Tactical Evolution: The Middle Third

Printable Version What can we learn from the evolution of tactics versus Nadal? If you look at the history of tennis, you will see that tactics and strategies evolve as players seek and find the means to compete with a dominant player or a prevailing style of play. Let’s take a look at tactical styles over the last several decades in pro tennis and see how they have changed. Then let’s address how players are trying to come to grips with the tactical challenges of playing one of the toughest—if not the toughest–defensive player in tennis history: Rafael Nadal. Surprisingly perhaps, there are important implications for club players in the way the pros are seeking to figure out Nadal, so we’ll take a look at how that applies in helping you develop new strategies against defensive players at your level. The Role of Surface Historically many players were “surface specialists.” There was a huge difference between playing on grass, carpet, hard and clay courts. The US Open was contested on grass until 1974, on clay from 1975 – 1977 and on hard courts (Decoturf) since 1978. The Australian Open was a grass court tournament until 1987, on Rebound Ace until…