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.
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.
“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.”