Rafael Nadal: Acing it since day one

Born on 3 June 1986 in the city of Mallorca, Spain, Rafael Nadal Parera is a player that comes across the tennis world just once in a long period of time. The Spanish tennis star has won it all and has etched his name into the hall of fame. His recent Australian Open 2022 win makes him the man who has won the most number of grand slams – 21 in total. He has left behind the likes of Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, and many others in his path to glory. The level of discipline and determination he shows not only on the court but off of it as well is something to be respected and admired.

The tennis star started his professional tennis career when he was just 15 years old. He was the most successful teenager in the tennis world as well. Reaching world no.2 position and winning his first French Open along with 15 other titles before he even celebrated his 20^th birthday is a feat most people can only imagine in their dreams. He reached the number one ranking spot finally in 2008 when he beat the Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer in what was an amazing and gripping Wimbledon match between them. Winning an Olympic gold medal for Spain in that very year was the cherry on top of the cake as the Spaniard was becoming hard to stop now.

Nadal also became the youngest man in the Open Era to achieve the Career Grand slam at the age of 24, and also the first man to win three Majors on three different surfaces (hard, grass and clay) in the same calendar year. Winning the gold medal in the Olympics is something athletes train rigorously for four years at a time. Achieving that feat also made Nadal only one of the two men who have completed a Golden Career slam in the tennis world. The other player is Andre Agassi.

2014 was a tough year for the Spaniard. Although Rafa had won several grand slams and ATP titles by now, he never even thought of lifting his foot from the throttle. But as every athlete has to go through some injuries at some point in time, this was Nadal’s turn. He suffered a wrist injury and later on during the 2014 Shanghai Open was suffering from Appendicitis. After some bad results, he finally decided to skip the rest of the year to undergo an operation on his appendix.

Despite suffering some more losses and a drop in his rankings, the Spaniard went on to win another gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. However, those losses meant that it was the first year since 2004 that Nadal hadn’t been able to qualify for a grand slam quarter-final. After coming back to full fitness in 2017, Rafael Nadal regained his number one spot in the rankings and by the year 2020, had won his record 13th French Open title as well. Also on 9 November 2020, Nadal reached his 790th back-to-back week as one of the ten highest-placed players on the ATP Rankings and surpassed the record held by Jimmy Connors.

After playing in the French Open 2021 and eventually losing to Novak Djokovic, Nadal had to withdraw his name from several other tours as well due to a recurring left foot injury that had been aggravated during the French Open. On 20 August 2021, just before 10 days from the start of the much-awaited US Open, Rafael Nadal announced that would be ending his 2021 season due to the left foot issue that had been troubling him for most of the year. Therefore, his ranking fell to No.6, due to his injury.

It was a very difficult year and a half for the Spaniard as recurring injuries and some tough losses eventually led to the spread of rumours that the 35-year-old would hang up his boots at the start of the year. But Rafael Nadal, as we all know doesn’t know how to give up, and that is exactly what he did when he came back at the start of this year and took part in the 2022 Australian Open. In the quest for his history-making 21^st grand slam title, Nadal stepped onto the court in the final against 25-year-old world number 2 Daniil Medvedev who was coming in this final after winning his previous one. He won the 2021 US Open and gave the Spaniard a hard time by winning the first two sets of the match.

However, there was a visible rise in Rafa’s level of playing after that which eventually led to a dramatic and emotional 21^st grand slam title win for him after winning back-to-back three sets. Nadal was in tears and couldn’t believe that he was standing with the winner’s trophy after suffering a year and a half full of despair. He will forever be remembered as the man who came and conquered it all.