I have a feeling Rafa will defend if not increase his points over the clay season.
Rafa actually played very well all week, certainly better than he did last year in my opinion

An interesting article on changes Rafa seems to be making to his game, his serve was definitely a factor on Sunday's match

www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/04...rehand-Analysis.aspx


Rafael Nadal has finally updated his game plan against Novak Djokovic.

Nadal defeated Djokovic 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Sunday, unveiling new patterns of play that helped snap a seven-match losing streak against the World No. 1. The first noticeable area was his serve location.

Nadal typically looks to hit his lefty slice serve to a right-hander’s backhand to start the point, but this has proven to be a tough proposition against Djokovic, who has one of the best backhand returns in the history of the game.

Nadal served much more to Djokovic’s forehand in this match and reaped the rewards of serving not where he prefers to serve but where Djokovic is not as deadly returning.

This was obvious from the start of the match in Nadal’s opening service game, where he served five of the first six points to Djokovic’s forehand return. Nadal was down 15-30 in that game, but three consecutive serves to Djokovic’s forehand wing were all unreturned to even the score at 1-1.

Nadal typically likes to hit first serves down the T in the deuce court and out wide in the ad court but he completely stayed away from his favorite spots in this match.

We will see if the change works when Novak is in the right frame of mind.

Dark Necrofear wrote:


If playing tennis was more important to him than grieving for his dead grandfather, i doubt it will take him long to get over it

liam_valid wrote:


Well exactly and whether it will work long term for Rafa or not, it's good to see he has actually tried to do something with his game to try and change things up a bit...

liam_valid wrote:


This is true. I suppose he wanted to get enough points to cover up for the 250 Djokovic Open he wont be playing next week.

unlucky caro,,,i mean andy

So does this mean that Rafa is still the King of Clay? Sorry to hear about the passing of Novak's grandpa, apparently they were pretty close.

Duchess wrote:


So close that he played the tournament through...