Why Rafa Crushed Roger at the French 2007

First he chewed up Roger, then took a bite out of the trophy. So it wasn’t that close and the outcome was never really in doubt. Rafa over Roger in 4 sets. Afterwards I spent a long time trying to figure out what the hell happened out there. If you study the match, the patterns and the statistics are fascinating, and we’ll look at all that set by set, including the Aggressive Margins. But my conclusion is that this match was decided by other factors before the players hit the first ball. This is because Nadal tipped the balance in the psychological war. From the spectator’s point of view, and especially from the point of view of Roger’s fans, this match was a huge emotional disappointment. Roger seemed strangely aloof about his date with tennis history. There was that glimmer of hope there at the start of the third set. But even after Roger won the second, it still didn’t really feel like he was in the match, or even 100% committed to the effort. Then in the fourth, Rafa crushed any remaining glimmers with his frightening tenacity and superhuman counter punching. Rafa: frightening, superhuman, crushing. Selfishly, I wanted Roger…