2019 Men's US Open Final: Rafael Nadal vs. Daniil Medvedev

[rafanoy1992]

I want to congratulate for Medvedev for reaching his first Grand Slam final. He clearly has been playing well this Summer. By the way, this will be his 4th consecutive final (Washington, Canada, Cincy and now US Open).

As for Nadal, this will be his 5th US Open final and 27th Slam final overall.

This will be their 2nd meeting in exactly 28 days. Nadal won their only meeting 28 days ago in Canada with a score of 6-3, 6-0.

While I do expect Nadal to win this match, I think this match will be competitive (probably 4 sets) as Medvedev probably learned a lot in their only encounter 28 days ago.

 

[AnonymousFan]

Nadal in 3

 

[calitennis127]

Medvedev cannot get caught 10-12 feet behind the baseline. It is imperative that he win some quick points with the serve and forehand and use some aggressive offense to set the table for his defense.

 

[Bonaca]

Big kudos to the young Russian. He showed everything a future Slam winner should.
I admit his biggest chances against the big 3 are on HC.
Even writing that, i am pretty sure he will lose easily in 3 or 4 sets.
I hope i am wrong and it will be at least competitive.

But while Nadal is still that strong and consistent, only Roger and Novak could beat him constantly in best of 3 when inform and healthy.

Daniil will not beat Nadal in long rallies over such a distance.

But nevertheless a great achievement so far.

 

[10isfan]

We should have given Nadal the trophy as soon as Djoke and Fed lost. There was nobody left who could have beaten him, although I did enjoy watching Schwartzman.

 

[atttomole]

Big kudos to the young Russian. He showed everything a future Slam winner should.
I admit his biggest chances against the big 3 are on HC.
Even writing that, i am pretty sure he will lose easily in 3 or 4 sets.
I hope i am wrong and it will be at least competitive.

But while Nadal is still that strong and consistent, only Roger and Novak could beat him constantly in best of 3 when inform and healthy.

Daniil will not beat Nadal in long rallies over such a distance.

But nevertheless a great achievement so far.

I agree with you. But I hope that he can serve well and produce his variety. I think he is a better version of Berrettini. He can make it a match. One of his biggest problems will be fatigue. I think he has a chance. One can tell that Nadal is not very comfortable on this surface. The slow playing conditions are helping him.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I agree with you. But I hope that he can serve well and produce his variety. I think he is a better version of Berrettini. He can make it a match. One of his biggest problems will be fatigue. I think he has a chance. One can tell that Nadal is not very comfortable on this surface. The slow playing conditions are helping him.

How can "one" tell Nadal is not very comfortable? Based on what?

You guys keep throwing these things in absolute terms yet never ever have anything of substance to back them up. It's pretty astounding.

 

[atttomole]

How can "one" tell Nadal is not very comfortable? Based on what?

You guys keep throwing these things in absolute terms yet never ever have anything of substance to back them up. It's pretty astounding.

The ball is not moving through the court and you saw what Berrettini could have done to him, especially in the first set. His advantage was that he could make the rallies longer and Berrettini was always going to shank the ball at some point during the rallies. I was surprised one time when J McEnroe asked how Nadal retrieved a ball, as if he doesn’t know what Nadal is capable of.

 

[isabelle]

I'm going with Meddi in 4, just to bother the awful USO's crowd....it would be great to see a new winner at least, tennis needs new faces

 

[brokenshoelace]

The ball is not moving through the court and you saw what Berrettini could have done to him, especially in the first set. His advantage was that he could make the rallies longer and Berrettini was always going to shank the ball at some point during the rallies. I was surprised one time when J McEnroe asked how Nadal retrieved a ball, as if he doesn’t know what Nadal is capable of.

Nadal’s forehand is absolutely exploding through the court. It’s why he’s doing so well so I’m really not sure what you mean. And yeah I saw a huge hitter hitting some big balls. How is this different to any other surface?

 

[tented]

Highlights from the only match they’ve played, just a month ago:

 

[MikeOne]

Medvedev is a player that forces opponents to use variety, he makes it very hard to beat him with a 1 dimensional style. He is a pure counterpuncher, a player who basically plays back, gets everything back, has good placement and dares opponents to try to hit through him. He reminds me of Lleyton Hewitt but with more length, so he covers the court as well or even better than Hewitt. He has a good serve though, so can hurt you with his serve.

I think Nadal has the style to give Medvedev a lot of problems, we saw it in Canada. Nadal uses angles and spins, this is more difficult to deal with when an opponent plays too far back. The people who have success vs Nadal are aggressive and play closer to the baseline or inside the baseline. Beating nadal playing far back will be a nightmare for Medvedev.... I don't think he has a chance unless he changes his style but hard to change the style that has worked well all summer.

Rafa will use his fh cross court, inside out to create angles which will be difficult for Medvedev to deal with if he plays way behind the baseline. Rafa will come to net, use drop shots to bring Medvedev in and will also hit his down the line fh and flatter bh to keep Medvedev honest. Medvedev will need to play closer to the baseline, be more aggressive (counterpunching Nadal doesn't work), come in to net and serve well. Tough matchup...

 

[atttomole]

Nadal’s forehand is absolutely exploding through the court. It’s why he’s doing so well so I’m really not sure what you mean. And yeah I saw a huge hitter hitting some big balls. How is this different to any other surface?

It is playing slow.

 

[Nadalfan2013]

I'm going with Meddi in 4, just to bother the awful USO's crowd....it would be great to see a new winner at least, tennis needs new faces

How convenient… I say once Nadal gets to #21, the new faces can start winning... But if Nadal is out of a tournament, I'd love to see the new faces stop Djokovic and Federer...

 

[tented]

Medvedev is a player that forces opponents to use variety, he makes it very hard to beat him with a 1 dimensional style. He is a pure counterpuncher, a player who basically plays back, gets everything back, has good placement and dares opponents to try to hit through him. He reminds me of Lleyton Hewitt but with more length, so he covers the court as well or even better than Hewitt. He has a good serve though, so can hurt you with his serve.

I think Nadal has the style to give Medvedev a lot of problems, we saw it in Canada. Nadal uses angles and spins, this is more difficult to deal with when an opponent plays too far back. The people who have success vs Nadal are aggressive and play closer to the baseline or inside the baseline. Beating nadal playing far back will be a nightmare for Medvedev.... I don't think he has a chance unless he changes his style but hard to change the style that has worked well all summer.

Rafa will use his fh cross court, inside out to create angles which will be difficult for Medvedev to deal with if he plays way behind the baseline. Rafa will come to net, use drop shots to bring Medvedev in and will also hit his down the line fh and flatter bh to keep Medvedev honest. Medvedev will need to play closer to the baseline, be more aggressive (counterpunching Nadal doesn't work), come in to net and serve well. Tough matchup...

If you were Medvedev’s coach, what would you advise him to do?

 

[Bonaca]

I agree with you. But I hope that he can serve well and produce his variety. I think he is a better version of Berrettini. He can make it a match. One of his biggest problems will be fatigue. I think he has a chance. One can tell that Nadal is not very comfortable on this surface. The slow playing conditions are helping him.

You cannot imagine how strong I hope you are right.
Top rested it will be difficult for him, but when fatigue comes to it, he will be destroyed by the robot.
The hope dies last!

 

[Nadalfan2013]

If you were Medvedev’s coach, what would you advise him to do?

I would advise him to watch Nadal and learn some “class” and “professionalism”. Medvedev’s behaviour this whole tournament was cringe worthy.

 

[Bonaca]

I would advise him to watch Nadal and learn some “class” and “professionalism”. Medvedev’s behaviour this whole tournament was cringe worthy.

He is a hot blooded kid, emotional, responding to the fucking crowd on his own way. Nothing wrong about it.
Imagine every tennis player robotic and with borderline discipline like your guy. Wouldn’t it be boring as hell? Variety , mixed characters , different playing style, isn’t that all what we talk about, what makes it interesting?
I mean it honestly!

 

[MikeOne]

I agree with you. But I hope that he can serve well and produce his variety. I think he is a better version of Berrettini. He can make it a match. One of his biggest problems will be fatigue. I think he has a chance. One can tell that Nadal is not very comfortable on this surface. The slow playing conditions are helping him.

Medvedev is a completely different player to Berrettini, like not even in the same universe. Berrettini is a power player whose bread and butter is attack. Medvedev is a pure counterpuncher who mostly counterpunches and attacks in spurts. Medvedev doesn't have the power or attacking style of Berrettini so the two cannot be compared. I view Medvedev as a taller version of Hewitt, somewhere between hewitt and murray but not quite as versatile as Murray. He has a big serve but his baseline is not power tennis at all, it's the rawest version of counterpunching you will ever see. He may be better than Berrettini but they two play completely different type of tennis. Medvedev is a smart player so curious to see how he plays Nadal, his style of playing back and counterpunching is difficult to pull off against Nadal.

 

[Nadalfan2013]

He is a hot blooded kid, emotional, responding to the fucking crowd on his own way. Nothing wrong about it.
Imagine every tennis player robotic and with borderline discipline like your guy. Wouldn’t it be boring as hell? Variety , mixed characters , different playing style, isn’t that all what we talk about, what makes it interesting?
I mean it honestly!

If I was a ball boy and Medvedev snatched the towel like this from me I would throw it on the floor the next time. People booed him for his overall behaviour. Go get some help and stop defending animals like Kyrgios and Medvedev. We can have different personalities but without losing basic values like respect.