The tactical key that caused Jódar to lose the Washington final against Fritz
The Spanish player is used to dominating in one aspect of the game, but Fritz has managed to take him out of his comfort zone in Washington.
There are defeats from which one learns more than from many victories. From today's match, Rafa Jódar will be able to take away many things to work on and improve his tennis, as Taylor Fritz knew exactly how to play against him, forcing him out of his comfort zone.
The player from Leganés is used to taking the initiative and making his opponents defend. Today, Fritz completely turned the tables and made Jódar spend more time defending than attacking, and that on a surface like the one in Washington puts you in a position of disadvantage.
Jódar played the Washington final very far back on the court
According to data provided by Insights from TennisViz, the Madrid player played 43% of the points more than two meters behind the baseline today, which is 20 percentage points more than his normal average (20%). This means Jódar spent more time defending and could hardly play his attacking game and stay well inside the court. In fact, he only played inside 18% of the time.
Fritz had a very clear tactic: go all out on the attack and play mostly short points. To do this, he needed to be offensive and deep, preventing Rafa from dominating with his groundstrokes. The tactic worked perfectly for him.
To unsettle the Spaniard, you need to be very aggressive all the time. If you don't want him to attack you, attack him first. That was how it was for Fritz, who ended the Washington final attacking 30% of the time compared to Rafa's 21%. The Spaniard started to lose the final from there. Beyond how well Taylor served or how few errors the American made, Jódar could barely attack, which tipped the match in favor of the former US Open finalist.
Thus, Rafa and his team can draw many conclusions from what happened today in the Washington final. Jódar needs to incorporate the slice to his backhand zone, have more confidence in his volley to move forward, and understand that he cannot give up court position on hard courts against someone like Fritz. Perhaps what he learned today will help him against other opponents, but those in the Top are there for a reason. For the upcoming tournaments of this tour, what he learned today could serve him well.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La clave táctica por la que Jódar perdió la final de Washington ante Fritz