| By Chris Oddo |
Photo Credit: EPA |
(May 18, 2012)—Normally on Flashback Friday we turn our attention in the direction of the heroes of tennis yesteryear, but today we're only going to travel back a few stops in our time machine, hopping off at May 2011 to rediscover Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal's Rome final from last year.
In case you've forgotten (it’s okay: short-term memory loss is very common among tennis fans) let me remind you that last year at this time we were smack-dab in the middle of the "Spring of Nole." Djokovic was riding a 37-match win streak heading into the final at Rome, including three remarkable, eyebrow-raising wins over Nadal in three consecutive finals.
Although his form was mighty impressive, Djokovic's win over Nadal in Madrid—a place that Nadal has never truly embraced—in the previous week was seen by many as an aberration, the exception rather than the norm.
In Rome, on dreadfully slow clay and at sea level, many predicted that Djokovic would finally run out of luck against the King of Clay. After all, Nadal had fashioned a 27-1 career record in the eternal city, winning five titles in six years.
Even though he'd been blowing minds since the beginning of 2011, skeptics seemed to still harbor the belief that Djokovic would soon return to his tortured, underachieving, breathing-restricted self, and start dropping matches by letting his level sag at those all-important crucial junctures of matches once again.
Little did we know.
Once again in this 6-4, 6-4 victory, Djokovic rose to the challenge, matching a hell-bent Nadal in the early going and keeping the Spaniard at bay by finding his backhand with relative ease.
Now, before we turn this piece into a Djokovic coronation, realize that Nadal played some brilliant tennis in this final as well. He was aggressive with the forehand, quick to defend, and he got the better of the Serb in a good portion of the rallies.
But in the "Spring of Nole," solutions were nearly impossible to find when it came to gaining the upper hand against Djokovic, particularly in the business end of sets.
As spirited as Nadal's effort was, Djokovic always had the plus-one: the series of shots that would take Nadal off balance, coax a short ball, and allow the sizzling Serb to execute the killshot.
Djokovic did just that on match point, knocking off an angled forehand winner and dropping to the dirt to celebrate his seventh consecutive title in style.
Skeptics would be damned, at least until Djokovic fell to Federer at the French.
Some thoughts on the video:
In the first set at the 1:15 mark on the video, when Djokovic answers a blistering Nadal backhand with an obscenely angled one of his own, it becomes apparent that these two phenoms were playing tennis about as good at is can be played on a clay court.
The look on Djokovic's face at the 2:05 mark after he played a remarkably patient chess-like point to set up a crosscourt backhand winner on set point says, "I am climbing the mountain and I can reach the top."
The "vaporized" Djokovic backhand from behind the baseline at 2:54 that not even the ultimate defender Nadal could get back.
And finally (at 3:03) the eerie precision that Djokovic executes his groundstrokes with on match point, first ripping a return to Nadal's feet to start the point at an advantage, then steering a crosscourt backhand into the corner that Nadal can barely nudge over the net, and finally putting away the crosscourt forehand to seal his seventh straight title and his fourth consecutive victory over Nadal in a final.
Go here for full match on YouTube.