Folks hoped that Sodal would turn into a close tight match. But given Rafa's form on the red stuff this spring, it's no surprise that the King of Clay returned to his throne (6-4 6-2 6-4).
In the opening set, the expected tone was set: Sod was hitting hard. But Rafa's phenomenal defense meant he could chase down a lot of Sod's bullets and use his heavy topspin shots to move Sod around side to side. Unfortunately since Sod often had to hit shots on the run, he couldn't his feet set to unleash his forehands and tended to make an unforced error. Sod went down an early break in 1st set to Rafa after he let a very volleyable passing shot go. On another point, Sod had control off an crosscourt FH, which Rafa got back with a BH lob. Then despite Sod's overhead to Rafa's BH, Rafa was able to get it back at Sod's feet with his FH forcing an awkward half-volley which allowed Rafa to volley it away for a winner. Yeah, I'd do a fist pump too if I made a point like that.
By the third set, it looked like Sod was mentally worn out from trying to hit a couple winners just to win a point (or his legs fried from chasing down Rafa's DTL forehands into an open court).
From the stats, Sod couldn't play a clean enough game to threaten Rafa: the net gain of unforced errors to winner clearly favored Rafa (-4 vs. +9) and confirmed my observations of Rafa's defense: el hombre was just a backboard. The key to me was the return of serve. Sod was having trouble threatening Rafa's serve whereas Rafa was able to get enough opportunities receiving Sod's serve and convert the break points.
Soderling Nadal Unforced Errors 43 16 Winners 39 35 1st Serve % 51/91 (56%) 67/86 (78%) Aces 7 7 DF 4 1 1st Serve % Pts Won 33/51 (65%) 49/67 (73%) 2nd Serve % Pts Won 22/40 (55%) 11/19 (58%) Break Points Won 0/8 (0%) 4/12 (33%) Net Approaches 14/20 (70%) 4/8 (50%) Total Receiving Points Won 22/85 (26%) 35/87 (40%) Total Service Points Won 52/87 (60%) 63/85 (74%) Total Points Won 81/177 (46%) 96/177 (54%)
Since the Greatest Shanker of All Time had a crappy spring season (Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Estoril) and failed to maintain his semifinal Major appearances streak, Rafa deservedly ascends to the World #1 spot.
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