There are many different ways to win a tennis match. If you ask a pro, he'll immediately rattle off a dozen different strategies that can help defeat an opponent based on the specific circumstances of a contest. Some ways are more effective than others, but on any given day, you never know what might work best.
Men's semifinal day at the 2017 French Open was the kind of day when sharply contrasting methods produced similar results. Two big hitters were pitted against two tireless retrievers, and everyone expected long, if not necessarily classic, battles. But little could we have anticipated that in one match offensive striking would be so effective, and in the other, so self-destructive.
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A few notes from the Andy Murray vs Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal vs Dominic Thiem semifinals:
What can anyone do when Stanimal mode is activated?
For the better part of the first three sets, Murray seemed to have Wawrinka exactly where he wanted him. He was taking care of his serve, looping his forehand deep to get the ball out of Wawrinka's strike zone, and getting just enough balls back in play to induce errors from the Swiss. He even got broken mid-way through the first set to lull Wawrinka into a false sense of security; when presented with the opportunity to wrap up the set 6-3, Wawrinka rushed his shots and got broken back.
But the thing with playing a counterpunching game is that you run the risk of building up a rhythm for your opponent. While Wawrinka was hitting fairly well in the first set, he made just enough untimely errors – especially in the tiebreaker – to lose his first set of the tournament. In the second set, those errors disappeared.
He had seen enough rally balls from Murray to get into a groove from the baseline, and the slowness of the surface allowed him to take a step back and unleash his enormous racquet swings with regularity. Breaking the Scot twice to take the second 6-3, he seemed to be playing exactly the kind of aggressive brand of tennis that you need to overpower a counterpunching opponent.
Murray is World No. 1 for a reason though, and he fought tooth and nail to stay with Wawrinka in some of the rallies. And those rallies were long and bruising, punctuated by loud grunts from both men and louder cheers from the crowd. This was claycourt tennis at its best – with all its physicality and endurance testing.
Murray eventually forced his way back into contention, and as the fourth set moved into a tiebreaker, he must have fancied his chances. But he hadn't reckoned for one possibility – that the beast would be awakened.
‘Stanimal’ had already made a brief appearance in the match, during those quick games in the second set. But as the match went into overtime, the beast was unleashed in full force. And the crowd, sensing that something special was on its way, immersed itself into the match and elevated the atmosphere to something resembling a circus.
All of a sudden, Wawrinka was pummeling winners from every inch of the court. Forehand, backhand, overhead – you name it, he had it covered. And the crowd roared at each one of those winners, threatening to scream Murray out of the match.
So menacing was Wawrinka's presence on the court – he finished with a staggering 87 winners – that it seemed to deflate the very life out of Murray. It's not often that you see Murray suffering through the loss of a point without yelling in the direction of his player box. But in that fifth set, Murray didn't even have the energy to turn around and glare at his coach.
Maybe the lack of crowd support contributed to that, but would it really have made a difference if the crowd had been on his side?
Like Petra Kvitova on the women's side, Wawrinka has made it a bit of a habit to bring out his can't-miss, winner-on-practically-every-shot side about once or twice every year. And when he does, there's not much that anyone can do – not even a brilliant defender like Murray.
So the first semifinal taught us that pure defense can do nothing to counter flawless offense, right? Wrong.
Rafael Nadal can't stop delivering claycourt masterclasses
Nadal was the favourite going into his semifinal against Thiem, but not an overwhelming one. A small majority of people did expect the Austrian to give a few fits to Nadal with his relentlessly roundhouse groundstrokes. His thrashing of Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal was an eye-opening performance, and he seemed to be ready to take the next step of his evolution as a player.
But if the next step means going hammer and tongs at every ball irrespective of what's happening on the other side of the court, he's not going to defeat the likes of Nadal at a Slam any time soon.
It feels silly to say that Wawrinka was ‘measured’ with his hitting, but that's exactly how his play looked compared to Thiem's. Wawrinka took his time to settle into the match, and chose specific moments to showcase the full extent of his power. Thiem, on the other hand, seemed to think that taking full cuts at the ball right from the word go was the only way to defeat Nadal, and that strategy quickly turned into disaster.
Perhaps the Austrian was emboldened by the fact that Nadal seemed nervous at the start. The nine-time champ got broken in his very first service game, and missed a routine overhead in the third game to give hope to everyone in the Thiem camp. If the Spaniard was off his game even a little, Thiem would have a real chance at manufacturing the upset.
But Nadal being Nadal, he quickly put those wobbles out of his head and brought out his best to hold and take a 2-1 lead. And Thiem being Thiem, he continued throwing himself at the ball every chance he got, despite realizing that the ball kept coming back.
What was particularly baffling was that Thiem went for winners even when he was pushed far behind the baseline. In Rome, he took the ball on the rise which took time away from Nadal, and so his constant attempt to pull the trigger was justified. But here, he kept trying to hit winners from impossible positions, and that played right into Nadal’s hands.
It was a little funny, actually. I kept taking pictures of Thiem flying into the air, both feet off the ground, as he hit forehand after forehand with complete and utter abandon. But those shots kept going for errors, and I was left with a bunch of spectacular images that didn't really convey the real picture.
Last week I had written that Thiem is a unique specimen who can generate tremendous power off every single shot in a rally. And yes, that ability would hold him in pretty good stead against a majority of the ATP tour on clay. But against Nadal, when you take those many risks on every point, you are bound to get burned sooner or later.
Like Murray against Wawrinka, Nadal was thrown into the counterpuncher's role in the second semifinal. But unlike Murray, Nadal didn't give his opponent too many looks at putaways.
Nadal's claycourt record speaks for itself, but every time he plays on the surface, he reminds us that he has mastered claycourt defense in a way that all other players can only dream of. Even when he was retrieving Thiem's missiles on the dead run, he managed to put just enough pace and spin on the ball to make the ‘one extra shot’ for Thiem a little tougher than expected. And Thiem, who seemed to get progressively more deflated by Nadal's unyielding defense, starting sending that one extra shot flying beyond the line.
It has to be said that Thiem played a rather ordinary match by the standards of his previous five rounds this tournament. But that's pretty much what Nadal's modus operandi has been throughout his claycourt reign – make the extraordinary look ordinary.
Murray's defense couldn't outlast Wawrinka's offense today, but Nadal's consistency completely wiped the floor with Thiem's attacking strategy. That's because Nadal is just that little bit better, just that little bit stronger, and just that little bit more of a fighter. And not just in relation to Murray, but in relation to pretty much every player out there.
‘La Decima’ could actually happen on Sunday, but Wawrinka will try to prove one more time that perfect offense can trump tireless defense. Will anyone dare to bet against the King of Clay though?
What is the foot injury that has troubled Rafael Nadal over the years? Check here
