During the Wimbledon quarterfinal match against the American Taylor Fritz, Rafa Nadal felt a strong pain in his abdomen that was about to make him withdraw from the match.
He won the match but ended up retiring the next day.
Against Fritz he not only threw with pride, but also with his head.
The pain forced him to modify his style of serving to control the movements and not force the painful area.
This implies several changes in his service: jumping less, reducing the arc of the racket and with it the speed of the service.
All to avoid pulling on the abdomen area - where he felt a whiplash on each serve - and focus on the movement of the elbow and wrist.
Thus he managed to contain the pain.
A good start for Nadal
Points won by Nadal
Points earned by Fritz
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3rd set
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5th set
Points won by Nadal
Points earned by Fritz
1st set
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5th set
Points won by Nadal
Points earned by Fritz
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2nd set
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Points won by Nadal
Points earned by Fritz
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2nd set
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4th set
5th set
Nadal had started the match without hesitation in his first two serving times, with serves of almost 200 kilometers per hour.
But from then on he began to feel the pain that hampered his service.
He did not win another game in the first set (6-3 for Fritz).
The Balearic feels discomfort
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The discomfort worsened as the minutes passed.
Although in the early stages of the second set he started in the best way, 3-0 ahead of Fritz, Nadal suffered with each service.
At that moment he asked for the help of the tournament physio, while his father and his sister called on him from the stands to withdraw from the match, not to do any more damage.
But Nadal found a formula.
Nadal asks for assistance
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Rafael Nadal, after losing the third set against Taylor Fritz. ADRIAN DENNIS (AFP)
He returned to the game physically diminished, but with a strategy in mind.
Identified the moment of pain, the service, Nadal found a mechanism that reduced the torsion of the trunk and allowed him to give the ball more placement than power.
In this way, he managed to open it wide and Fritz had to stretch to fetch it off the track.
This maneuver can be appreciated by seeing how loose the racket is when hitting the ball, in a movement of the wrist without involving the rest of the body.
Makes the decision to change the serve during the match
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The formula was a success for several reasons.
The first, that Rafa knew that one of Fritz's weaknesses was the return and the cut balls.
By substantially reducing the speed of his serve, Nadal was able to confuse his opponent and pick up many points that began with a serve at less than 150 kilometers per hour.
He even landed a
few aces
taking advantage of the open and accurate shots, even if they were not as powerful
.
The average speed of him is usually around 180 km / h, which reflects a clear change in strategy in search of the angles.
This also caused the first serve to fail several times, but the Balearic kept the plan until the end, increasing the power as he felt more comfortable.
Nadal's serve speed
during the match
Speed
maximum
Speed
half
1st set
174
193
2nd set
166
189
3rd set
162
178
4th set
160
183
5th set
167
188
100
150
125
175
200
km/h
Source: IBM.
THE COUNTRY
Nadal's serve speed
during the match
Speed
maximum
Speed
half
1st set
174
193
2nd set
166
189
3rd set
162
178
4th set
160
183
5th set
167
188
100
150
175
200
km/h
125
Source: IBM.
THE COUNTRY
Nadal's serve speed during the match
193
189
188
Speed
maximum
183
178
Speed
half
174
167
166
162
160
1st set
2nd set
3rd set
4th set
5th set
Source: IBM.
THE COUNTRY
Against Fritz, the formula was successful despite the toughness of the match, resolved after more than four hours in the
super tie break
of the fifth set.
But that's where his commitment was, because the Spaniard announced the next day that he had to withdraw from the tournament after verifying this Thursday that he was not in a position to compete in the semifinal this Friday in which Kyrgios was waiting for him.
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