Six weeks before the Australian Open begins, Rafael Nadal I don’t know if he will ever play tennis again. He’s now clinched a win from a record 21st Grand Slam men’s singles title.
Fate of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Nadal have been together for 20 years. They’ve won 20 Grand Slam titles – three generation-defining players all battling the tide of age and fiery young players looking to take them down.
Even without Djokovic and Federer at the Australian Open, 35-year-old Nadal is still an outsider for the title – in part because of his form. Daniil Medvedev, but also because of a leg injury that has sidelined him since May and an incident caused by his COVID-19 outbreak in December.
His incredible four-set win Matteo Berrettini in Friday’s semi-final came just 48 hours after he said he felt “destroyed” following his quarter-final win. Denis Shapovalov. In the span of two days, he looked 11 years younger, playing his most incredible brand of tennis for a spot in his 29th Grand Slam final.
But he’s not fighting in Melbourne to take the lead over Federer or Djokovic (following his side line in public). Instead, he plays the game with love and a desire to find out what his battered body can still achieve just weeks after he retires.
“I just kept going,” said Nadal before the tournament began. “I just love playing tennis, as I’ve said a hundred times. But honestly, and from the bottom of my heart… of course I want to keep winning, because I love what I’m doing. .”
And all of this two months after considering retirement. Just to get to the Melbourne Open is already a victory. But then he started winning, and he kept winning.
Injuries are nothing new for Nadal. Problems with his knees, feet and ankles affected his career. His first years on the track were brutal: a stress fracture in his left ankle in 2004, a leg injury in late 2005 kept him off the field in 2006 and the injury knees in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In his 2011 autobiography “Rafa”, he wrote how he contemplated giving up the sport to play golf.
And then there was the lengthy lay-off after Wimbledon 2012, when he was out for almost a year and didn’t return until the 2013 French Open. He missed the 2014 US Open with a wrist injury, and sat out Wimbledon 2016 because torn left wrist tendon. It’s this time he talks about having an “expiry date“.
But despite all of this, he’s back to winning the French Open from 2017 to 2020, along with wins at the US Open in 2017 and 2019.
A COVID-19 law enforcement break in mid-2020 allowed Nadal’s knee to touch his heel, and he reached the quarterfinals of the 2021 Australian Open. Despite a back injury, he was fit for clay season, but was knocked out of the French Open in the semi-finals against Djokovic – has been traumatized separately with a flare-up recurring leg problem.
Nadal announced on June 17, 2021, he will withdraw from Wimbledon and the Olympic Games. He said the decision was made after “listening to my body” and needed time to “recover”.
“The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the utmost competitive level. ,” he posted on Twitter.
He has returned in time for a difficult season, saying “problems” with his left foot have kept him out for 20 days. But after being knocked out in the third round at Washington’s Citi Open, he withdrew from the US Open and announced on August 20 that injury would rule him out for the rest of the year.
Around this time, he revealed that he had been having this problem since 2005 and that he had voluntarily been absent.
“Honestly, I’ve suffered more than I should with my feet in a year and I need to take some time… to find a solution to this or at least get rid of this problem. improve it to continue to have the next options. a few years from now, ” Nadal said.
After that, the radio went silent, until September 11 when he posted a photo of himself on crutches on Instagram and said he had been working quietly behind the scenes with his team.
A month later, there are more alarm bells regarding retirement when he admits: “I don’t know when I’ll be playing again. There are always things that I can’t 100% control, but in my head it’s clear what my goals are and I’m confident that everything will work out in the right direction. positive. “
Over the next few months, he used the time to grow his academy and platform. He met former Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg and was made an “adopted son” of Sant Llorenç (a small municipality on the east coast of Mallorca). Every Instagram update is accompanied by a flurry of questions from fans asking when they’ll see him again in court.
And then on December 16, the first tennis-related post – a Nadal serve in Abu Dhabi, in preparation for the World Tennis Championships exhibition, where he played Shapovalov and Andy Murray. He lost both games but looks to be back on track.
Only for COVID-19 to stop him.
Nadal tested positive on December 20 and was severely affected, he later revealed he had been in bed for four days and was “physically ruined” for the next three days.
Amid the hiatus, there are fears he will withdraw from Melbourne to focus on the clay season. Then on New Year’s Eve, I posted a photo of him standing on Rod Laver Arena, saying: “Don’t tell anyone… it’s me!”
He opened 2022 by competing in the Melbourne Summer Set 1 ATP 250 – his first match since Washington five months ago. But at the time of the Australian Open, amid Djokovic’s turmoil, Nadal’s presence in the draw was a by-product of the tournament.
Nadal was in a nostalgic and contemplative mood in Melbourne, looking forward to not playing as expected. He is clearly toying with his own tennis prowess, saying there will be a moment in his career where a eventual return will be “unlikely”, adding that he has “suffered a lot” with a foot injury. He says the time off hasn’t healed his leg injury, but has instead allowed him to control the pain.
Nadal opens 2022 Australian Open campaign with consecutive set victory Marcos Giron and later revealed the leg injury was “worse than ever” over the past 18 months. After the win, he told Eurosport Spain: “A month and a half ago, I didn’t know if I would ever play tennis again at the professional level due to various factors, including problems with my legs and COVID. “
The Nadal we saw in Melbourne is more aware of his own sporting mortality; we are seeing a tennis philosopher with breakthrough experience. When asked after his second round win Yannick Hanfmann about the positives of being 35 years old, he said, “Well, the positive thing is that I have achieved more than I ever dreamed. The rest? Nothing positive because because [I] come together. When you get older, the clock never stops, right? It is the circus of life. You need to accept that. But all is well with me. “
He said the 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over Hoffman allowed him to “practice back tomorrow.” He added: “Honestly, I don’t feel any great pressure on my shoulders.”
He passed his third round test with Karen Khachanov in four innings and overcame the first tiebreak set that lasted 28 minutes vs Adrian Mannarino win consecutive sets to register for the quarter-finals against Shapovalov. He said the tournament “went better than expected”, but Nadal’s physical and mental health will be tested to the limit in his final five-set win over Shapovalov.
While the 22-year-old Canadian tennis player is crying and growing frustrated with the referee’s decisions, Nadal remains focused. He competed in the first two sets, losing the next two – playing in discomfort from stomach ailments – but reunited to win 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6 -3. Then he said he needed 48 hours of rest to regroup because he was no longer “21”.
But then he played as Nadal in 2010 against Berrettini in the semi-finals, when a two-day break saw him burst out of the blocks to knock the Italian down. It was an incredible performance, marked by Nadal’s emotional celebration. When Berrettini hit his forehand into the net at match point, Nadal turned to his team and with three fist punches and a shout of “Vamos!” he went from skepticism to elation. “I never thought about another chance at the Australian Open in 2022,” he said on the pitch later. “But I’ll do my best.”
In Nadal’s mind, this Australian Open has been a huge success – he’s almost crossed the threshold of retirement, only to have it pause. “I spent some days not seeing the light there,” said Nadal after beating Berrettini.
There are echoes of Federer’s 2017 Australian Open, where Federer, aged 35, fought back after a six-month break with a knee injury – then pulled through for an all-out win. We’re seeing Nadal live as an encore – playing with more freedom, with less stress and appreciating what he’s achieved as well as the joy he’s created in whatever is left of the game. his career.
He has a chance at 21st on Sunday, but any thought of its importance is precluded during his entire run of the final two weeks at the Australian Open. After a crucial quarter-final victory, he was offered another opportunity to reflect on what it means to beat Djokovic and Federer a Slam. He’s happy to leave that to others, proud of what he’s accomplished when it comes to this point.
“I’m very satisfied and feel like a very lucky person for all the things that happen to me in this life,” said Nadal. “You can’t always be disappointed if [your] the neighbor has a bigger house than you or a better phone or a better thing, no? I wouldn’t be disappointed if Novak or Roger ended their careers with more Grand Slams than me. Let’s enjoy the situation where each of us [had]. We have done very special things in our sport. Enjoy that. Other things don’t matter. “
