Improved backhands key for both Nadal and Federer's rise

With Nadal clicking on clay and blistering his revamped backhand, the world can only hope to see their biggest clay-court duel since the 2011 French Open final.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have astonished the world with a renaissance of championships that bring back memories from 10 years. While the Swiss rests up for the French Open, Nadal polished off the Madrid field for his third straight title. It's the first time since 2013 that he's swept Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.

Their rivalry has been revived, along with their rankings, and the biggest difference has been how both players have bolstered up their backhands.

Start with Nadal’s ability to punch through Dominic Thiem in the Madrid final. He used a backhand with moderate pace to the corner to set up a bigger, flatter backhand winner.

Then Nadal tagged this crucial backhand winner at 6-6 in the tiebreaker. He hit three deep, probing backhands to the corner and as soon as the court opened up, he shortened the angle and blistered it with precision.

In the semifinal against Novak Djokovic, Nadal showed enough variety to confuse his Serbian rival. Watch him pull the string for a backhand winner up the alley to Djokovic’s backhand:

And if Djokovic was a bit thrown off, look at this graph to confirm that Nadal mixed in slice with 32 percent of his backhands. Last year in Rome, Nadal only used the slice backhand 10 percent of the time.

Federer’s backhand has been an even bigger story.

"I think I've gotten really confident, a lot of practice at the end of the season," he told the ATP World Tour. “Then, at the beginning of the year when I started to play again, I was able to step into the court and drive the backhand more frequently than I ever have before. I used to use different tactics by slicing more [and] then going big on the second shot, but I've turned it around to some extent.”

It was the difference for Federer in defeating Nadal for the Australian Open title. The highlights below show 14 backhand winners by the Swiss, and the key is how he stepped into the court and attacked with more pace.

Federer’s dominating wins over Nadal at Indian Wells and Miami bolstered his fearlessness to hit the shot with more purpose than ever:

Only one defining question might remain: Can Federer turn maintain his 2017 winning record against Nadal on clay?

With Nadal clicking on clay and blistering his revamped backhand, the world can only hope to see their biggest clay-court duel since the 2011 French Open final.

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