Mubadala World Tennis Championsip: Is Rafael Nadal going to use a new strategy in 2019?

After a month-long break, professional tennis has resumed with the World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. And although this is not an official ATP or WTA tournament, we got to see Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, Karen Khachanov and the William sisters in action after a month.

Nadal was obviously the most popular star of the tournament. He lost to defending champion Anderson by the scoreline 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, but we got to see glimpses of the Spaniard's likely new strategy for the year ahead; there were quite a few noticeable changes in his style of play.

Flatter and more powerful first serve

It was quite evident that Nadal was hitting his first serves with more power and a lot flatter than normal, specially from the deuce side of the court. He was also coming to the net quite frequently, uncharacteristically trying to serve and volley on some points.

He was still using the angled slice serve more while serving from the ad side, which kept his opponent wide of the court. This reminded everyone of Nadal at the 2010 US Open, when he was serving a lot faster and flatter and recorded the fastest serve (135 mph) of his career.

A lot more aggressive with the return of serve

Nadal was being attacking his opponent's serve a lot more in this match than he normally does. He was standing a lot closer to the baseline and was trying to hit winners on the return of serve, which led to too many unforced errors and ultimately cost him the match.

Let us compare his usual stance against Anderson's first serve to what he used in Abu Dhabi.

Nadal's stance against Anderson's first serve in 2017 US Open Final

In this picture from the 2017 US Open final, Nadal is standing about 20-25 feet behind the base line which he normally does against big servers like Anderson.

Nadal's stance against Anderson's first serve in 2018 WTC Semi Final

On the other hand, in the above picture that is from the Abu Dhabi tournament, Nadal is standing just 10-15 feet behind the baseline which is a huge change of tactics.

The reason behind these tactical changes

Nadal could only play 9 tournaments in the entire 2018 season due to injuries. Coach Carlos Moya and Nadal himself recently said they are doing some changes in the practice sessions to save the 32-year-old from being injured.

At his current age, the Spaniard is obviously not as fast as he used to be, and he cannot chase down every single ball by sprinting across the court. So with a faster serve and more aggressive return of serve, he is looking for easier points which don't stress his body too much.

That said, after the result against Anderson, we cannot be 100% sure that Nadal is going to continue with these same tactics on the tour level as well. And even if he does incorporate these changes, the question remains up to what extent those are going to be.

It is highly unlikely that he will change his technique by such a huge margin on the tour. But in either case, we will know the answers to our questions in just a few days' time as the Australian Open starts on the 2nd Monday of January.