Rafa: Back Where He Belongs?
Matthew Cronin
It has taken three years for Rafael Nadal to get back to the verge of where he once belonged.
The Spaniard has won 14 Grand Slams, which is amazing, but the famed forehand broke down in the second half in 2014. His legs were incredibly sore, he couldn't run as much as he used to, and he was hurt - mentally and physically.
Nadal has won pretty much everything in his career. He has won Roland Garros nine times, he has won Wimbledon three times, the Australian Open once, and the US Open once.
Rafa has won over 50 titles on clay. Equally amazing he has 30 ATP Master titles, winning Indian Wells, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati, and Monte Carlo 10 times.
Rafa has been doing it for well over a decade. In 2005, he won 11 titles and the age of 19.
He began to dominate the sport, beating the famous Roger Federer time and time again. He would out run Novak Djokovic, he would over power Andy Murray. The same goes with Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka could not dictate to Rafa with his one-handed backhand.
Eventually, though, Novak, Andy and Stan all improved, won Slams, while Nadal didn't evolve much.
Still, during the last three years, Nadal was successful by any reasonable standard other than his own. True, after he won Roland Garros in 2014, he did not win any big titles. But he did win some decent events, just not Grand Slams. He was frustrated and the other players knew that.
In 2015, he lost against Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open, he went down against Djokovic at the French Open, he was stunned by Dustin Brown at Wimbledon, and for the first time ever, he lost a match with a two set lead playing Fabio Fognini at the US Open. As the match went deep into the night, the Italian's play rose up into the heavens, while Nadal's teeth began to chatter.
The five-setters, once his strength, were now killing him. In 2016, he lost in five sets in the first round against Fernando Verdasco at the Aussie Open. He had had epic matches with his fellow Spaniard but had come through in the big moments.
After that loss he was very mad, but he went back to work to turn it around. He won Monte Carlo, a place he really loves, beating Wawrinka, Murray and Gael Monfils. Was Rafa ready to dance again to the top?
No. He had to retire in the third round at Roland Garros. His left wrist was very painful. And again at the Slams, he got nervous. At the US Open, he lost in five sets in the round of 16 against Lucas Pouille.
What was going on? His wrist wasn't right, and neither was he, psychologically. He took the rest of the year to heal.
At the start of 2017, however, it looked like he had permanently fallen a level. He suffered three losses in a row to Federer.
True Roger with his improved backhand was completely amazing, but Nadal didn't look like, well, Nadal. Is it going too far to say he meekly surrendered in Indian Wells?
But in April in 2017, you could tell that he reacted to those losses by changing his tactics - and finding some of the old fire. He absolutely loves clay, but he is now more willing to move forward. In my opinion, he is more willing to smoke his backhand down the line and rip it crosscourt.
He has now won Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and, finally, he beat the former No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semis at Madrid. In the past three years, Djokovic had beaten Nadal 11 times, while the Spaniard had won 1 time.
By winning Madrid, Nadal is finally happy with what he is doing on the court again. His spirits seem revived, he has adjusted his game, and he is now the favorite to also win Rome and Roland Garros. Is it possible that he unrivaled ferocity has returned?
Is Roger's decision to not play the French a positive or a negative? Has a barrier to the title been removed? Or has a motivation - to recover his dominance over Roger with a win in a Grand slam?
Other elite baseline players such as the great Bjorn Borg and Michael Chang burned out early. At age 30 it looks like Rafa is not done yet. He may be the most intense competitor ever to play the game, up there with the great Jimmy Connors. It's the middle of the French Open 2017. The rest of the tournament and the rest of year will tell us if any of that is really true, and if true, true for how long.
