. Djokovic's serve didn't really have the momentum to keep Nadal quiet and Nadal exploited this. He adopted a rather different strategy in the first. On Djokovic's serve he attacked the ball and showed more aggression while on his serve he played the waiting game, which led to long service games from Nadal. Instead of going for the winners he relied on Djokovic making the errors and he did, finishing the set with 14 unforced errors compared to Nadal's four. Nadal broke him in the 3rd game and the penultimate game of the set. Overall, Nadal made short work of Djokovic in the first set.

The second set, however was a change of fortunes as Djokovic won it  6-3 with a stunning backhand winner down the line . Nadal adopted a different strategy as he went out to attack all the balls and ended up losing some crucial points. Djokovic's started hitting his forehand more potently and played some excellent passing shots. He converted 90% of his approaches to the net. Even though he made the more unforced errors, his superior winner counts won him the set. Djokovic broke in the 6th game but Nadal broke immediately on Djokovic's serve. But, after a long game of 10 minutes Djokovic broke Nadal's serve in the penultimate game and closed down the set immediately in his serve. As both the players looked to attack, it increased the average shots each rally and some long ones were played out, with the longest being 54 shots. Despite not having won as convincingly as Nadal in the first set, Djokovic did do enough to unsettle Nadal.

Nadal came back strongly in the third set and showed why he was unbeaten on hard courts since his return. Nadal played some breath-taking tennis to seal the third set 6-4 after 61 minutes of hardwork. Early on in the first game, Djokovic broke Nadal and took a lead. But Nadal came back strongly and broke back Djokovic. In the penultimate game, Djokovic was up 40-0 on Nadal's serve but Nadal held his nerves and showed amazing courage to win the game. Eventually, he broke Djokovic in the next game and secured a 2-1 lead as Djokovic hit a forehand long. In what was an evenly matched set, Nadal's courage and character coupled with Djokovic's high rate of errors proved to be the difference in the third set.

Nadal took an early brake in the first a Novak conceded the game too easily. Nadal's forehand is getting potent with the point. He covered a lot of ground and is making Djokovic sweat for each point. Djokovic made some poor decisions and hit his routine shots wide. Nadal raced into a 3-0 lead before Djokovic was back on track. He held his serve but couldn't do much about Nadal's service game. it was a rejuvenated Nadal at full form and virtually no one could have stopped him. However, one game was all Novak could take in the 4th set as Nadal wrapped up the set 6-1 after two games full of errors by Djokovic. The fourth set had nothing but Nadal written all over it. Novak could do nothing but watch Nadal win the US Open.

 There ended an amazing tournament that delighted us for 2 weeks. But the final, 3 and 1/2 hours of eye-catching tennis was the best match in the tournament. Rafael Nadal has perennially struggled at the US Open but put those complaints to bed by winning the title for the 2nd time. While the scoreline may not seem to be so competitive those who witnessed the match surely would have realised the amazing quality of tennis produced by the two stalwarts in this match. While Nadal's vigour and strength was visible in this match many would have missed the fight put up by Djokovic. This match had everything in it - silly errors, those long rallies, Nadal all over the place, Novak's brilliant backhand's, Nadal's grunting, the amazing forehands by Djokovic to say the least. But the most eye-catching of all were Nadal's few forehand winners which he hit on the bounce to perfection down the line. This brought back memories of Federer playing in his prime. Having said all this, you would have realised what an exciting match we have witnessed at the Flushing Meadows.

-Rafa is now the only man in history to have won the Clay Slam (all three Masters+RG in a year) AND the North American Hard Slam (both summer Masters and USO). Incredible diversity.
-Rafa is now the first ever man to have won two+ clay Masters and RG AND two+ hard Masters AND a HC Slam in the same year.

Nadal is back on track and it would take a superhuman effort to stop him.

Stats

ACES -Djokovic – 6 Nadal - 1

 1ST SERVE %  Djokovic - 68%  Nadal - 64%

DOUBLE FAULTS Djokovic – 2 Nadal - 1

WIN % ON 1ST SERVE  Djokovic -  58%   Nadal - 65%

 WIN % ON 2nd SERVE  Djokovic - 48% Nadal - 56%

WINNERS  Djokovic - 46Nadal - 27

 UNFORCED ERRORS Djokovic – 53 Nadal - 20

 RECEIVING POINTS WON  Djokovic - 38%  Nadal - 45%

 BREAK PT. CONVERSIONS Djokovic - 27% Nadal - 58%

NET APPROACHES %  Djokovic - 61%Nadal - 74%

Author-

Akshay Gurumoorthi

Akshay Gurumoorthi