Rafael Nadal won’t lose more than 1 set to Bjorn Borg on clay: Brad Gilbert

Rafael Nadal won’t lose more than 1 set to Bjorn Borg on clay: Brad Gilbert

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Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal are two of the greatest clay-court players in the history of tennis. Although, Nadal is quite ahead in terms of statistics, but it will be tough to predict who would win in a straight shootout between the two.

Brad Gilbert and former player Patrick McEnroe in a podcast known as “Holding Court” where they discussed who will win a match between Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg on the claycourts of Roland Garros.

Rafael Nadal can beat Borg in straight sets with a wooden racquet: Brad Gilbert

Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg

To start the discussion they created a hypothetical match with the best-of-five-sets final at the French Open. Although, they were comparing both players from different eras the factor of racquet technology needed to be considered.

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While, Borg used a wooden racquet for most of his career, Rafael Nadal used metal-framed racquets. Giving an opinion on Borg Brad Gilbert said, “This is an interesting question because Borg was maybe the first player of the 70s that played more of a modern game that you see today. He wasn’t a big guy, about 5’11”, but lightning-fast.”

To that Patrick McEnroe said “I think Borg’s first serve was very underrated and I give the edge on the serve to Borg in this matchup. But would Nadal’s 2nd serve be as weak on the wood racquet? I say yes.”

Brad Gilbert’s final take on this whole was that Rafael Nadal would win the match in straight sets.“On clay, there is no way Borg will be able to stop the onslaught of the Rafa forehand and backhand and he takes it in straight sets.”

There is no way Borg can beat Nadal with Modern Racquets: Brad Gilbert

Clay King ‘Rafael Nadal’

Brad Gilbert and Patrick McEnroe continued their talk and this time they considered the usage of modern racquets. Modern-day racquet technology has made things easier for players as it improves the spin and speed of the shots.

Gilbert said ”I think with new tech, Borg would have a better shot. I think Borg would serve around 135 and have a bigger serve and gotten more bounce off the ball,” Gilbert said, “I’ll give Borg a set because he’s gonna get free points of his serve but Nadal wins 6-4 7-5 3-6 7-5.”

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