In a tearful ceremony, Rafael Nadal leaves his footprint in Paris

Soon the emotion would flow, but for a brief moment he looked awkward on this court he owned. He always walked onto it with a racket, now he came unarmed. He was a creature of action not words, defined by his duels, and yet now during the ceremony he stood completely alone. It felt strange yet fitting. For in a way Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros had no rival. Humans bent to him and so did history. 

He wept and so did some in the crowd as he spoke to them in English, French and Spanish. His words we mostly understood. But the spin and ferocity his racket spoke on the clay of Court Philippe-Chatrier for 20 years was a language undecipherable.