Controlled aggression the key for Spanish matador
Personality
Rafael Nadal greets questions about tennis history, specifically his standing in it, as if someone spiked his Gatorade with sour milk.
This is perhaps his least favourite topic. His eyes narrow. His face contorts. He often appears offended.
Many believe Nadal has already secured his place among the sport’s greatest players. Competitors (like Andy Murray), coaches (like Paul Annacone) and commentators (like Brad Gilbert) labelled Nadal “one of the best ever” in recent interviews.
The disagreement comes from an unlikely source – Nadal himself. Inside a small room with a handful of reporters hours after he won Wimbledon in July, he dismissed the long-range implications of his eighth Grand Slam title to a handful of reporters.
“The history is there, for sure, it’s amazing,” Nadal said. “Just an honour to be close to these players. But I am 24 years old, and it’s very difficult to talk about the history now.”
His place in the game has changed even in the past three months. Nadal’s eighth major championship tied players like Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl.
Nadal reached No 8 after 25 Grand Slam events, faster than all but Bjorn Borg (20) and well ahead of Roger Federer (29), the career leader in Grand Slam titles, with 16. For the second time in his career, Nadal also captured the French Open and Wimbledon in the same summer, something only Federer and Borg have done in the past 30 years.
Yet Nadal finds himself in a curious cycle. He disdains discussions about his place in the game, but the more he wins, the more he approaches history, the more he invites comparisons he does not want to make.
A title at the US Open, the only Grand Slam tournament he has never won, where he has not even reached the final, would mark another big turn. Nadal would become the seventh man to record a career Grand Slam, and the first, since Rod Laver in 1969, to win the French, Wimbledon and the Open in a row. But the Open has become for Nadal what the French Open once was for Federer – a hole in an otherwise glowing resume, the last remaining shred of doubt. Nadal acts with deference to older players and seemingly has a singular focus.
He knows, too, how quickly perceptions change. In 2008, after capturing the French Open, Wimbledon and an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, Nadal reached his first career apex. But he lost in the semifinals of the US Open, which Federer won. Then injuries reopened the door for Federer and sent Nadal tumbling from the top. Detractors said his physical style would inevitably shorten his career.
Yet here Nadal remains, two years later, his grip more firm than ever on the No 1 ranking. At one point, he won 34 of 35 matches in 2010 until Murray bested him in the semifinals in Toronto earlier this month. “Well, sure, is one of the best moments of my career,” Nadal said of that run. “Four months ago, everybody says, Rafa, I don’t know, never gonna be another time on top, and now I am the best. I’m back to playing my best tennis.”
Annacone, who once worked with Pete Sampras and Tim Henman and recently joined Federer’s training staff, described Nadal’s discomfort at debates about his place in the game as emblematic of his approach. He also called Nadal “a humble, graceful guy with a zest for living in the moment.”
Nadal’s approach remains simplistic – the next match, the next practice, the next point – built on an intensity that seems not to change. Where Nadal ends up among tennis greats depends largely on whether Federer or any younger players can push Nadal in majors; on Nadal’s ability to win at least one US Open; and most important, on his health.
Over the past year, Nadal made changes to his schedule and style of play to better guard against the injuries that plagued him in 2009. For starters, he played fewer tournaments, receiving treatment for tendinitis in both knees during breaks in his playing schedule. He appeared to chase fewer balls sailing out of reach, conserving energy.
That should help him at the Open, where he played through fatigue or injury – sore knee in 2007, Olympic-related fatigue in 2008, abdominal strain in 2009 – in each of his last three appearances in New York. Nadal said recently that he felt “perfect” physically this year.
Nadal also increased his aggressiveness this year to better control and shorten points. At Wimbledon, ESPN graphics showed that he played a full metre closer to the baseline than in Paris. Where once Nadal seemed content to grind opponents into submission, he moved forward and attacked.
Darren Cahill, a former player turned ESPN analyst, noted that the men’s tour is as deep as it has ever been. Yet from Sampras to Federer to Nadal, one player has dominated long stretches. That speaks to the talent of those players, Cahill said.
“We’re in a lucky, enviable period of tennis,” he added. “In 20, 30, 40 years, we’ll look back and go, wow. We’re witnessing possibly the greatest player of all time. For sure, we’re witnessing the greatest clay court player who ever lived and possibly two of the greatest players ever, playing against each other, at the peak of their games.” On this, most can agree. Except for Nadal, that is.
