“People sometimes exaggerate this business of humility. It's simply a question of knowing who you are, where you are, and that the world will continue exactly as it is without you.”
Nadal, 2008 US Open
Rafa Nadal is playing now. At the French Open. The place where he has had more success than any player in history, perhaps more than any player ever will. 14 championships, more than any other man for any major. His overall record at the French Open is 112-3. That’s right. 112-3. His first win was in 2005, at 19 years old and he’s been dominating ever since.
Today’s match is different. He is far from dominating. Unranked. On his last legs. The sentimental favorite. I can’t imagine that’s something he ever wanted to be. Rafa has always been a particular sort of hero. He’s not for everyone. He wins by amazing talent and extraordinary grit. He has always been a profuse sweater and that seems to be a metaphor for his career. It often looks like agony when he plays. Or at least tremendous effort. Sweat dripping off his nose on most serves. Outgrinding other opponents. He has finesse and skill but those aren’t the first words that come to mind when you think of Rafa. With a swing that, while highly successful, is destined to take a toll on the body. And it has. And then all the tics. Every player has a routine and Rafa’s involves more motions than most, from digging out a wedgie to touching his ears and face repeatedly. He keeps largely to himself and his family, coached for large portions of his career by his uncle. In his downtime, he prefers to stay with his family on the island of Majorca where he grew up. There has always been something about Nadal that is unknowable, that is private.
For years he was the primary rival of Federer and fans had to choose one or the other. I chose Federer so while I didn’t root against Nadal (he’s not the Yankees after all), I mostly didn’t pay much attention to him until he was playing Roger in a finals. And because of the vagaries of American broadcasting, the French Open was (and is) the least televised of the tennis majors, in part because American men don’t do well there (Agassi last won in 1999) and because in recent memory, if Rafa was in the field, then Rafa was winning. Even now, on the Monday of Memorial Day, to watch Nadal, a person needs both a subscription to Tennis Channel and then to Peacock as the first 90 minutes are on one channel and the rest on another. All of that is to say that I was slow to see the brilliance of Nadal and to appreciate all that he brings.
His shy smile.His ability to turn a match on a dime, seeing slivers of opportunity where others don’t. His grit. If you ever wanted to learn to persist with the odds against you, watch Rafa Nadal. He plays every single point as if it is his last. As if he believes in your ability to make a mistake and his ability to take advantage of it. If he can’t beat you, he is going to outlast you. Rafa doesn’t know how to quit. The idea of saving his energy for the next point doesn’t occur to him. Every shot. Every point is winnable.
Roger Federer retired 18 months ago, ending the era of the Big Three in a way we didn’t anticipate. Nadal and Djokovic haven’t been the same since, as if the Big Three were a tripod, lost without all three legs. Although 2023 was one of Novak’s greatest years, winning the Australian, the French and the US Open, becoming the man with the most Grand Slam wins, something is deeply off with Novak this year. A man known for his flexibility and balance looks literally unsteady, more often than not. Something is not the same-he’s made veiled references to it. He had a fever in the Australian Open. A few weeks ago he was hit by a metal water bottle and sustained a concussion. In his last tournament, he was vomiting during it and even more troubling, his hand was shaking as he was drinking water.
And it’s a world of difference from the Rafael Nadal who dominated and outwilled his opponents in 2022. In that year, he beats Mevedev in a 5+ hour thriller at the Australian, where Nadal was down 2 sets and makes a gritty comeback that only Nadal is capable of. Then wins the French Open, naturally. At Wimbledon, he wins another massive 5 set gritty win in the quarterfinals against Taylor Fritz, but withdraws from the semis, too injured by the experience. This was the point where he was getting injections in his feet before every match in order to play. His doctors told him he was risking permanent foot injuries if he continued to play like that. As a man with a young child, who is old by tennis standards but young by life standards, those are serious words. At the US Open, he loses in the 4th round, in, you guessed it, a gritty loss to Francis Tiafoe. He doesn’t play in any majors in 2023. He barely plays tennis at all, getting surgery for a chronic ankle condition he has had since he was 19.
Nadal has been withdrawing from one tournament after another this year, trying to get fit for the French Open in what is probably but not definitively a farewell tour. He has played some clay court warm up tournaments, with mixed results. Or rather - one week he looks awful and the next week he seems much improved. It goes without saying that most of it is probably in excruciating pain. He says that he knows that there will be periods of every match where anyone on the tour could beat him and his challenge is to be able to last through those moments and string together enough good moments to win.
And he has an unfortunate draw for a first round opponent - Alexander Zverev, ranked #4, and in the best physical shape of the top opponents. Zverev is making a comeback from his injury in the semis of the 2022 French Open where he was playing Nadal, when he suddenly screamed and fell on the court, tearing several ankle ligaments. Zverev is the worst possible person for Nadal to play against in the first round. Other context for this match - Zverev is facing domestic violence charges from the mother of his child in a trial starting during the French Open. He vehemently denies the accusation. He has received no punishment from tennis because there are no rules for this situation. However, this is the second spousal abuse charge, the other from a previous girlfriend. Make of that what you will.
Nadal has said that this is probably his last season playing tennis, and has also said that beyond the French, he wants to play the Olympics, probably in doubles with Carlos Alcarez, and the Laver Cup in September. It would be doubtful that he plays Wimbledon, never having been that successful there. So the French Open, and by that I mean, right now - might be the last time we see Rafa play in a singles match.
Which brings me to right now. In the second set tiebreak. As he promised, Nadal has looked both brilliant and lost at different points in this match. So I’ll send this out now because I don’t want to know the result. In this version, Rafa never ends, never has to face what I saw last night in the Wawrinka/Murray match. Another match between old rivals, where Murray has said this is his last year, playing on metal hips for as long as he possibly could, watching as down two sets, turns to down 2 sets and 0-3, seeing the audience clap for every point he makes, seeing that they are seeing the end in every moment, and the cheers that were reserved for victory are now for the memory of victory. Preparing for weeks or months, to lose in the first round, head down.
In this version, Nadal is still playing, still with the possibility of winning, of a fabulous Nadal victory or even more fabulous Nadal comeback, playing a point where it seems hopeless and he turns the tide with one massive forehand, like he always does, like he will again, as the sweat rolls off his nose and we see greatness one more time, the kind only he can deliver, the kind where the effort of greatness is clear in every swing.