Never-say-die Nadal keeps dream alive
ThE mysteries of the locker room are fast blending into the secrets of eternal youth and resurrection. A day after Novak Djokovic revived himself by chatting to the man in the mirror, an even older and frailer chap retreated to the same haven and returned as a raging bull.
What alchemy did they work on Rafael Nadal in those few minutes? how did strips of tape, a tummy rub and antiinflammatory medication succeed in piecing this broken master together again?
We may never know, except to say one of the greatest there has been left Centre Court at a set down and barely able to reach 90mph with his first serves.
At that point he was suffering with severe pain in his abdominal muscles and quite possibly a worse one in his backside named Taylor Fritz.
As Nadal prepared to head off for treatment, his father sebastian could be seen waving frantically in his direction, telling his lad to quit.
That two slams out of three for the calendar year isn’t so bad when balanced against serious injury. Nadal would later admit he was awfully close to listening.
But he didn’t. Famously and brilliantly he didn’t. instead, 14 years to the day since he played the greatest final this court has seen against Roger Federer, he came back out and proved something.
Which is to say that for all the pop of his forehand and all the juice of his backhand and all the crispness of his volleys and all the guile in his thinking, this 36-year-old’s best strength might just be that he is near enough impossible to kill.
And so he won the second set, and then he prevailed in the madness of the fourth after losing the third.
Then in the decider against a man more than 11 years his junior, and on chronically painful feet, he made it through 12 more turbulent games before winning the tiebreak 10-4.
After four hours and 21 minutes, Nadal only had the strength to raise a single fist before slumping into his chair, knowing that it is no guarantee that he will be fit enough to embark on the Nick Kyrgios rollercoaster in the semi-finals tomorrow.
‘i’m worried,’ he said, and no kidding, even if we heard similar proclamations from him about his feet at the French Open — where he ultimately hobbled to victory.
There are some in the game who take his diagnoses of injury with a pinch of salt, but who would Kyrgios be to grumble about gamesmanship?
Fritz made no such accusation. he alluded to it once before about Novak Djokovic in 2021, but not this time, except to comment: ‘in the third, fourth and fifth set he was money. he was playing through a lot of pain but he was running and ripping winners.’
in saying so, Fritz admitted no defeat had hurt so much owing to his proximity to victory.
And that takes us back to Nadal, who was close to throwing in his towel. ‘My father told me to retire the match,’ he said. ‘i had that idea. But i did it a couple of times in my career and i hated it. i needed fighting spirit.’
And then some. Nadal’s difficulties were undetectable as he broke in the first game, and that remained the case even as he went down in that opening set by 6-3. it was more about Fritz’s retrievals and Nadal’s errors above anything profound.
Where it became pronounced was early in the second when his service speed dropped and double faults became common.
it was at 4-3 up when Nadal went for his timeout and the drama truly began, with the second seed taking the set, only to fall behind again in the third.
The fourth was brilliant madness, with Nadal getting the better share of five breaks, and that in turn teed up the decider and the eventual tiebreak he won.
he looked fit to collapse at the end of it all. Who knows what sort of shape he will be in when he gets back up, except you can
likely bet he will.