Has there ever been a player who has dominated a particular surface to the same extent as Rafael Nadal.
The short answer is no. Nadal is still known as the ‘King of Clay’ even though he has earned stellar success on every other surface from grass to hard court.
But it is clay where he reigns supreme above every one of his rivals. Virtually unbeatable on that surface, he has won the French Open seven times and is favourite to make it No 8 this time next week.
In all he has lost only once in eight participations at Rolland Garros. That was in the fourth round against Robert Soderling in 2009.
The Swede who was seeded 23rd, went on to reach the final that year, losing to Roger Federer. But how did he do the impossible?
Both players had breezed through the first three rounds with Nadal not dropping a set as expected and Soderling dropping one in the previous round against David Ferrer who was seeded nine places higher.
Regardless of Soderling’s good form, the match was seen as a foregone conclusion.
But the 6 foot 4 Swede had the performance of his life, using his aggression, power and strength to try to unsettle the normally ice-cool Spaniard.
This was apparent from the first set which he won 6 – 2 playing an uncompromising and confrontational game.
Although Nadal came back in true champion style in the second set, Soderling maintained his aggression in the final two sets to seal arguably the biggest shock in the tournament’s history.
One major factor was the way that Soderling was able to make use of his height to counteract Nadal’s high top-spin forehands with his own groundstrokes and powerful serves which averaged about 200km/h.
That was key as Nadal is an intimidating opponent in drawn out rallies. In addition by completing points early it prevented Nadal from getting into any rhythm.
Perhaps the personal history between the two men had an effect on Nadal in conjunction with Soderling’s aggression. It is no secret that they dislike each other.
Two years earlier at Wimbledon, Soderling had appeared to mock Nadal during a third round match by hitching his shorts in the way Nadal does as a means of protesting against the amount of time the ex-No 1 took between points.
“Not nice” was how Nadal described Soderling’s behaviour and it is possible he may have got more agitated than usual because of the identity of the man putting him under pressure.
