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Rafael Nadal 2020 ATP Finals
Rafa Nadal, Tennis News

‘Rafael Nadal doesn’t have his usual advantage’ – Top coach explains indoor weakness


Top coach Patrick Mouratoglou says Rafael Nadal struggles on indoor hardcourts due to the lack of bounce.

Nadal has own an incredible 86 titles in his career, although only one of them have come on an indoor hardcourt.

That solitary win was over 15 years ago at the Madrid Masters before they switched to clay.

And Mouratoglou, who is a contributor for Tennishead Magazine, says the Spanish ace struggles to replicate his outdoor magic as he cannot make full use of his top spin.

“What makes Rafael Nadal so different and so difficult to beat on other surfaces, he doesn’t have that advantage indoors on hard courts because the bounce is low,” explained Mouratoglou.

“There is a reason why on hardcourts indoors, the bounce is lower than on hardcourts outdoors.

“The surface is named hardcourts in both cases, but it’s not the same surface at all.”

Nadal has never won an ATP Finals but he made a successful start this year, defeating Andrey Rublev in straight sets on Sunday.


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.