Pain and poise is Nadal’s mantra
Nadal outlasted Taylor Fritz to enter the semi-finals
WIMBLEDON: Rafael Nadal has had a love affair with injuries all his life. At 36, with his hairline receding, the facial contours suggesting pain and his movement on court more measured, the Spaniard seems uncomfortable.
Well, a normal tennis player would probably throw in the towel. No, not Nadal. On Wednesday night, the man who is aiming to become the oldest Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon, believed in the "no pain no gain policy."
At the end of a marathon five-setter on Centre Court, when fans thought Nadal would end up on the losing side, he produced magic. After four hours and 1 minutes of labour, plus the injury time out, Nadal outlasted Taylor Fritz 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) to enter the semi-finals. Up next, if he is fit on Friday, will be Australian Nick Kyrgios.
These days, Nadal's wins are about tennis and the marvels of medical treatment. When he won the Australian Open and then the French Open for the 14th time this year, he spoke of pain in his left foot.
He needed nerve blocker injections after that to get ready for Wimbledon.
Not having played a proper grass-court warm-up tournament, Nadal knew he was taking a chance. Hasn't that been the story of his life, where parts of the body are crying in pain. But Nadal does not cry. He tries.
How many times fans have seen the marvellous magician carve out wins from situations which look hopeless. How many times Nadal has been starring at the barrel and then he stands up like Rambo to come out firing. The difference is, Rambo uses violence and Nadal uses aggression in play, which is permissible on the tennis courts.
At one stage in the second set, it did seem Nadal would be going out of the tournament. He did not want to talk about his rib injury. On Wednesday, it was not the rib but an abdominal muscle injury which was hurting him. Tennis allows you to take treatment on court and resume play.
If Fritz thought Nadal would gift him free points because of pain, it did not happen. The longer the match went, the more we saw Nadal fighting like a wounded soldier. Nadal is peaceful, for sure. But to not wage a war on the tennis court is not in his DNA.
To say Nadal fought would be banal. What he did was to transform pain into altogether another level of pleasure, producing tennis which defied injury. Humans can't do it. Only super humans can.
“Tomorrow (on Thursday) I'm going to have some more tests,” he said. “But difficult to know. It's obvious that I am a player who had a lot of things in my tennis career, so I am used to have things and I am used to hold pain and to play with problems. Knowing that, when I feel something like I felt, that is because something is not going the proper way in abdominal," said Nadal. His English is halting, but he conveys what he has to.
“But let's see. It's obvious that today is nothing new. I had these feelings for a couple of days. Without a doubt, today was the worst day. Have been an important increase of pain and limitation. And that's it. “I managed to win that match, added Nadal.
Nadal spoke of how he is enjoying playing tennis, despite the medical issues which keep cropping up.
“I'm playing great,” he said. “No, no, I am enjoying a lot. The level of tennis, if we put away the problems, something that's difficult, the level of tennis, the feeling that I am having with the ball on my hand is honestly great. I am feeling myself playing very well.”
But now? “I'm worried now, honestly,” he said with a shrug.
“They told me I need to retire the match, yeah,” he admitted. “Well, I tried. For me was tough to retire in the middle of the match. Not easy even if I had that idea for such a long time [in the match].
“But in the other hand, I did it a couple of times in my tennis career. Is something that I hate to do it. So I just keep trying.
“Doctor came, give me some anti-inflammatories. The physio just tried to relax a little bit the muscle there. But it's difficult. Nothing can be fixed when you have a thing like this.
“I just wanted to give myself a chance. Not easy to leave the tournament. Not easy to leave Wimbledon, even if the pain was hard. I wanted to finish. Doesn't matter. Well, I prefer to win, with victory or defeat," added Nadal.