One usual suspect in the French Open Final and one new face. Casper Ruud, newer to the French Open Final vs Rafa Nadal – King of Clay of the French Open. Casper Ruud had a tall order to stay with Rafa. Rudd had numerous challenges that he had to deal with, from Rafa’s heavy spin, angles, his lefty forehand that brought Ruud off the court to the Backhand etc. Although, at AR Tennis, we wanted to take a look at a couple patterns that Ruud could have adjusted, to better his chances against Nadal. We are going to use the virtual tennis court from AR Tennis to help us discuss patterns and adjustments that Ruud could have done.
Casper Ruud focused on establishing his forehand cross court to Rafa’s backhand, trying to pin Rafa in the backhand corner, which is a great strategy. When Rafa gave him a neutral ball, Ruud hit an inside out forehand to open the court to Rafa’s forehand, in turn, this would place Ruud toward the middle of the court and try to control with his forehand. While this strategy is solid, Ruud tried to press the inside out too much and hit forehands from the backhand corner – giving up too much real estate for Rafa to hit his Forehand down the line, to Ruud’s forehand and pull him out of position.
As we mentioned, Casper Ruud was giving up too much court to the forehand side, hitting inside out forehands from the backhand corner. A better option would be to hit a backhand cross court to Nadal’s forehand, opening up the court after Ruud established the forehand cross to Nadal’s backhand. This would allow Ruud to gain better positioning on the court and be able to defend Nadal’s forehand down the line. He could then re-establish the forehand cross to Nadal’s backhand and look for a ball that we could hit inside out to the Nadal forehand.
Another option that Ruud could have implemented, is to use the backhand down the line, after he opened up the court to Nadal’s forehand. With this strategy, Ruud would establish the forehand cross court to Nadal’s backhand and still hit the cross court backhand / inside out forehand – if the ball is neutral in the court and if Nadal hits the cross court forehand, to hit backhand down the line. This is a pattern that Novak uses against Nadal and has success with. This would allow Ruud to push Nadal back to the Backhand corner and open up the inside out or down the line forehand to open the court back up to the forehand.
In conclusion, Casper Ruud had the right idea to try to establish the forehand cross court when he could, pinning Nadal in the backhand corner and hitting inside out forehand to the Nadal forehand, to open up the court. Although he tried to force the issue too much and gave up too much court positioning down the line, Nadal could attack and gain control of the court with the forehand. Next time Ruud plays Nadal on clay, it would be interesting if he could do more damage, if he implements some of these patterns. Be sure to check out more features and functionality updates to our virtual tennis court and target training system of the AR Tennis App – when they are released.