The four semifinalists: Rafa Nadal,
Novak Djoko and the losing Andys … Roddick and Murray.
FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS –
The No. 2 is back and once again is looking like a substantial threat
to top-ranked Roger Federer.
Handing a thorough beatdown of Andy Roddick that brought up memories
of Federer's similar head slapping of the American at the Australian
Open, Rafael Nadal completely overwhelmed the American 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday
to reach the final.
There wasn't a moment in the contest when it appeared that Roddick could
pound his way back in, as Nadal had him on string from the back court,
largely due to his murderous forehand taking tremendous leaps and bounds
off the medium-speed hard court.
Roddick did manage to lace 22 winners, but 16 of those were
aces and he managed only a paltry three winners off the ground.
Moreover, the Roddick who was borderline brilliant at the net in his
quarterfinal against Ivan Ljubicic, was a sitting duck against Nadal,
who had no trouble with his shaky first volleys and passed him time
and time again.
Shockingly, he converted only three of 13 approaches.
"He picked a couple off his shoes running in for the forehand and
crushed them up the line," Roddick said. "It wasn't even like
he was hitting set passes. I had him running, I had him below the net
where I wanted him, and he was almost hitting them flat and hard up the
line. When he hits passes like that, it makes it real difficult."
Rafa has spoken about his forehand with tremendous conviction all tournament
long and against Roddick, he was struck it conviction to every
angle of the court. Not only did he hurt Roddick’s backhand with
his heavily top-spinned forehand missile, but also was able to quick-fist
winners down the line. Consequently, Roddick never knew what position
he should be playing from and never developed a secure plan of attack.
"He's tough," Roddick said. "It's no secret he moves well,
and when he's playing aggressively and clicking and hitting the ball confidently
as well as his defense, you know it's why he's become the player that
he's become."
Nadal returned serve with direction and force, and
he also mixed up his own serves beautifully. As always, he was borderline
sleepy in his preparation to serve, but all credit to Spaniard for consistently
hitting the corners. His balls bit with an asp’s sharp fangs.
“I thought he mixed it up well, but he was hitting flat up the
T on the ad side today, which you don't see a lot,” Roddick said.
“You normally expect the can opener and then he's going to take
the big one. He was doing that. He must have hit the line six or seven
times where I didn't have a play on it.”
Rafa’s stats were as good as they have gotten against an elite
player since Wimbledon: 33 winners and only 12 unforced errors. Of his
33 winners, Nadal crushed 23 winners from the back court, 17 off his
forehand side.
"I think I played a very complete match," he said. "It's
the best match in season. I was saying before the tournament, I was in
my best moment of the season, for sure, and the best moment from last
six months. He's one of the best players in the world so that's very good
win for me."
Rafa has had a hard time explaining what happened post Wimbledon –
a 10-tournament run of mediocrity where he only reached two semifinals.
Roddick did a much better job than Nadal, who could only explain that
he was searching for his lost game.
"When I watched him the last six months or so, he been playing a
little bit more defensive and leaving balls short sometimes," Roddick
said. “I feel like guys have been getting hits in on him, kind of
hit one, two balls maybe, get a short one. He's had trouble with a couple
of big hitters, and today he wasn't only hitting like his hook forehand
to the backhand, but the shot that he was killing me with, he was just
cracking it up the line, from his forehand, just hitting up the line.
I haven't seen that one a lot from him lately. So it did surprise me a
little bit.”
It would have been super interesting to see Andy Murray go at Rafa again,
but it was not to be, as Novak Djokovic blew him off the court 6-2,
6-3 and ran into his first Masters Series final. After sustaining a
left ankle injury in his 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory over Tommy Haas in the
quarters, Murray had little confidence moving and, consequently, couldn’t
control the ball. Djokovic was too strong and too familiar with his
buddy’s
game to be affected by any severe change of pace. Murray also bruised
his hip and cut up his knee against Haas and never felt worse playing.
“I didn't know how I was gonna feel really 'tll I got on court,”
said Murray. “And I had a bit of an unprofessional decision on
my part to have gone on. I guess the older you get, the more you learn
that it's not always about just going. I wanted to go out and try and
play and maybe see if I could move okay. And then after the first couple
of games, I kind of realized that when you can't change direction,
and when the movement, which is generally the best part of your game,
is missing, it's quite hard to play. I was a little bit scared to move.”
With the win, the 19-year-old Djokovic is guaranteed to crack the
Top 10. He’s the first Serbian male to accomplish the feat. “It
means a lot in our country because we’ve never had a big tennis
tradition,” Djokovic said.
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