Nadal admits to fitness worries for Wimbledon
Spaniard’s chances of success on grass depend on his knees holding up, writes Simon Briggs
As tennis’s dominant colour switches from red to green, it is worth asking which Rafael Nadal we might find ourselves watching over the coming weeks? The man for all seasons, who played in five Wimbledon finals? Or the grassallergy victim who has not made it past the fourth round in SW19 since 2011?
The answer is hard to predict. After thrashing Stan Wawrinka on Sunday to claim his 10th French Open title, Nadal was asked to rate his grass-court prospects. In reply, he explained that he cannot strike his groundstrokes properly without a stable base. And where the powdery clay cushions the impact on his cranky knees, grass wears him out by making him stoop for low balls.
“There has been a while since I don’t play very good Wimbledon,” said Nadal. “It’s true that after 2012 what happened with my knees, [it has] been tougher and tougher to compete on grass for me. But if I have pain on the knees, then I know from experience that it’s almost impossible. Because I need to feel strong, low, and powerful legs to play well in Wimbledon. If I don’t feel that, then probably my chances are not there, no?
“We’ll see how my knee behaves. Playing on grass is very special. You need to play at a lower level. The body posture is down. You have less stability on grass.”
There is one reason for Nadalistas to feel optimistic. Just like his old rival Roger Federer, Nadal has returned this season with a soupedup backhand. Admittedly, he is not bashing as many clean winners off that wing as Federer. But he is taking the ball early and hitting fewer run-around forehands – two adjustments which reduce his step count and overall workload.
Nadal is meant to be playing a grass-court warm-up event in a week’s time, the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club. This used to be a fairly regular stop on his itinerary.
But he has appeared just once since 2011, because of the unfavourable British tax regime. He has to win the event just to break even, and in 2015 he lost to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the opening round.
Still, there is also the encouraging precedent of 2008 to point to. That was Nadal’s best French Open until this year (he dropped 41 games that season, as opposed to 35 over the past fortnight). And in that memorable summer, the switch to grass could not have gone more swimmingly. Nadal won Queen’s before outlasting Federer in a Wimbledon final that is generally considered to be the greatest tennis match ever played.
“I love grass,” he explained. “It’s a surface that I really enjoyed a lot playing there. And I miss play with Wimbledon again. So I hope that my knees hold well and I can have the preparation that I really need and the preparation that I wanted. If that happens and [I] feel healthy during Wimbledon, then probably going to have my chances to play well.”
This last comment might not seem like the boldest statement of intent. But then Nadal is never one to talk himself up. Where Federer’s instinct is to expect the best, he fears the worst. “Doubts are good,” Nadal said on Sunday, “because doubts give you the possibility to work with more intensity.”
His challenge will be to maintain that intensity despite the physical awkwardness of grass. But if he does it, Nadal could be only a few weeks away from returning to the world No1 ranking for the fourth time in his career.
He is 2,605 points behind Andy Murray – and that sounds like a lot when you earn 2,000 for a major title. But Murray cannot gain points on the grass, he can only lose them, because he won both Queen’s and Wimbledon last season. Whereas, 12 months ago, Nadal missed everything between the French Open and the Rio Olympics because of a torn wrist tendon. He can only gain, and the two men could potentially pass each other travelling in opposite directions.