Soderling vs Nadal

So much has already been written about the shocking loss of Rafa Nadal to Robin Soderling so I won't dwell on the historical implications here. Instead I'll take a more technical approach. 

At the end of the day it boils down to this - Nadal played terribly and Soderling played great. I thought it would have been fun to see Nadal go for broke for 4 or 5 games in order to change the rythm of the match. He's as strong dude (probably stronger than Soderling) and can hit winners from anywhere. At least dictate as much as possible. Soderling isn't the best mover, and he can't pound groundstrokes as consistently if he has to dash from corner to corner. Pretend you're on grass Rafa!

Another thing Nadal could have done was employ the slice and hit more drop shots. If you've ever seen Roger Federer play Soderling or Berdych he does exactly this and it works perfectly. These big guys are tanks from the baseline but flounder a bit in the forecourt - especially with balls below the height of the net. Relatively speaking, Soderling is terrible volleyer and no one passes better than Nadal.

The problem was that Nadal would not or could not change strategy during the match. You can't really blame him either - his strategy has won him 4 French Open trophies. This was also the guy that made Lleyton Hewitt look like a club player just a few days ago. There are a lot of things Nadal could have done differently but we can't be too critical. He seems to be struggling with his backhand lately, and in all fairness strict defense is a often a viable play against a player like Soderling. Unfortunately Soderling was ready to hit a few extra balls and was playing out of his mind. It apparently was no fluke either - today he crushed Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.