clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
Rafael Nadal continues to defy expectation – and shows no sign of slowing down on clay
Alyson Rudd
Monday June 06 2022, 9.00am, The Times
Nadal fans tend to be besotted, devoted, evangelical. His every twitch, his every drop of spilt sweat is a delight. To be so ridiculously successful in an era of icons ought to bring out a dash of arrogance and yet Nadal is resolutely decent, polite, humble and gracious. He has become an institution, a one-man band. It is enough to watch him in action and only him.
The majority of spectators had no particular desire for the final to be tense or evenly contested and you will see no wider smiles than those worn by the Rafalites after he broke Ruud’s first service game. It promised the masterclass to come. “I’m not the first victim,” Ruud said as the light reflected from his runners-up tea tray on to his young face and everyone chuckled knowingly.
One difficulty in facing Nadal is that the points won feel worth more. They are so exhausting or require such depths of ingenuity that a long soak in a bubble bath is required, not another rally which you are then ill-equipped to win because of what winning does to you.
To have such ownership of one surface is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nadal knows he should win and so do his opponents and so do the crowd and the pundits. The 36-year-old managed to look surprised — possibly out of politeness — when he hit the line with a relaxed backhand to secure his 14th French Open title.
Nadal was seeded five and Ruud was seeded eight, which was slightly ludicrous. Someone operating the graphics should have replaced the five with an image of an ochre goat.
Nadal stood proud with his trophy and, with a hint of defiance, said he would keep fighting to return to the tournament he called the best in the world. He won his first grand-slam title on clay 17 years ago and he is a constant in life for so very many sports fans. He will fade from view of course, just as Roger Federer is fading, but there remains a feeling that even if incapable of competing on grass or the hard courts, he will find a way to slide across the clay for a few more years yet.
www.thetimes.co.uk
Alyson Rudd
Monday June 06 2022, 9.00am, The Times
Nadal fans tend to be besotted, devoted, evangelical. His every twitch, his every drop of spilt sweat is a delight. To be so ridiculously successful in an era of icons ought to bring out a dash of arrogance and yet Nadal is resolutely decent, polite, humble and gracious. He has become an institution, a one-man band. It is enough to watch him in action and only him.
The majority of spectators had no particular desire for the final to be tense or evenly contested and you will see no wider smiles than those worn by the Rafalites after he broke Ruud’s first service game. It promised the masterclass to come. “I’m not the first victim,” Ruud said as the light reflected from his runners-up tea tray on to his young face and everyone chuckled knowingly.
One difficulty in facing Nadal is that the points won feel worth more. They are so exhausting or require such depths of ingenuity that a long soak in a bubble bath is required, not another rally which you are then ill-equipped to win because of what winning does to you.
To have such ownership of one surface is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nadal knows he should win and so do his opponents and so do the crowd and the pundits. The 36-year-old managed to look surprised — possibly out of politeness — when he hit the line with a relaxed backhand to secure his 14th French Open title.
Nadal was seeded five and Ruud was seeded eight, which was slightly ludicrous. Someone operating the graphics should have replaced the five with an image of an ochre goat.
Nadal stood proud with his trophy and, with a hint of defiance, said he would keep fighting to return to the tournament he called the best in the world. He won his first grand-slam title on clay 17 years ago and he is a constant in life for so very many sports fans. He will fade from view of course, just as Roger Federer is fading, but there remains a feeling that even if incapable of competing on grass or the hard courts, he will find a way to slide across the clay for a few more years yet.
Rafael Nadal’s defiance is ridiculous – he will be dominating clay for a few years yet
I met a woman last week, outside my local tennis courts, who has a necklace bearing the number 21. She had assumed that Rafael Nadal would stop winning titles, what with his myriad injuries and the fact he is four years off turning 40
www.thetimes.co.uk
