20131111noleWhenever Djokovic and Nadal meet, there’s a chance that the match will be a grind-fest.  Nowhere was this more evident than the 2012 Australian Open final which went 6 hours.  These are the two best defensive players in the world.

Nadal was looking to win his first year-end championship.  Many years, due to injury, he didn’t even play.  The one year that he did reach the finals (back in 2011), Federer had a solid win.  In a way, this tournament isn’t good for Nadal.  It’s indoors where players like Federer, Djokovic, and del Potro like, and it’s at the end of the year where Nadal is often struggling to play his best tennis.  Nadal peaks during the summer.  As Sampras wanted to win Wimbledon every year, Nadal focuses on the French and hopes to play good tennis through Wimbledon.

In a way, his semifinal match against Federer was not great preparation for the final.  Against most any other player, he would engage in rallies which he would likely dominate.  But Federer, realizing that he can’t really keep up with Nadal off the ground, went for his high risk strategy, keeping rallies short, trying to end points in a handful of shots.  Nadal found himself misfiring on plenty of shots, but ended up winning because he got enough shots in, and Federer made a basketful of errors too.

Djokovic came into the finals on a streak of his own.  Djokovic hadn’t lost a match since the US Open final.  He won Beijing beating Nadal in the final, then beat del Potro in the Shanghai final.  He also beat Ferrer in the finals of Paris.  Heading into the finals Djokovic was on a 21 match winning streak, and if he could get past Nadal, he could look to stretch this out even further, perhaps matching the kind of streak he had in 2011.

Djokovic had his own incentive to beat Nadal.  With Nadal having such a lead in the number 1 points, Djokovic is going to lose ground until after the Australian Open.  Djokovic is defending the title while Nadal is defending nothing.  Until the Golden Swing in South/Central America begins, Nadal is not defending much in the way of points.  By defending his title, he would at least minimize the amount of points that Nadal keeps gaining on Djokovic.  That, and a losing to streak to Nadal means a loss of confidence, and Djokovic was desperate to get back to even terms with Nadal.

Djokovic, of course, made progress with this beating Nadal back in Beijing, and he even admitted, after huge losses in the finals of the French and US Open, that he needed this win.  Nadal was beginning to assert a psychological advantage.

Heading to the finals, neither player was playing at the level of, say, the French Open.  At the US Open, Djokovic really struggled with his down the line shot, and that spelled the difference between victory and loss.  Here, both players had some issues.  Djokovic wasn’t quite looking his imperious self, pushed to 3 sets in all his round robin matches.  He was finally starting to play solid tennis against Wawrinka in the semifinals, but he was helped by Wawrinka’s forehand errors.  Even so, players rarely believe that they won because their opponents player poorly, but draw inspiration in every win, regardless of how it comes.

The early parts of this match saw a very nervous Nadal, struggling to control his shot, unable to be assertive.  Djokovic got out to a 3-0 lead and looked to reach 4-0 when Nadal managed to save and not go down another break.  Then, it was Djokovic’s turn to get nervous and struggle with his game, as he began to misfire.  Djokovic did manage to straighten out his game while Nadal continued to have some issues with his forehand, spraying it wide.  Djokovic broke again and took the first set, 6-3, which included an amazing save as Djokovic scrambled right to hit a high lob, then headed to net, volleyed a shot behind Nadal, which Nadal tracked down and pushed down the line.  Djokovic backed up, and fired a shot down the line, but Nadal anticipated and hit a volley which Djokovic then re-volleyed to the open court.

The second set started with an early break by Djokovic, and many games where Nadal dug out of holes to avoid going down double break.  However, Djokovic did manage to keep holding his serve, and after fending off a few match points, and finally Nadal hit an inside out forehand wide. Djokovic could cheer at yet another year-end title.

The year ends with the two best players playing not their best match, and leaves interesting questions for 2014.  Is Federer on his way back?  How will Andy Murray recover?  Can del Potro make a move to the top 4?  Can any of the younger players make an impression at the top?