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This year the young Andy Murray delivered one of the finest matches of the tournament against Rafael Nadal, thanks to the guidance of a great tactician, Brad Gilbert. More importantly he also opened a floodgate that had already been nudged by Thomas Berdych (3/1 in his favor during their duels) and James Blake (3/0), the Spanish player's two pet peeves.

Rafael Nadal scares. He incites fear in every player because he seems unshakeable, unstoppable and once he takes the advantage in a match, he wears you out and literally steamrolls over you.

Yet no one is unbeatable and Andy Murray, well guided by his coach, came close to creating one of the biggest surprises in the tournament, following a monumental match that ended in the fifth set.

Rafael Nadal is incredible mainly for two reasons:

• The first is due to the quality of his lift and to his characteristics as a left-hander. In fact, once he controls the game, it is very difficult to escape his claws because his lift is literally "explosive", and as a left-hander, he hits his forehand on the opposing backhand with an outbound trajectory accentuated by this famous lift. His opponent quickly finds himself offcourt and the Spaniard now just has to play down the line to crush his opponent.
• The second is due to his capacities of movement. Since Rafael is extremely fast, he turns into his backhand and "works" his opponent with his forehand, as explained above. Once he is in a defensive position, he runs so well that it is difficult to win a point without finishing it off at the net. And lastly, Rafael is often able to regain an advantage when he is dominated in a rally.

But the Spaniard is also vulnerable for the following reasons:

• He cannot control the game when he does not have time to regroup, and therefore becomes a very good defender but one who can be beaten by an effective attacker. That is what Blake and Berdych proved. Both, who are very dangerous on fast surfaces, were able to dominate the match by playing a very flat game, close to the lines and by finishing points at the net.
• Nadal is vulnerable on first shots. This is the case for returns where his extreme grips force him to place himself very far from the baseline, and also with his serves, which have improved but remain very predictable since he almost always serves on the "T" (the middle-line).
• Finally, we can also note that when he moves on the backhand side, he often plays short and thus opens up possibilities for an attack.

On the strength of these observations, and given the qualities of Andy Murray, a player who is not a baseline hitter like Berdych or Blake, Brad Gilbert came up with the following plan to destabilize the Spaniard:

Firstly, it was important to never let the Spaniard get comfortable in his game. To accomplish this, Andy always varied shots, switched from a lift to a chop, deep shots to short balls, to drop shots. He continuously put the Spaniard in an uncomfortable situation. Rafael was never able to settle in his game of destruction because he was constantly startled. This forced him to play short and at that precise moment, Andy rushed to the net hitting flatly and taking the shot early.

Andy then concentrated on putting the maximum number of first serves in, often following it up at the volley.

Finally, he regularly hit his forehand crosscourt in order to attack his opponent’s backhand and finish off at the net.

The Scotsman seemed to have unlocked a new way for beating Nadal. Unfortunately for him, he once again was betrayed by his physical condition - while Nadal was saved by his own.

Patrick Mouratoglou - January 27, 2007