Adding more sting to his second serve has helped Rafael Nadal deliver a first-class start to clay-court season.
Four-time Madrid champion Nadal carries a 10-0 clay-court, including collecting his 10th career titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, into the Mutua Madrid Open.
Murray: Now Is Most Important Time of Year
Working with new coach Carlos Moya during a longer offseason last fall gave Nadal time to work on increasing the speed of his second serve and expand his targets in the service box.
Serving with a bit more ambition and variety this season, Nadal leads the ATP in second-serve points won (61 percent).
The left-hander is fifth in the all-important service games won (88 percent) behind only Nick Kyrgios, Milos Raonic Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Acknowledging his aim to add more velocity to his serve, Nadal said there’s a simpler reason for his 2017 success: He’s playing better and training with joy.
“That was something we had in mind, maybe have a little bit more speed on the second serve. But we don't have to be crazy about it or start to analyze things that perhaps now I'm doing better,” Nadal told the media in Madrid today. “Basically what I'm doing better or what I've been doing better for the last couple of months is that I've been playing way better than what I did in 2015. Last year I had an injury, but I was playing well, too.
“My game now is not so good. My game before was not so bad. You don't have to lie to yourself. There are just things you try to develop, try to have evolution with. You just need goals. You have to just train with joy. You just want to be able to do things better. You don't have to go out there to train in a monotonous way, that doesn't make any sense. You just need motivation. The motivations are achieved by goals. You just need goals.”
The second serve is a confidence shot even for elite players. The fact that Nadal has been willing to go for bigger second serves, vary the location a bit and back it up with his sound groundstrokes is a testament to the nine-time Roland Garros champion's confidence in his health and his game.
“Yes, I'm trying to hit my second serves a little bit harder. Apparently it's working,” Nadal said. “It's a little bit easier to try things when the results are there. Maybe you can make decisions to change things in your game, with the speed, second serve, whatever it is. But for the moment, things are working out. I think I am serving quite well during the whole year.
“The second serve, it's true it has been one of the things that is a key point. The statistics of the points won with the second serve, I'm up there. I'm one of the best players that wins points with the second serve. I think that's a very important statistic on the tour. All the years that I've been playing, I think I've always been one of the best players in the statistics of points won with the second serve, without having the second serve that I have right now. I think that time will let us know. I think that the second serve right now, it's working quite well. But what can happen tomorrow, I really don't know.”
An ear infection Nadal suffered on Friday has left him feeling slightly dizzy at times, but he does not expect the issue to impact performance in Madrid.
“About my ear, I woke up Friday at 3 in the morning with a little bit of pain. That's all," Nadal said. "I visited a doctor the next day. I think I have an otitis. It's nothing important. This is the first time this happened in my life.
" It's a little bit painful. You are all day perhaps a little bit with headaches. Sometimes you feel a little bit dizzy. But I've been training well. Today I feel a bit better than yesterday. It's still a bit painful, but I'm feeling better than yesterday."
Nadal has been training and is hoping a Wednesday start will give him time to full recover.
"I trained two and a half hours normally, training well," Nadal said. "I think that it's not going to be a major issue. But it's true that the tournament, and also the intention of mine, was to play on Tuesday. With this, I think it's better to start a day later, to start on Wednesday.”
Photo credit: Mutua Madrid Open