‘No one has ever played like him’: he is the only tennis player who has managed to win a tournament 14 times

There are no Chileans in Rome, Novak Djokovic falls to Holger Rune, a surprise Fábián Marozsán defeats Carlos Alcaraz without appeal and Casper Rudd prevents Argentinian Francisco Cerúndolo from advancing further. Daniil Medvedev is still in the race and the Greek Tsitsipas must beat the Croatian Borna Ćorić to reach a final. This is a relatively unexpected painting or a good picture of new times Well, the big news of the last few weeks was finally confirmed at a press conference: Rafael is not playing at Roland Garros, He will not continue to train or compete for the rest of the year and his intention is to return in 2024 and play his final tournaments.

a few days ago the Murcian phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, faced with the possibility of playing with his compatriot, pointed out that “It would be terrible, really. Playing against Rafa here in Paris would be a real challenge, but I always want to play against the best . Hopefully he is 100% here in Paris and we can see him enjoying playing tennis again. Obviously I have a lot of respect for Rafa, he is one of the best athletes in history, one of the best tennis players.”.

Novak Djokovic couldn’t avoid the microphones either and lit up the preview by acknowledging that Nadal will always be his main rival, the player to win. Roger Federer didn’t hide his concern either: “It would be very hard for tennis if Rafa was not there.” This is just a medical sample of what some of the big names in tennis were saying weeks after the big event in Paris, without ever imagining that raph he would declare that he was going to stop these months to regenerate his body.

The tennis world is in shock because raph He is unavoidable in Paris and the main obstacle for other players. No for nothing René Stauffer, the biographer of Roger Federer, maintains that, without Nadal, the Swiss would have won at least six Roland Garros . Listen to Stauffer:

“Nadal had matured very young and, at just 16, he had beaten the 2002 Roland-Garros champion, Albert Costa in Monte Carlo. When he appeared on the scene, Federer was already an established player and soon after became the undisputed number one . Federer was almost five years older and Nadal admired him (…) In their matches, the roles were clearly defined: Nadal was the challenger with nothing to lose; Federer was the favorite with everything to lose.

At 17, Nadal was a player to be feared on any type of surface. He was 34 in the world and in his first game with Federer, March 28, 2004 in Miami, he beat him. A year later, still in Miami, Federer, in a demanding match, manages to defeat the Iberian, but that same year they will face each other for the third time at Roland Garros. Let’s go with Stauffer:

“When he faced Nadal in the 2005 French Open semi-final, his third game, his usual superiority was absent, especially since Nadal had already established a reputation as a clay-court specialist. He had won five tournaments on this surface that year, including a series of three consecutive titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome en route to Paris. ”.

That 2005 semi-final It was the most anticipated match of the tournament and Federer already had respect for Nadal. At the end of the match, the Swiss would declare, “I started badly and finished badly. In the meantime, I was good, but that was not enough”. And this tonic was repeated in the following twelve months, where Federer lost all four of his matches with the Spaniards. In fact, of the four times Federer reached the Roland Garros final, the only time he won was without Nadal on the other side of the net.

Argentinian journalist Sebastián Fest points out -in his book Without a net, the story of the duel that changed tennis – that just like “Roger Federer is the king of Wimbledon (…) Rafael Nadal is the king of Paris.” However, this idyll between the Iberian side and the French side has not always been honey on the flakes. In 2009, after being surprisingly eliminated by the Swede Robin Soderling a beaten Nadal said: “It’s a shame that in a tournament that means so much to me, I never get a detail from the public.” And it is that the winner of the Coupe des Mousquetaires de la 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 he could not understand why the public supported Söderling. His uncle Toni, much less diplomatic, came to say that “The Parisian public is quite stupid. The French are embarrassed by the triumph of a Spaniard”. That year, after defeating the executioner of Nadal, Roger Federer was crowned, for the first and only time, champion of Roland Garros.

Despite the above, In 2010, Nadal lifted his fifth Cup in Paris and will repeat the ritual in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2015, in the quarter-finals, the Serbian Novak Djokovic would stop the series of 39 consecutive victories on Parisian soil, this is Nadal’s second loss in 72 games . That year, the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka would become champion.

In 2016, a wrist injury knocked Nadal out of the tournament (whose Cup was in the hands of Djokovic), but in 2017 he would celebrate again for the tenth time. And I will keep doing it 2018, 2019 and 2020 . In 2021, in an epic semi-final, Novak Djokovic managed to defeat Rafa 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 and 6-2. This cup would be won by the Serbian for the second time in his career, after beating the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Finally, in 2022, Rafa raised his hand for the last time. Musketeers Cup. There are 14 in total, which no one would have thought possible. and this 2023 Paris and the tennis world will have to get used to the absence of the greatest racket of all time on clay, because during these months Nadal’s plan is to recover to return in 2024 and enjoy his last year careers.

For those who have not yet recovered from Roger Federer’s retirement in 2022, it’s a hard blow and we must therefore rely on the words of the legendary Boris Becker: “Nadal is one of the most combative players I’ve ever seen, he’s not a hero, he’s an icon, he changed the world of tennis. No one has ever played tennis like Nadal, let alone succeeded. This can also be seen in his attitude. He’s one of the fairest players in the world, one of the best fighters we’ve ever seen.”

To be continued…