5. Grass Remains Nadal's Kryptonite
Flickr Following his record 9th French Open Championship, many sports pundits assumed Nadal would focus on rediscovering his grass court game and win his third Wimbledon Championship. However after suffering a shock loss to Dustin Brown on the grass courts of Wimbledon warm up tournament Halle, Nadal struggled to post convincing victories on the lawns of SW19. Granted he did manage to stick around into the second week of Wimbledon for the first time since 2011, but his eventual loss to Australian newcomer Nick Krygios served to highlight his career long vulnerability to big serving, big hitting players particularly on a fast low bouncing court. Despite reaching the 4th Round, grass undoubtedly remains Nadal's Kryptonite. Yet contrary to the assumption that Nadal's Wimbledon woes are Wimbledon specific it is worth noting that Nadal is increasingly looking vulnerable. In 2014 he has lost to lesser ranked players on hard courts and more frequently on his favourite surface of clay. Perhaps his Wimbledon 2014 exit underlines the fact that to win against Nadal you need three things, a big serve, heavy groundstrokes and most importantly good old fashioned guts.