Tennis News - Nadal and his injuries
Rafael Nadal is the world’s number one tennis player at the moment. He has had a meteoric rise up the ranks to become one of the best players in the game. The Spaniard has been troubled by injuries throughout his career though. His knees in particular have given him some serious problems and unless he can get them sorted out they will come back to haunt him again. Nadal endured an injury-ridden campaign last year and had to be out of action for three months while he recovered. There are fears that his career could be cut short because of the injury. But Nadal has a knack for defying the odds and overcoming even the worst adversity.
2009 was a particularly problematic year for Nadal because he was plagued by numerous injuries. His recurring knee problem forced him out of the Australian Open last year and he had to take three months off because of it. The problem for the tennis superstar is that he seems to have tendinitis in his knees and the problem should go away with rest but it does not seem to be going away for him. The difficulty for Nadal and many other tennis players is that hard court surfaces are very bad on the joints. Many players get injured while playing on hard courts and they have to take a lot of time off to recover. People have said that Nadal should focus solely on clay and grass courts and leave the hard courts to other players for the time being. The tendinitis in his knees ended his hopes of playing in the French open and Wimbledon last year and sidelined him for a large portion of the year.
A lot of people have said that they noticed a change in the athlete’s playing style and muscle mass upon his return from injury last year. Nadal himself admits that he has significantly changed his playing style over the years. He runs less than he did before and has altered his physically demanding game to be a little bit less harsh on his joints. What is amazing about this tennis player, and the reason he is number 1 in the world right now, is that he was able to overcome those injuries and has returned to tennis as a stronger, fitter and injury free player. A lot of questions linger around him though; it could be that over the years his body has been pushed to the limit and now it is trying to tell him to take it easy and give it a little bit of rest. The issue in tennis is that if Nadal does take too much time off he will lose his world ranking and will be forced to make the slow climb back up the ladder again.
Nadal won his fifth French Open in June, this year, but admitted that he was scared that injuries and setbacks could have put an end to his career for good. For a player like Nadal who is one of the most physical and dominating tennis players in the world, injuries are commonplace. But at only 24 years old it will be a bit premature for him to give up the sport he loves most. The injuries may force him to retire when he is 28 or 29 years old but it will be very dissapointing if he has to retire now when he is in the prime of his career and has become the best player in the world.
There is a certain humbleness to the Spanish tennis star because despite being injured and making huge comebacks after recovering he does not consider himself the best in the world. He is amazed every time he looks at the titles he has won, but thinks that it is up to the people to judge if he is good or not and it is not up to him. If he is not the best in the world then it seems unlikely that he will continue to keep coming back from injuries that would have sidelined weaker athletes years ago. Many tennis stars are forced to end their careers prematurely but it takes a special kind of champion to fight through the pain and comeback to claim the top spot in the world. Nadal is that type of a player and we should not count him out just yet. He will get the better of his injuries and stay at the top of the world of tennis for a long time to come.
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