Wimbledon 2014: Rafael Nadal recovers after slip but is wary of being the fall guy again

 
Wary: Nadal takes a tumble during his first round match against Martin Klizan

As a precursor to Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal had said quite simply “this year is a different story”.

For a period yesterday, the script looked set to play out in exactly the same manner as in recent seasons as he dropped the first set to Martin Klizan.

But there was to be no repeat of the shock first-round exit of 12 months ago to Stephen Darcis although the performance on Centre Court was far from vintage Nadal.

For the past few years, the king of clay has had his grass-court gremlins. There was last year’s early slump — understandable for a player only just returning from a knee injury lay-off and needing anti-inflammatories merely to step on court — as well as the 2011 final loss and a second-round exit to Lucas Rosol in 2012.

It is Rosol that lies in wait in the second round, a reminder, if one were needed, that Nadal, despite two Wimbledon titles, has not always been entirely comfortable on grass.

For all his apparent mental toughness, he admitted: “When you go on court and you lost last year in the first round, the year before in the second round, I’m not going to lie, sure, it stays in your mind.

“But in the end it is a tennis match and winning Roland Garros you are able to go on court with a little bit less pressure than if you don’t really win there, and that helps.

“When you are in the match, you are not thinking about what happened last year, two years ago, five years ago. You’re thinking about the next point, you’re thinking about finding a solution for that match. What is past is past, what happened, happened. We don’t need to change that. The only way to try something is to change what’s happening right now.”

The win was a milestone of sorts for Nadal, his 700th victory on the Tour while a year ago his defeat to Darcis was historic in itself. It was the first time he had lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam and Darcis, then world No135, was the lowest-ranked player to beat the Spaniard at one of the majors.

A five-time finalist at Wimbledon, Nadal won the title in 2008 and 2010, and it is such past heroics that he aspires to.

“Grass is a difficult surface but a surface I played so good on during a part of my career,” he said after winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. “So it is a surface that I really have in my heart.”

The same could be said of Roger Federer, a seven-time Wimbledon champion whose performances have been sketchy in recent years here and, like Nadal, is trying to recapture past glories.

Famous Wimbledon Moments

1/24

But in an echo of the past, Federer was back to his serve-and-volleying prime as he despatched Paolo Lorenzi in straight sets with the sort of aplomb that the show courts have become accustomed.

Federer described himself as “eager, motivated and inspired” as he bids for an 18th Grand Slam title.

When Federer reached the quarter-finals for the first time in 2001, he estimates he served and volleyed 80 per cent of the time but, with the changing face of the game, that then dropped to twice maybe a set.

However, with Stefan Edberg, himself a master of the serve-and-volley, as his coach, it is something he has reverted back to for this year.

“I think it could be the extra piece to the puzzle that could bring me through, to have that extra option,” he said. “Mixing it up a little bit could be the way to go. I’ll still have to see how it’s going to go from here on because, at the end, I’d rather not serve and volley and win my matches than go out in style serving and volleying.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in