Patrick Mouratoglou says Rafael Nadal leads this metric as Federer doesn't make top two: "Unique in tennis history"

Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has stated reasons why he thinks Spain’s legendary player Rafael Nadal’s forehand is better than the former world number one Switzerland’s Roger Federer.

Both players are regarded among the greatest players in the history of men’s tennis. While Federer, who retired from the sport in 2022, ended his illustrious career after winning 20 Grand Slam titles, Nadal has won 22 major titles.

Read also

Rafael Nadal is a 'shadow of his former self' and enters clay court swing with 'a real unknown' says Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Mouratoglou was recently quoted in a report where he stated reasons why he still thinks that Nadal’s forehand was much better than that of Federer.

“Rafael Nadal’s forehand is unique in tennis history. When playing cross with his forehand, the quality of his topspin and the zones he finds always fully open the court for his down the line forehand,” he said.

“When running to his forehand, he is always able to find a short cross-court angle that gives him the opportunity to come back to offense on the next shot. When turning around his backhand to hit a forehand, you already know that you are going to run a lot and and you’re going to end up losing the point.

Read also

(VIDEO) Craziest racket smash ever? Tallon Griekspoor loses his mind during Alexander Zverev Indian Wells defeat

“Rafa is comfortable to hit his forehand on a low slice backhand as much as hitting winners when the ball is over his shoulder. I consider until this day that he has the best forehand of all time.”

“Roger Federer’s best shot was his forehand and he was very unique because he was the first one to have his head turn to the right side while hitting it and he was keeping it in that position after the ball was leaving his racket, like golfers.

“What was standing out the most with Roger’s forehand was his ability to take time away from his opponent with that shot and hurt them all the time, scoring an incredible number of winners, many of them with the second shot after the serve.

“It might sound weird, but Federer’s forehand is not even in the two best of all time in my opinion. He had so much more than this unbelievable forehand in his game.”

ATP Tour

@atptour

·Follow

The name’s Federer. Roger Federer. 😎 @rogerfederer & wife, Mirka, looking fabulous at the #Oscars2024!

6.0K

Reply

Copy link

Read 49 replies