Rafael Nadal Blames Lack of Defense for Australian Open Final Beatdown

The beatdown left fans wondering what went wrong for Nadal. After all, he looked to be in outstanding shape heading into the final. Building a career on his relentless defensive skills, he spent the off-season working on his offensive skills, and it had paid off enormously. One need not look further than any of Nadal’s previous matches at the tournament to see Nadal clearly improved this aspect of his game. His straight-set wins in all of his previous matches were largely predicated on his improved serve, which allowed him to execute the “serve + huge forehand” strategy he was thriving on. This improvement was the aspect many people indicated would give him success against Djokovic. However, in an ironic outcome, Nadal blamed his lack of defense for his underwhelming vanquishing by his regular foe.

In an interview that would historically to be tedious and painful after such a terrible defeat, Rafael Nadal was uncharacteristically positive after his 6-3, 6-,2, 6-3 thrashing from Novak Djokovic.

In the post-match interview, Nadal explained to reporters his biggest issue was his lack of sufficient defense.

“The only thing that remained – a little bit more – to me, was normally the best thing that I have. So, it’s something that we – I am not worried much about.

“I think I was playing great during the both weeks in offensive positions,” Nadal told reporters on Sunday night. “In defensive positions, I practiced what I practiced. I practiced well, very well I think, but because of the things that happened to me in terms of surgery, then what happened in Abu Dhabi, I was not able to work that much the defensive game. I worked a lot on the offensive game, but not that much on the defensive game.”

Nadal went on to confess, “To play against a player like him – playing the way he played tonight, I needed that defensive game to finally have the chance to be offensive, no?” Nadal said. “When he was hitting, is true that maybe was difficult to beat him even if I was at my 100%. But probably will be a little bit more fight.”

Nadal is not someone to make empty excuses for his defeats. Should he continue his offensive mindset, and bring back his unparalleled defensive game, one must think Nadal will surely be in a position to sweep the clay season yet again.