MASTER CLASS
Young Greek phenom finally meets his match as Rafael Nadal claims his fourth Rogers Cup.
The twitch, the tic, the tug: Rafael Nadal as we’ve always known him.
And the trophy, with Nadal triumphant for the 80th time on the ATP tour, and the 33rd in the Masters 1000 series. His fourth Rogers Cup. It was to be expected, of course, against unseeded sensation Stefanos Tsitsipas, who knocked off four top-10 opponents in a row as a 19-year-old showstopper.
Yet the final wasn’t quite as expected, not with the ease that marked a lopsided first set.
Belatedly, Tsitsipas woke up and smartened up, forcing Nadal to earn the win in a second-set tiebreak — 6-2, 7-6 (4) overall — even pushing the world No. 1 to a set-point break point that was fended off.
Though Nadal hadn’t played his best tennis in Toronto, except in flashes, his lower gear has still got more vroom than just about anybody else around. The 32-year-old held on for dear life amidst the late wobbles of the second frame and prevailed in the up-down tiebreak as the one-hour, 42-minute engagement came to an end under a big blue sky Sunday and Nadal extended uplifted double fists towards it.
On what was his first day as a 20-yearold, Tsitsipas reflected on what the roll-busting encounter had shown him.
“How much gap there is between him and me in our games. And how much more I need to — I don’t want to be rude — but bust my ass on the court.
“Work more hours and become stronger and more solid baseliner. And withstand pressures, physical pressures on the court, that to him just seems like nothing special. That’s the big difference between my game and his game.
“And the patience that Rafa has is amazing. He never cracks. He will always grab you like a bulldog. He will make you suffer ... I mean, he was like, you know, normal like all of us, and he managed to become this beast, this monster that he is today.”
Monster as high praise.
Nadal knows all about starburst phenoms. He was one himself, only 19 when he claimed his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros. He owns the French Open now, with 11 of his 17 major championships coming in Paris.
He high-fived Tsitsipas right back Sunday, first beaming on the sidelines as the young Greek took his speechifying turn before an adoring audience, especially the flag-waving Hellenic contingent.
“I had the week of my life,” Tsistsipas said. “The support I got this week, I never received such a warm welcome from people during competition, so thank you for that.”
Nadal, his turn to speak, gestured toward the defeated: “Keep going. You have an amazing future.”
Then, some 90 minutes later, at the (exceedingly) post-match news conference, he extolled his shiny trinket opponent.
“He has a very complete game. Big serve. Great shots from the baseline,” Nadal said. “He’s brave. He’s young. He has everything. If he’s able to keep improving, he will be fighting for the most important titles for the world of tennis immediately.”
Someday, likely sooner than later, he’ll have a first Masters title too. Thus far, he’s only had one ATP tour final, the Barcelona Open in April, where, overawed, he glug-glug-glug sank , 6-2, 6-1, to … Nadal.
It looked yesterday that this might be a reprise of that as the first set raced by with hardly a peep from the youthful challenger, broken early and broken again, utterly unable to blunt Nadal’s forehand to his backhand. Indeed, through to the fourth game of the second set Tsitsipas had only one point won off Nadal’s serve.
Then, in the eighth game, with Tsitsipas serving to stay in the match at 30-15, someone in the crowd yelled during his serving motion. The kid asked for a let. The chair umpire declined, saying he could do nothing beyond warning spectators to be quiet. But gentleman Rafa stepped forward, generously allowing Tsitsipas the first-serve do-over. That ultimately resulted in a 5-3 hold for Tsitsipas as Nadal’s return sailed long.
And, because no good deed goes unpunished, Nadal found himself on the end of a break point in the next game, coupled with a pair of double-faults, suddenly 5-5. An abrupt momentum swing, though Nadal professed no regret over his generosity.
“No, no. That’s what I felt at that moment,” he said, adding with a grin: “Maybe I was too nice in that moment.”
It was just one point, as Nadal emphasized. “And I lost, and then he served a huge first serve and win the game, and then I played a horrible game. But what happened in that point don’t have any impact about the game in the 5-4. I get nervous, I am completely human person. I get nervous and I miss it.
“After that, I accept the situation. Just fight back and try to stay positive. That’s what I did.”
Perhaps he was just a bit blinded by all that daylight. All of Nadal’s previous four matches had come late in the evening sessions this week, often delayed by rain. His two-set semifinal dispatch of Russian Karen Khachanov on Saturday actually came to pass a few minutes into Sunday morning. So they were both tired.
Tsitsipas had also started to figure out some things about Nadal’s first serve, was responding better to high bounces. Asked what was going through his head in that break game, Tsitsipas pointed out: “I believe not so much in my head. I believe in mostly his head. He got tighter and he didn’t put any first serve in. He always started the point with a second serve. And I just used it and took control of the point and that’s how I broke him.”
But Nadal has been here so many times. Hold and hold and they were into a tiebreak. Tsitsipas had fared pretty well in tiebreaks, especially coming back against South African Kevin Anderson in their semi.
Tsitsipas thought to himself, at 3-2, I can do this.
Except Nadal buckled down on a furious rally exchange, executed a tough drop shot and, at 5-4, induced a netter from his opponent. Abruptly over.
Tsitsipas was reminded by a reporter of a year ago, in Montreal, when the gobsmacker of Rogers Cup week was Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov, who didn’t make it out of the third round here. He’d never envisioned himself taking it even further on the cusp of 20.
“It inspired me so much, I was dreaming of this place,” said Tsitsipas, who’d watched the tournament on TV, in Portoroz, Slovenia. “It was so inspirational to see him beat those guys. It seemed completely out of my world what he was doing on the court.”
Now he’s done it. With one significant difference, as Tsitsipas wistfully reminded:
“I didn’t beat Rafa. He did beat Rafa.”