Brad Gilbert on Rafael Nadal ahead of US Open final: “The greatest thing about Rafa is that he’s an amazing tactician."

“Rafa is a huge favourite, but the greatness of Rafa is that he doesn’t take that for granted,” Gilbert told ATPTour.com. “Even in the quarters, guys are saying this and that. The beauty of him is he’s thinking about the first game, first point tomorrow and going from there.”

Nadal and Medvedev have already met at the Rogers Cup where Nadal managed to win 6-3 and 6-0. It is because of this dominant win that many experts favor Nadal to win also in the US Open final.

“I think he did a great job in Canada of breaking down Medvedev’s forehand. The guy doesn’t miss forehands, but Rafa’s ball is different. It’s heavy, it’s a higher spin. He broke down [Matteo] Berrettini’s backhand big time in the semis. Big time,” Gilbert said.

Former coach of Andy Murray or Kei Nishikori also commented on how tactically can Rafa play, pointing to a win against Schwartzman.

“The greatest thing about Rafa is that he’s an amazing tactician. Pulled it out out of nowhere against [Diego] Schwartzman to win the first set, a high looping shot. Did it a couple times in a row to win the second set. He waits for the right moment sometimes to use tactics. That’s the great thing about him, and he’s just relentless… sometimes you forget if he’s 5-0 up or 5-0 down. He’s just working hard for the next point.”

Gilbert thinks that if Nadal continues to perform as he did in Flushing Meadows, he can win the title.

“[He just has to] continue to execute like he’s been doing. He’s been doing an amazing job all tournament being aggressive off of his serve. He hasn’t really not been aggressive on his serve this entire tournament,” Gilbert said. “And he’s been really so strong on first serve, first shot, taking care of serve.”

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