Talking tactics: Why Del Potro couldn't master Djokovic like he did Nadal in Shanghai

And when he wasn’t hitting winners, there was so much oomph behind his shots that Nadal was forced into errors. He established prime position in the centre of the court and let rip, as Nadal was left to chase those huge forehands and backhands.

Djokovic’s supreme returning skills, already highlighted earlier, did not allow Del Potro to set up for the big shot early in the point. Instead, Djokovic was the one who kept a vice-like grip on Del Potro, not allowing the Argentine a free swing of those long arms.

In the match against Nadal, Del Potro hit 33% of his shots from inside the baseline; against Djokovic that number was just 19% in the first set. As a result, the Serb won the set at a canter by pinning Del Potro to the back of the court. He also won 10 of the 13 rallies that stretched for more than 10 shots.

Djokovic’s serve in turn prevented his opponent from laying down the hammer, until the second set, where a drop off in his serving levels saw Del Potro play more aggressively and start ripping those winners and booming forehands.

Backhand down the line

Two things that Del Potro has vastly improved over the years are his backhand and his movement on the court. The Argentine is a big unit, but manages to cover the court pretty effectively these days.

So the challenge that lay in front of both Nadal and then Djokovic was to unseat him from his position of power from the middle of the back court.

Novak Djokovic used his backhand down the line to great effect against Del Potro

In the game against Nadal, a majority of rallies in their initial stages played out between Nadal’s forehand cross-court to Del Potro’s backhand. The Argentine used his height and reach to good effect to combat the heavy top-spin that Nadal imparts on his shots.

Coming over the backhand beautifully, Del Potro used it as an effective rallying tool, before unleashing those forehand bombs which Nadal could do nothing about. And as a player who likes to run around his backhand, much like Roger Federer, Del Potro tends to veer towards the left, leaving room on the side of his forehand wing.

That is why one sees him attempt so many of those running forehands which he pulls off remarkably, as he needs to cover that side a bit more when his opponents attack it. Nadal found it tough to exploit that wing as he would have had to play a lot of forehands down the line instead of his favoured cross-court.

And when he tried to attack with his backhand, Del Potro found him out by going up the line as well as inside out to Nadal’s forehand, which left Nadal retrieving from side-to-side with some squash-like shots.

When it comes to Djokovic though, the backhand down the line is one of the most beautiful shots that one will see from his racquet. It’s one of his favourite shots and when he plays it well, the timing and efficiency on it make sure that it causes a lot of damage. Every time he plays Federer, the Swiss regularly gets burnt on that forehand wing due to that shot.

He used it to good effect against Del Potro as well to keep him from venturing more to his left in an attempt to get around the backhand. He targeted the forehand of Del Potro, the stronger wing, in an attempt to break it down, and it paid off in the first set as Del Potro struggled to find his radar.

It was only when he got the serve going in the second set that he roared back and one got to see some of the same patterns of play like those in the semi-final against Nadal.

And that’s how Novak Djokovic bested Juan Martin Del Potro, despite being run close yet again by the Argentine.

Every time these two clash on the court, they end up playing a really high-quality match filled with plenty of shots that stick in the memory for a long time to come. Each of their clashes this year has gone the distance and it is a match-up that always delivers on quality and entertainment.

Talking tactics will be back soon with a take on the next big match on the ATP tour.