SPORTS Nadal’s 22nd ATP year
14 titles; 11% of 126 French Open
Nadal won the 126th version French Open that concluded last week. It was his 14th French Open title. He beat up and coming Casper Ruud of Norway in the final. Of the 22 Grand Slam title wins to his credit, 14 are French Open, which turns out to be 11% of the 126 French Open ever played.
Nadal played his first ATP event in 2000. His game was and is unique, extremely physical and clay court oriented. Sand courts demands punishing requirements and Nadal has acquired them with sweat and sacrifice. Often has performed well past the fourth hour to win. He makes his opponents feel that they are playing against a wall than a man. This is Spanish sand court tennis approach.
For those developed on asphalt concrete, American sand, Asian clay and grass courts, Spanish tennis is very tough to accommodate. On sand court, ball bounce reduces speed and enhances spins. Players will have to develop an accommodating mindset to win. Hard labour and endurance are the catchwords to play on sand courts.
The French Open draw of 2022 had three possible players who could have eliminated Nadal. They are Serbian Djokovic, Canadian AliAssime and Germany’s Zevrev. These three did take Nadal into serious situations. They have beaten Nadal before. Nadal survived Djokovic and AliAssime. Against Zevrev in the semi-final, he survived five first set points against him but won. Then, lost the lead in the second set and was even at six-all. Fate decided against his opponent Zevrev and went into irrecoverable ankle injury. With that, Nadal went to the final. His opponent Casper Ruud, in the final ran out of tactics very early, Nadal won the 14th French Open title in three straight sets.
No pain is no gain
This could sum up Nadal's 14th French Open title saga. In the past few years, he has taken fair share of surgery and medication to keep on playing. He is a disciplinarian dedicated to tennis. He even postponed getting married. His preparation for an event is a monastic ritual.
Iga Swiatek's second French Open title
Swiatek has clocked her longest unbeaten stretch of wins so far. It is approaching 40 now. At the French Open, she very comfortably bagged her second French title. Her opponent was American Coco Gauff. Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernadaez are the surviving trio of the teenage parade of the recent years.
The impact of Leylah Fernadez was noticeable at 2022 French Open. She got to the quarter-final and lost to the dark horse streak of Italian Trevisan in three sets. Gauff played best tennis of her carrier to beat Trevisan in semi-final. From my observation, the physical build of Trevisan has often proven to be injury prone. Like that of Canadian Andreescu is too heavy for an endurance sport.
Doubles and Mixed Doubles
French Open gave good deal of TV exposure to these events. Speed, power and tactics are the essence of Doubles. Doubles rallies usually end up in a five-second chitty-chitty bang-bang rhythm. At the French Open, pairs were evenly matched rallies went to the length of a singles match in number of shots. It was extremely spectator friendly.
Doubles as an event serves the players and events with variety, while giving the invite to tail end of prominent Singles players. On another count, it plays a critical role in the introduction of all court play to all up and coming Singles players. Gauff was in the final of French Open with Jessica Pegula as her partner. They lost to Mladenovic and Garcia of France. The two winners entered the event with the wild card from the event organisers. Two Indian players featured in the Doubles events, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.
Appeal of women's tennis
Few factors has gone against women's tennis this year. Ashleigh Barty's early retirement is certainly one of them. This has left Polish Swiatek without a strong opponent in the WTA events. Most of the women players in the current Top 20 rankings are from Eastern Europe. Loss of peace there is and will tell on European and global sporting events. It was not easy for the former women's elite and current director of the French Open event Amelie Mauresmo to run the event.
French Open selects an interesting and an evenly matched encounter to their daily prime time event, the night session. They could not find one in the women's draw. Mauresmo pronounced it in her comments as to why women's matches are not in night session time allocation. Swiatek and other women players considered it unwarranted and incorrect. In reality, it was correct. Most of final round women’s matches produced poor exhibition of tennis, tactically and in stroke making efficiency. All stayed within the boundaries of safety first shot selection.
Strongest field of women players in the WTA ranking and event are from Eastern Europe. To practice and play in peace is disturbed there and it is telling. It is one reason. The other is women players are nursing injuries. Their list is long and every event adds one to the list.
Recent teenage women player parade is consistently doing the vanishing act. There is another factor to explore. Many known players have enrolled themselves into an annual income system. One French women player is guarantee of two million US dollars a year. From whom?
--George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; coach for German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup; coached top 200 ATP,WTA and ITF Top 50; WhatsApp 0775448880-