Whenever Roger Federer got beaten at the hands of Rafael Nadal, his fans and many tennis players and experts would be quick to point at the "match up" advantage that the Spaniard enjoys over his Swiss rival.
The theory states that Rafa as a left hander plays his forehand to the right-handed Roger's backhand, and since Nadal applies an unprecedented amount of heavy topspin on the ball, it's almost impossible for the one-hander Federer to do anything on that ball, much less attack it. The pattern continues till Rafa draws an error from Roger, and repeats.
I have always found this theory absurd, even before Federer's recent victories against Nadal in the Australian Open final where he came from a break down in the fifth set, at Indian Wells where he played a masterclass and the Spaniard was no match for him, or even at Miami where Federer overcame a slow court and very humid conditions.
Here are my reasons:
- If Federer has a set of talents denoted as F: {f1, f2, f3,...., fm} where f1 is the forehand and f2 is the serve and so on and similarly Nadal has a set of talents {n1, n2, n3,... nl}, the match up theory states that Nadal has a talent ny (forehand) that is superior to some Federer's talent fx (backhand), and the theory stops at that!!
What about the rest of the talent sets? Is F'=F-fx superior/equal/inferior to N'=N-ny?
If it's equal or inferior, this means N>F and that Nadal is actually a better player than Federer not just having a match up advantage. Period. - If on the other hand, F' is sufficiently superior to N' to the point that it more than overcomes the ny-fx
disadvantage, then the question is why isn't Federer taking advantage
of that? Is there a law that prohibits him from using his strengths and
exploiting Nadal's weaknesses? Is the match played from start to finish
on Nadal's serve? Every player gets his own chance to play a game on his
serve, on his own terms. Nadal used to use his chances well, Federer
didn't. Simple as that.
- Actually Nadal doesn't just have a lefty advantage over Federer. Nadal
has a better stamina, is mentally stronger, plays with bigger margins
for error to name a few. These make him a better player than Federer in
certain circumstances, on a clay court for instance.
- A win brings up another win. Nadal has enjoyed earlier success against Federer. This helped him believe that he can beat the Swiss who often doubts himself against the Spaniard.
Whatever happened in previous Federer/Nadal matches, and whatever will happen in future matches will depend on so many factors, some of them are outside of either player control, like match surface and weather conditions. Other factors will be their physical, tactical, technical and mental abilities.
Of all their technical abilities, the Nadal's forehand to Federer's backhand is one of many "match-ups" that contribute to the outcome of the match. Not to mention their respective forms going into the match.
Amateur/Club-level/One dimensional players have a "match-up" problem against other players. A 19 time major champion doesn't fall in this category. It's insulting to put him there.
