Courting success again

Tennis : After rushing back from an injury break in time for the Olympics, Rafael Nadal looks poised for glory

Rafael Nadal has forged his career by imposing his bruising physicality on opponents and, at times, himself. Few of his body parts have escaped unscathed.

Nadal has missed nine Grand Slam events because of injuries, including two of the past five US Opens.

But when it came to his long-term health, he took few gambles. Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, was careful about his comebacks, never aborting a return once he was back on tour, and often surged back to the top of the sport quickly.That meticulousness went sideways this year.

Fearing that he would miss a second straight Olympics after injuring his left wrist in May, Nadal, the 2008 singles gold medalist, accelerated his return in order to compete at the Rio Games, where he carried the flag for Spain in the opening ceremony. “For sure I would not be playing that week if it were not the Olympics,” Nadal said.

The risk has paid off.

In Brazil, he nabbed a second gold medal, in doubles. He nearly won a medal in singles. He was able to get matches under his belt and did not reinjure his wrist, putting him in better position for a run at the US Open, where he won the title in 2010 and 2013. Through three rounds, Nadal has not dropped a set. 

Nadal, the No 4 seed, expressed growing confidence in his game, even if his wrist — the one responsible for his ferocious topspin forehands — is not fully healed.“When you take decisions, you have mistakes, or you don’t,” Nadal said of shortening his recovery time this summer.

A year ago at the US Open, Nadal squandered a two-set lead to Fabio Fognini and lost in the third round. Nadal had been a perfect 151-0 in majors after winning the first two sets. He lost in the Australian Open’s first round to his fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in January and then tearfully pulled out of the French Open with a damaged tendon in his wrist just before his third-round match. He missed Wimbledon while recovering.

Nadal said he felt himself rounding into championship form during the spring. He brimmed with confidence going into the French Open, which he has won a record nine times. “I was playing a great season from Indian Wells until I had to stop at Roland Garros,” he said. 

He liked his chances to win.  “I felt myself ready for it,” he said in an interview last week. But the wrist he had injured a few weeks earlier in Madrid was causing him pain again, forcing his withdrawal.

That low point of his season was followed by 10 weeks at home in Majorca, where he did little related to tennis, he said.

“Two and a half months without being on a tennis court without competition, without much practice,” he said.

Despite the time off, Nadal was points away from reaching the gold medal match in Rio, losing in a third-set tiebreaker to Juan Martín del Potro in the semifinals. Kei Nishikori defeated Nadal in the bronze medal match, also in three sets.

But his disappointment was masked by his capturing the doubles gold medal with his good friend Marc Lopez. Nadal fell on his back with joy and called the feeling “higher than a lot of singles victories, without a doubt.”

He said the run had left him with no energy for his next event, a hardcourt tuneup near Cincinnati, at which he was upset in the fourth round by rising teenager Borna Coric of Croatia. But in New York, he appears rested and ready again.

Andy Murray, who practiced with Nadal in Majorca before the Olympics, said Nadal looked sharp in Rio. Murray, the No 2 seed at the US Open, said he would not be surprised to see Nadal deep in the second week. “Like with any great player, once you build up momentum and get matches and gain confidence, there is no reason why they can’t win the major events again,” Murray said. 

Nadal, 30, conceded this week that the dominating era of the Big Four — himself, Federer, Murray and Novak Djokovic — was nearing an end. But he said he felt that his window of opportunity was far from closed, especially in an age when many players are competing with success well into their 30s.

He called the wrist injury a one-off “accident” and the knee problems that previously troubled him a thing of the past.

“I feel better about my body,” he said. “I feel that I can be very competitive the next couple of years.”

The top-ranked Djokovic remains a formidable challenge, although he is nursing his own wrist problem.

Nadal has not beaten Djokovic in their last seven meetings, including three this year. No two players have faced off more in the Open era, with Djokovic leading their rivalry, 26-23.

Nadal dismissed the idea that Djokovic had his number. He said injuries and confidence struggles last year had been the culprits. “No, for me during the last 15 months, the obstacle has been myself,” said Nadal. If Nadal were to win a 15th major title at the US Open, he would surpass Pete Sampras and take sole possession of second place behind Federer.

He would also become the third man of the Open era, after Sampras and Ken Rosewall, to have won majors in his teens, 20s and 30s, a testament to his precociousness and his prolonged excellence.

Nadal said he had rarely been so happy to be playing tennis. “I am feeling fresh mentally,” he said. “I am excited about the possibility to compete again in the US Open.”