Was Nadal’s Early Paris Loss Good News For His Grass Game?

Almost two weeks ago, the unthinkable happened; Rafael Nadal was defeated at Roland Garros, a tournament he has had a near stranglehold over for the past decade. His conqueror was Novak Djokovic, who managed to take down the "King of Clay" on his seventh attempt at the French Open, and the match was a straight sets affair; Djokovic played stunning tennis and was simply unbeatable.

As has been the way throughout this 2015 tennis season, questions were once again shrouding Nadal as he shrugged off the Paris defeat with his trademark attitude, noting he lost in 2009 and this was not the "end". He lost in 2015, and this is not the "end" and insisted he would “fight” to be back at his top level. However, the questioning was arguably justified; in recent years grass has troubled Nadal, with him not reaching further than the 4th round at Wimbledon since 2011 and not winning any titles on the surface since 2010.

Nadal arrived in Stuttgart early and well rested last week after his loss at Roland Garros, and told the press he was fit and ready to play. After two rocky three-set matches to begin his tournament, the 14-time slam champion soon fell into his stride and claimed the title, defeating Viktor Troicki in the final and looking as well as ever on grass. Throughout the past years of his struggling on this surface he has often had problems with his knees, with grass being the worst type of court for them due to the need to get low to match the bounce of the ball – but after his win in Stuttgart, Nadal assured his “knees were well and so was (his) tennis.”.

The fact that the ATP has brought in an extra week between Roland Garros and Wimbledon (from a 2 weeks to 3 weeks) aids Nadal in his quest to once again succeed on this surface. He has notoriously found the transition from the red dust to the green courts that grace SW19 difficult, but the added time has allowed him to play two warm up grass tournaments rather than one – also, his Paris loss has enabled him to take a few days before Stuttgart began to train well on grass, and so avoided an early loss in a grass warm up tournament that has happened in Halle twice before. Of course, there are still doubts over his inconsistent confidence levels that are a major talking point of the year, but he looked assured in his own game in Stuttgart.

There are many factors to take into consideration, but this may just be the year that losing out on the top prize at the French Open proves to be invaluable for Nadal in his quest to once again lift the Wimbledon trophy.