The king of tennis reigns on

To say Rafael Nadal is the “King of Clay” is a cliché that does no justice to the player who holds the record of 22 Grand Slams. Of course, the red shale at Roland Garros is like his castle where his overall 112-3 and 14-0 in finals since winning his first French Open title as a teenager symbolises his indomitable will to withstand punishment and triumph on the toughest surface among the four Grand Slams.

The pain of the past is gone for now, the present is rosy for the tennis champion but the future is uncertain as he contemplates how best to keep conquering the Mueller-Weiss syndrome — a degenerative condition that affects bones in his feet — in order to extend his 2022 run and perhaps seek a calendar year Grand Slam that eluded Novak Djokovic last year.

The Spaniard has declared that he will take no more anaesthetic injections in the foot to numb it and that he would seek other forms of treatment to make it to Wimbledon where he has been champion twice and to the US Open where he’s certain to be present if he beats Djokovic on grass. His duel with the Serb, which resumed in Paris after the controversies of the Australian Open of 2022, was the virtual final in Paris, a match of classic tennis between two of three greatest players of all time.

Not since 2010 has Nadal won two Grand Slams in a row and to do so at 36 is a phenomenal achievement and made possible by courtcraft that is admirable and strokes that were inspired as he disposed of his pupil and trainee at his academy. To the Norwegian Casper Ruud, the final was a master class from close quarters in metronomic thoroughness from the baseline, exploiting the angles, top spin forehands that send the ball bouncing at opponents and all of it backed up by a terrier-like devotion to getting to the ball wherever it's hit on the court.

The motivation driving them may differ from one great to the other but it must please the aficionados that Nadal is driven by his passion for tennis and not just records or Grand Slam titles. Federer may empathise with that as he is another driven by passion for the game. But can Djokovic be blamed if he derives his motivation from winning Grand Slams? The three musketeers have taken tennis to another level altogether.