Roger Federer would have won 30, 40 Majors without Rafael Nadal - Panatta
Speaking for his official YouTube channel, the former world No. 4 Adriano Panatta praised Rafael Nadal. The Italian believes that the Spaniard has not the ideal gamestyle for kids who want to become promising players.
Panatta said: "He is so good, he is the one who surprised me the most over the last years. He is the best player ever on clay, probably. I had never seen such a strong player mentally, he may be comparable to Bjorn Borg who, like Nadal, managed to win French Open and Wimbledon. But Borg retired at 26 years of age, while Rafa keeps playing. His forehand is amazing, he moves very well, you think you won the point once, twice, thrice, four times and the ball instead always comes back on your side. Federer struggled against him, and without Nadal, he would have won 30 or 40 Grand Slams. Rafa has a normal serve, he can even hit 200km/h serves but he usually reaches 180. I once met him at the French Open and I asked him, Why don't you hit a stronger first serve so that you can hit an ace. And he was like, I am afraid then on the second serve and opponents play aggressively. I told him, Well, hit a stronger second serve too, there are no issues! But he is right, he has won so much. He often gets injured, he asks a lot to his physical strength and I always say that Federer plays tennis while Nadal plays a battle, he sweats so much and he does it against everyone, not just the top players. He is so educated, so humble, that's shocking. At the beginning of his career, he was feeling too much respect for Federer and he was already beating him. They are close friends, they are the most educated guys on Tour. If he improved his serve, slice backhand and net skills more he would have probably been absolutely unbeatable but thank God Nadal has some falls too like all the human beings."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2ONqynn
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