If its clay, it’s got to be ‘Rafa’!
Is Pete Sampras the greatest grass courter of all-time? Roger Federer might want to dispute that. Is Federer the greatest hard-court player of all time? Sampras and a few others would want to put forth their arguments and cases. But when it comes to this surface, the red dirt a.k.a. clay, there can be no other player apart from one man from Majorca to stake claim as the Supreme Being! Bjorn Borg might have won more titles at the French but he’d be the first one to admit that it’s more a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ for ‘Rafa’, as he’s called on the circuit, to go past his record of 6 crowns.
His romance with the French Open…
Nadal’s been an amazing journey of early success against the very best in the business. In his very first appearance at the French Open in 2005, he succeeded in winning the title in emphatic fashion thereby becoming just the second player after Mats Wilander to have won that major in his maiden attempt. And ever since that maiden triumph, Nadal’s won the title on four more occasions; in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010.
By winning the titles between 2005 and 2008, he emulated another former great, Sweden’s Bjorn Borg in winning the French on four consecutive occasions. Things looked hunky dory during his 2009 campaign as well and it seemed a mere formality for Rafa to win five in five attempts. However, there was a hurdle in the form of Robin Soderling, another Swede, to stop him in his tracks.
Overall numbers on clay…
Such was the dominance of Rafa on clay that when he lost to Soderling in the 4th Round of the 2009 French Open, it was called the ‘Upset of the Century’ by a lot of tennis pundits around the world. And Nadal’s feats on that surface would give us an idea for that sort of a reaction. At the time of entering his 5th French Open campaign in 2009, Nadal had won an astonishing five Masters Series titles at Monte Carlo and four at the Rome Masters.
At the Monte Carlo Masters, he had never dropped a match winning on every occasion since his debut in 2005. Not surprisingly then, Nadal had the longest single-surface winning streak, 81 matches on clay that stretched from 11 April, 2005 till 20 May, 2007. His win in 2008 was even more remarkable as he’d won the Open without dropping a single set, a feat that was last achieved by Bjorn Borg in 1980. Yes, by all counts Rafael Nadal was the odds-on-favourite going into his 4th round match against Robin Soderling.
May 31, 2009…
Ever since Nadal entered the scene, critics and even some of his die-hard supporters have commented on his style of play and the amount of effort he puts into each of his points. Nadal’s game hinges around a water-tight ‘defence’ and his retrieving abilities are arguably the best that any player’s ever possessed. As his great rival Federer has often commented, with Nadal, the point’s never over until it’s over.
Blessed with the best legs in the business, Nadal’s often chased balls like a hare and what’s more, has regularly turned ‘defence’ into ‘offence’. Till the early part of 2009 however, none of those had any effect on him and his fitness seemed to be all-right. But that match against Soderling clearly revealed to the world that his style of play was finally having its adverse effects on the player. His knees almost gave way and Soderling didn’t need a second invitation to pounce on his wounded rival.
This is not to take any credit away from Robin Soderling, but most people had little doubt about the fact that a fully-fit Rafael Nadal would have few challengers at the French Open. Nontheless, on that evening of May 31, 2009, Nadal lost for the first time at the French Open and a mini-era had come to an end!
Part II follows...
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