His sweat pours for you, New York. In every match he plays, in every point he fa
ces, with every shot he hits – no concern of the moment in the match or the scoreboard, Rafa gives you everything he’s got. It’s all to win the one Grand Slam title that has eluded him thus far, the one that’s in your back yard, and he’s doing it for you, New York.
For two months he watched and waited for his knees to mend, witnessing Roger Federer win the Wimbledon title he should have defended. During his second tournament upon returning, he acquired an abdominal injury that still bothers him now. On the days when he doesn’t play, he has a machine working on those abs, ensuring that he will be able to compete in true Nadal fashion in the next match. It’s the only way he knows how – to run down every single ball, to stretch for every impossible shot, and to fight for every point.
Yet, you will chant the names of Nicolas Kiefer and Gael Monfils when he faces them. Justifiably, you cheer for an even match, but you forget that Nadal has clawed his way back after Monfils won the first set in a tie-breaker. You applaud Kiefer for taking the second set from the mighty Spaniard and playing his best against the Goliath. But you forget what Nadal has been through to perform for you. You don’t realize that his willpower is so overwhelming that he convinces his own body’s ailments into submission, let alone his opposition’s game.
Here he is in the quarter finals, two steps from a championship match against Federer, a prospect that thrills every tennis fan, excites us to the core. Will you support him now? Cheer for him when you see his fist pump! Celebrate when you hear him yell ‘Vamos!” He gives it all for you, New York. Give him something back.
Notes:
- weigh in on your championship favourite in the poll on the right
- this is being posted in lieu of a Friday post
After an injury plagued summer, the world’s real number one tennis player is on the comeback trail. Rafael Nadal plans to return for the Rogers Cup in Montreal, beginning on August 8th. With the tournament being the U.S. Open tune-up, it’s no secret that Rafa has his sights set on his first title at Flushing Meadows and achieving the career Grand Slam– winning at all four major tournaments in a lifetime – at age 23, the feat recently accomplished by 27 year old Roger Federer at the French Open.
Federer, who finally regained his ranking as the world’s number one player after winning at Wimbledon in Rafa’s absence, must once again prepare to face one of the few players who dominates him, and Nadal’s timing may be perfect. Last year, by the time Nadal reached the U.S. Open after winning the French Open, Wimbledon, gold at the Summer Olympics, and the Rogers Cup, he was completely burnt out. Perhaps the forced rest due to tendinitis in his knees will provide him with enough energy to play the U.S. Open at peak form. If so, the end of the summer has the potential to be very exciting for Tennis fans around the world.
And he will come out flying. Why? Because in Rafa’s world, every point is played as if it were the most crucial point of the match. Cynthia Gormely, writer for the New York Times has written an article on Nadal’s ascent to number one, and through her research she speaks with a number of people close to Nadal, including the only man who has ever coached him, his uncle Toni. In explanation of his unyielding
ferocity, he says,“From the time Rafael was little, he’d win that first point of the match, which nobody ever pays much attention to, and he’d yell, ‘Vamos!’ All pumped up. Let’s go! And you play like you train. As he grew up, he got used to training as though each point were the last one.”
Throughout Nadal’s life, uncle Toni has been much more than just his tennis coach, he has been a mentor, not only a consultant for matters of sport, but of how to live life the right way, how to be a good person. Toni doesn’t have rules that must be obeyed, he has simply let Rafa learn the correct way to conduct himself. Asked if he has ever instructed Nadal not to smash and break a tennis racket during a match, Toni responds,
“He knows he can’t throw a racket. He just knows. As far as I’m concerned, it’s shameful when he orders a meal and doesn’t finish it. Understand? Same thing with rackets. These rackets cost money.” Such strong character and values, Toni believes, will foster the ability to be the best. “If that player is brought up courteous, brought up as a respectful person, he’s got a better chance to reach the championship… because it’s going to be easier for him to accomplish the hard work.”
Uncle Toni began this process with Nadal 20 years ago, when the young lad was only 3, but don’t be fooled into thinking that any three year old given a racket and life lessons can achieve such greatness. Toni had no preconceived designs on creating a champion out of Rafa.
“He was at the club one day, and I handed him a racket, we had some little ones, and then tossed a ball at him.” Upon seeing the ball impressively returned over the net, Toni thought to himself, “ ‘O.K., this is not normal.’ His feet, especially, the way he’d move himself into good hitting position when I tossed balls at him. This is a rare thing in a child.”
Tennis was not Nadal’s only sport growing up – in fact, it was soccer that was his primary passion, and it was perhaps in soccer where the first signs of his fighting instinct were first seen. Another of Nadal’s uncles, his father’s youngest brother, Miguel Angel, played soccer for the Spanish national team, and he recalls how Nadal used to play the game of “keep away” or “pig in the middle”: “He liked being the middle. We’d all do our tricky maneuvers to try to get the ball past him. Any one of a hundred little kids, you do those kinds of moves on him, he’ll start crying. But Rafa, no. He’d keep fighting to get the ball.”
Combining a killer instinct, strong character values, and perhaps an even more impressive skill-set is what makes up the magnificent game that Rafael Nadal displays on court today. And make no mistake, his game is just as overwhelming as his will. According to Gormely’s article, three years ago a San Francisco based tennis researcher, John Yandell, conducted a number of tests on different players to determine how much ball spin they generate off the face of their rackets. Speaking about Nadal’s forehand, he said,
“We’ve measured the spin rates on the forehands of quite a few of the top players, including Nadal, (Roger) Federer, (Pete) Sampras and Andre Agassi. The first guys we did were Sampras and Agassi. They were hitting forehands that in general were spinning about 1,800 to 1,900 revolutions per minute. Federer is hitting with an amazing amount of spin, too, right? 2,700 revolutions per minute. Well, we measured one forehand Nadal hit at 4,900. His average was 3,200.”
All of this spin translates directly into why Nadal has established himself as the greatest clay-court tennis player of all time. On the sport’s grippiest surface, where the bounce off a spinning ball is exaggerated immensely, a cross-court forehand drive from Nadal bounds off the ground with a higher trajectory than that with which it landed, ending up well above the strike zone of most right-hander’s backhands. Not only are opponents pinned far behind the baseline in the mere attempt to return this shot, it is almost futile to try to generate any sort of power or direction off it, which usually results in a short backhand return. It is this high spin forehand that can set up a point in one shot, as Nadal can switch instantly to the offensive even if he just hit five defensive shots in a row. Now imagine you’re Roger Federer, stationed well behind the baseline, expecting that forehand to come hurtling, and Rafa hits a slice or a drop shot. Because of where you were standing to combat that forehand, you have to sprint an extra five feet just to get to the ball near the net, which, due to the grippy clay, has not travelled towards you at all, and has bounced only two inches off the ground.
Although historically the slickest surface in tennis, the grass courts at Wimbledon have been changed in the last seven years or so. These days, the strength and density of the grass is so robust that players say it is second to only in clay in terms of grip. A fact that surely played into Federer’s 2008 demise at the hands of Nadal. Although he won all his five Wimbledon championships on the newly slowed court, he was not ready to battle Nadal, who had finally learnt how to play on the speedy hard courts, making the medium speed Wimbledon a natural transition to take the defending champion’s crown.
Upon receiving his winner’s trophy at the 2009 Australian Open, the last time Federer and Nadal faced off in a Grand Slam match, Nadal said to his opponent, “You are a great champion. You are one of the best of history.” Such soft spoken appreciation for Federer’s reign came mere moments after a performance that would later reduce Federer to tears.
Following a surprising early exit from the French Open, mere weeks ago, Nadal has some uncertainty heading into Wimbledon. Recently diagnosed with tendonitis in both knees, he announced that he would be resting them in order to make himself ready to defend his title.
And with that the fiery pitt-bull with the line-backer’s build prepares for the upcoming fortnight. According to French tennis commentator Phillippe Bouin,
“Every tennis lover would like, someday, to play like Federer, but every man wants to be Rafael Nadal. Which is different.”
While most men understand that they will never be able to command the court like Nadal, striving to be as good a person is just as tall an order.
Note: All quotes from Uncle Toni, Miguel Angel, John Yandell, and Phillippe Bouin were taken directly from Cynthia Gormely’s article. The assertions and viewpoints voiced here are inspired by her piece, but not necessarily shared by her. If you would like to read her article, click here.
Throughout history, the popularity of sports has been built on rivalries. From baseball’s Yankees vs. Red Sox to cricket’s India vs. Pakistan, the intensity of certain matchups have a certain aura about them that pulls fans in, allowing them to attach to one side’s successes and failures and to despise the other’s existence.
In today’s sporting world, there is no rivalry that consistently provides more thrills than that between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the world’s two best tennis players. For several years it has been generally accepted as not a matter of if, but when Federer surpasses Pete Sampras’s record number of 14 Grand Slam titles to accept the mantle of tennis’s greatest ever athlete. But at the French Open semi-final in 2005, Federer met Nadal for the first time in a Grand Slam tournament, and Rafa, as Nadal’s fans call him, played a match that would serve notice of those to follow. His game stood in the face of Federer’s, as if to say, “Superman, I will be your kryptonite.”
On that sunny 2005 day, a confident Roger Federer, the world’s number one ranked player, walked onto centre court at Roland Garros, already a holder of four Grand Slam titles. He needed only the French Open title to achieve the career Grand Slam at the age of 24 – winning at all four Major tennis championships – a feat only achieved twice before during the open era (by Andre Agassi and Rod Laver). Unfortunately for Federer, it was at this tournament that Nadal began his climb towards being the greatest clay court player of all time by defeating Federer in four sets and going on to win his first Major championship.
Fast forward to 2009: Federer, at age 27, holds 13 Grand Slam titles, one shy of Pete Sampras’s all-time record of 14. In early February of this year, Nadal thwarted Federer’s latest charge at the record by winning his first Australian Open Championship.
During his runners-up acceptance speech, Federer attempted to put on a brave face , acting as if losing to Nadal for the fifth time in a Major final was but a minor hurdle, saying, “Maybe I’ll try later.” But upon finishing these words, he broke down crying, forcing out, “God, it’s killing me,” before having to step away from the podium where the man who has caused all the anguish, Rafa, put his arm around him in consolation.
Nadal, at the tender age of 22, already holds six Grand Slam titles. He is showing that he may be more than just a consistent adversary, as Agassi was to Sampras for so many years. For comparison, at the same point in his life, one month short of his 22nd birthday, Federer had won three. Doubt has been cast on Federer being the heir to the title of “Greatest of All Time” as Rafa is on a sharper upward trajectory than his counterpart was at the same age.
All of this brings us to the upcoming week – The 2009 French Open begins on May 24th – where Roger will once again be gunning for the trophy. And the plot thickens as we approach the tournament: four days ago, he won the lead-up clay court tournament, the Madrid Open, beating Nadal in straight sets for the title, and ending his dominant 53 match winning streak on clay. It was also his first victory against Nadal in 6 tries, a streak that includes losses at last year’s French Open, Wimbledon, and the recent Australian Open.
Perhaps this glimmer of hope is all Federer needs going into the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. Out of the four tournaments, this is certainly the one he wants most, having won multiple times at the other three. It would certainly add some substance to his claim at being better than Sampras, as the former legend never did manage a title on the clay courts of France. However, Madrid and France are two different places. Nadal comes to Rolland Garros with four years of success under his belt. It is a slower surface than that of Madrid, mostly because of the lower altitude. A slower game combined with a best of 5 format, rather than a best of 3, certainly favours the fitter Nadal, tennis’s best grinder.
There are, of course, other tennis players who can challenge these two, and Federer may have a tough time with the natural clay courters such as Juan Martin del Potro, Gilles Simon, and Ferndando Verdasco. But we, the fans are rooting for the rivalry. We want only one thing: to once again see Roger and Rafa staring each other down from opposite ends of the court on a Sunday.
