2 Responses to ao11ferrer_nadal

1. Voo de Mar says:

   May 23, 2021 at 11:23 pm

   Points won by each set: | 40-36, 27-16, 35-23 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   27 % Ferrer – 20 of 73
   16 % Nadal – 17 of 104

   Special circumstances and very strange match in the night session… Having won three majors in a row, Nadal [1] was on his way to overcome Rod Laver’s 1969 record of claiming four major titles – id est, after potentially triumphing in Australia, he was supposed to win a Slam for the 6th time in Paris making something which rather couldn’t be repeated – 5 Grand Slam titles in a row. Nadal began that quarterfinal with 10 straight sets won against Ferrer [7], thus something like a ‘6-4 6-2 6-3’ scoreline was expected but the other way around. The first three games lasted 26 minutes due to gruelling baseline rallies, a great match could have been anticipated, then Nadal mysteriously left the court trailing *1:2 to take a MTO. After the comeback it was clear that he was able to deliver just 80-90% of his abilities, he was sluggish and the speed of his first serve 10-20 kph below his standards. Who knows, maybe the Australia Day (26 January) helped in avoiding a situation that Nadal retired – there were fireworks in the 2nd set to celebrate the AD, he had additional 10 minutes to check his body and rethink the strategy. He dropped 8 games in a row between *2:1 and *0:3 in the 3rd set, and from that moment to the end, the match was competitive again, like its beginning, but it was too late. Ferrer withstood break points serving at 3:1, 4:2, and at 5:3 he notched arguably the easiest hold in the contest, snapping Nadal’s 25-match winning streak at Slams. “In general, I had a virus. When you have a virus, your body goes down and you have more risk of everything,” Nadal explained. “That’s probably what happened. That’s the simple thing.”

   Serve & volley: Ferrer 1/3, Nadal 1/1

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   March 15, 2024 at 11:07 pm

   Two years later, Nadal defeats Ferrer after almost the same scoreline in the French Open final, so the most important match in Ferrer’s career, given his singles career

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