The Prodigy:
In his first match in Madrid, Rafa showed that it takes much more than a good drop-shot to beat him. But let’s face it, nobody realistically expected the Latvian to beat the Spanish bull; we all did however expect him to give Rafa a reasonably tough time and he didn’t disappoint. He showed some of that spark that we saw a glimpse of against Roddick in New York when we all told ourselves “wow, this guys going places”. Along with Cilic, Gulbis is one of those prodigies that haven’t made top 10 quite yet and he really demonstrated why in Madrid yesterday. He played all his shots yesterday and returned serve exceedingly well. I couldn’t even count how many times Rafa had to go backwards because the return went so deep. He went for the risky shots fearlessly and even though he wasn’t always successful, he has to be applauded for trying to play his naturally aggressive game against someone like Rafa… most players just head for cover against the Wimbeldon champ. Another surprise was the frequency of the Gulbis drop-shot.. he had Nadal running hard and Rafa could rarely get back on top after a good drop shot no matter how well he hustled.
Rafa's 'never give up' attitude:
However it has to be said, Gulbis is just a prodigy for a reason.. as good as the Latvian was, he wasn’t patient enough during some of the points; Rafa kept getting the ball back into play as he always does so relentlessly and Gulbis just panicked now and again and went for a shot that just wasn’t on.. if he was a little bit more patient and focused, that first set may have ended differently. In the end, it was Rafa’s day and although the regularity of the pump fist clearly indicated that Rafa wasn’t having the easiest time out there, he came out on top, simply because he does what he does every match… “he plays every point as if it was a match point”. When we’re all young, there’s always someone that tells us, “don’t give up, never give up”……. Rafa listened, and I think he hears it every point.
No comments:
Post a Comment