Rafael Nadal: Grand Slam warrior and people’s champion

BARCELONA – Rafael Nadal, who

announced his impending retirement at the age of 38

on Oct 10, was not only the “King of Clay” but also reigned on every other tennis surface as he accumulated 22 Grand Slam titles.

He won his maiden Major at his first French Open, beating Mariano Puerta in the final two days after turning 19. He won his last, a 14th Roland Garros title, 17 years later in 2022.

While he dominated on clay, he won all four Majors.

The eight Grand Slam titles he collected on other surfaces – four US Opens, two Wimbledons and two Australian Opens – would, on their own, tie for ninth overall in men’s tennis history.

He amassed titles despite playing in an era which also boasted Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, tennis’ dominant “Big Three” for more a decade.

Nadal played with relentless athleticism, power and mental strength, a style that may have contributed to the injuries that pockmarked his later career. The left-hander also had the shots, notably a ferocious top-spin forehand.

In 2010, arguably his peak, he became the first male player to win Grand Slams on three different surfaces in a single year, beating Djokovic at the US Open to complete the career Golden Slam of the four Majors and an Olympic title.

The only other men’s singles players to achieve that feat are Andre Agassi and Djokovic.

Showing remarkable mental resilience to escape desperate situations, drawing on endless stamina and lethally picking off opponents with his powerful, precise forehand, Nadal was an unforgiving machine.

Between 2005 and 2007 he went on a record 81-match winning streak on clay, eventually snapped by Federer in Hamburg. During that time, Nadal won 13 consecutive titles on clay.

Between 2005 and 2014 Nadal won the French Open every year, except for 2009, when he was beaten by eventual runner-up Robin Soderling.

Nadal continued to shine in his later years despite injury problems, winning the Australian and French Opens in 2022.

He also reached the Wimbledon semi-finals that year but was forced to pull out with an abdominal issue.

“The older he has got, the more willing he has been to change his game,” said Swedish seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Mats Wilander in May 2022.

Nadal spent the vast majority of the 2023 season injured or recovering from surgery, as Djokovic passed the Spaniard’s record of 22 Grand Slams by

winning the French Open.

His Grand Slam title collection will close at 22 but, if not for a series of problems with his ankles, knees, elbow and wrists, the figure could have been even more impressive.

The creaks were getting louder over the last few years.

When he thrashed Casper Ruud in the 2022 French Open final, his final Grand Slam title, he revealed he had required daily pain-killing injections in his foot.

He then underwent a radical surgical procedure, having the nerves burned in his foot to eradicate the pain.

Fast forward to the 2023 Australian Open, where he was

hampered by a hip injury

during his shock second-round loss to Mackenzie McDonald. It was his earliest exit from a Slam since 2016.

That injury spelled the beginning of the end for Nadal, who shut it down for the rest of 2023 and would play just one more Grand Slam match – losing in the first round of the 2024 French Open.

But eventually, life in the tennis pantheon was never a priority for Nadal.

“The important legacy is that all the people I have met during these 20 years have a good human memory of me,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the personal issue, education, respect and the affection you can treat people with comes before the professional issue, because that is what remains.” AFP