He was a ten-year-old boy when he put a tennis racket for good in his weaker, left hand. It was then that a phenomenon called Rafael Nadal began to emerge. A man who would not even tie his shoelaces on his left hand has conquered the world of sports. The 36-year-old Spaniard won the 22nd Grand Slam title this weekend, the fourteenth of which was in Paris.
He has definitely settled down in the close company of the most admired athletes of all time. Although his great career, according to doctors, should have ended in fiasco, very prematurely and in pain.
It flew to the top quickly. At nineteen, he ruled Roland Garros for the first time. In a year again. And then again. He was wrongly accused of doping. Doctors foresaw his end. Due to the strength of the game, the hellish training doses and the overly developed musculature of the tennis player, they estimated that Nadal’s joints would soon leave.
He shouldn’t have played until thirty. But the native of Mallorca reversed his fate.
“Everyone said something and look. He is now 36 years old and in brutal condition. He has turned his back on all the forecasts. His career is phenomenal,” shakes Jiří Novák, a former Czech tennis player who twice opposed young Nadal in 2004. , once two years later. He defeated the future icon once, at the Davis Cup in Brno.
“He got my attention right after he came to the circuit. One year he was a skinny man, the next year he was overgrown with muscles. His training doses were unbelievable. He was also unique in that he was retrained as a lefty,” recalls Novák.
In recent weeks, he has watched in amazement as a sports veteran rushes to another record title with age.
Despite the circumstances that put him in the unusual role of an outsider: health problems, few matches before the tournament and dreaded challengers led by the world number one, Archival rival Novak Djokovic.
“Betting was probably Djokovic’s favorite, I didn’t see it that way. There can be no other favorite in Nadal’s living room than himself. He’s home. He may have been surprised that he did it, but not me,” said the former fifth player in the world.
He took the quarterfinal hit between Djokovic and Nadal for the premature finals. “When Rafa managed it, I knew he would win again. Even though Alexander Zverev was badly flooded in the semifinals before he was badly injured.”
If at the end of last year a Czech expert put Nadal, Djokovic and Roger Federer on the same level and wished that they would all end up with 20 grand slams won, because the debate on GOAT (Greatest of All Time – the best in history, note or.) considered irreconcilable, Nadal now forced him to change his mind.
“I thought it would be fair, because everyone was and is absolutely exceptional. But Nadal changed it this year. What he has accomplished is absolute science fiction for me. He has performed something incredible in Australia and now again. He is the best for me. player of history, “acknowledges Novák.
At the moment, as he adds. The races are not over, although the legend of Czech tennis is clear: 40-year-old Federer will no longer take part in them.
“But beware. It may happen that Djokovic will win another three or four grand slams. We can have fun in a completely different way in a year,” he blurts out over the still ending golden age of world tennis.
The days when Pete Sampras, an American with fourteen titles from the Big Four, was an elusive king, are long gone.
“At the time, we said that no one could ever beat him. Look now. Nadal only has the same titles from Roland Garros. For me, these are numbers that I don’t even understand,” says Novák.
According to him, the clay French Open is clearly the toughest tournament in the world.
“You have to be able to play tennis there. You can’t just beat or run. You have to have everything. You have to be a huge animal there. Gladiator. And that’s Rafa Nadal,” adds the man whose favorite surface during his career was clay, although his biggest the grand slam was about the 2002 Australian Open semifinals.
Before and during the tournament, the health troubles of the Spanish champion were discussed. In Paris, he even received numbing injections into a completely “broken” left foot.
“But no injuries were seen on him during the matches. He flew on the court for four hours, still at the same brutal pace,” says Novák, and refuses the isolated critical responses regarding the injections.
“It’s a normal thing for a top athlete, I wouldn’t condemn it at all. On the contrary. He did his best to win. You’re trying to keep your injury from stopping you. Look at the NHL, it’s still happening at hockey players. I can’t imagine that “Someone would have a broken rib and didn’t play the Stanley Cup finals because of that. The same cyclists at the Tour de France. These are events that you train all year round. It’s perfectly fine for me,” explains Jiří Novák.
He considers speculation about the approaching end of Nadal’s career misleading.
“When I saw him move, how he played… I can’t imagine him ending. He is in incredible form and will continue to fight. He has won the last two grand slams, you are not leaving in such a situation. Perhaps his health will allow him to continue,” concludes the 47-year-old coach.
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