ALL HAIL KING NADAL

1-6,6-1,3-2... federer down a break .. comes charging in towards the net to put away one of the easiest backhand volleys he could have asked for ( Nadal in his typical style .. scrambling for ball after another, managed to JUST get a racket to a federer forehand ,which subsequently lobbed up ..)... AND he puts it in the net!
That is something u dont see Federer doin so often .. he is usually very cool n relaxed n hardly gives his opponents easy points .. now i am not judging anything on the basis of this one point.. but this kept happening thruout the match ...atleast after the first set.

The first set, Federer was all over Nadal .. poor 20 yr old kid had no clue what was happening . It was like Nadal was in a trance ,still not aware he's playin the finals of the event he's supposed to be unbeatable at .. so i am guessing the first set proved to be a good wake up call for him .. coz after that initial hickup, he ripped through Federer.

I mean Federer is perhaps the best talent tennis has ever seen .. n he is like one of those prey-hunting scavengers .. he pounces at every little oppotunity he gets.. so with literally dominating Nadal in the first set .. one would have expected Feerer to roll on .. but thats where Nadal is soo good (too) - atleast on clay.. He came straight back at Federer. To be honest .. Nadal's heavy .. n i mean really heavy topspin forehand proved to be Federer's nemesis.. well the camera angle that these guys provide hardly provides any scope of viewing the topspin.. but i could figure out the heavy spin from Nadal's forehand grip.. ( .. most Spaniards have that western-i think- grip which lends them heavy spin on their shots). In the first set.. Federer kept attacking Nadal's backhand, which worked really well for him, but thereafter Nadal really got into his groove .. n started converting backhands to forehands .. n then subsequently got more balls on his forehand ..which then he (Nadal) used to target Federer's backhand. Now Federer uses a single handed backhand .. n i can tell u for sure that with that style it is v v v difficult to control balls which 'jump' on u.. courtesy heavy topspin a la Nadal forehand. Federer made too many unforced errors on his backhand side .. n eventually lost out on the points coz of this .
Very rarely do u see Federer off-balance and unsteady on the court .. he is one of THE most 'fluid' and smooth movers on court .. but on sunday he struggled. He looked hurried ( this is all after the first set.. first set he was supreme .. period), n kinda submissive n as i said, was missing easy shots.
Nadal on the other hand has to complimented .. young 20 yr old guy .. held onto his nerve all throughout .. didnt let the intial shock upset him .. n kept playin his game .. i mean hitting outright winners from the back of the court .. when most would be happy to keep the ball in play.. hats off to u mate!! And perhaps the best thing about his game on sunday was that once he got his rhythm goin he starting makin Federer play HIS (NADAL's ) game rather than Federer's own natural game ( which is generally shorter rallies than the ones one could see on sunday.. long rallies are Nadal's strongpoint)...
Though one thing i would have liked, was seeing a few more dropshots.. i mean the two guys have amazingly heavy grounstrokes.. which forced both of them a good 6-7 feet behind the baseline in most rallies .. i expected them to mix up their shots n try a few more dropshots n keep their respective opponent guessing... but then they'r world number 1 & 2 for a reason .. so i should just shut up...
Anyways great match .. thoroughly enjoyed it ... was a welcome break not seeing Federer win another grand-salm.. ( he WILL most probably win the next two .. so this was the only saving grace from monotony) .. n if u have actually managed to read thru all of this .. then hats off to u too !!!
cheers