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Relentless Rafael Nadal focused on reclaiming his lost crown

Neil Harman
Last updated June 18 2010 9:00PM

The comment was delivered under his breath, but spoken just loud enough that you suspected he wanted you to catch it.

Andy Roddick was practicing with Rafael Nadal on No 15 Court at the All England Club. His backhand approach was placed on a sixpence, but Nadal was to it in a flash and the forehand pass caressed the inside of the line. “The lower it goes, the better he hits it. This is fucking weird,” Roddick said, his admiration not the least bit forced.

Contriving winners from impossible positions has long been Nadal’s forte. “I love that shot,” he said yesterday.

It is why he has won seven grand-slam tournament titles, the latest of which, in Paris a fortnight ago, rounded off another season of clay-court tennis in which he had been irresistible. It is one of the reasons you want to watch him play, to gawp at his superhuman abilities, his breathtaking intensity, to try to work out how he makes the shots he plays. And yes, it is weird.

The 24-year-old world No 1 has returned to Wimbledon to play for the first time in two years — he did have a couple of hits last year, but his knees were not strong enough and his focus had been all but wrecked by the upheaval in his parents’ marriage. He knows that he is capable of a second back-to-back Paris-London triumph. The last man to do that is the one who won the title in his absence last summer, one Roger Federer.

A Federer practice session tends to be an opportunity to relish what he can do with a racket and a ball: to spin it, caress it, to treat it lovingly. Nadal bursts forth and explodes into his shots from first to last, as if it is the real thing, because to him it is.

“I like to play like it is a match — to do this is what I have done all my life,” he said. “You are then ready when it is time for the match. Except if I have some small injury problems, this is the way I am.”

There was the 15-minute session in steady drizzle at Queen’s Club, West London, on Monday of last week, when most players may have lived in dread of doing themselves a mischief. Nadal asked for the net to be put back up. Wasting precious court time is not in his DNA.

“Those 15 minutes can help me adjust and feel the surface that bit better the next day,” he said. “It can be the difference because on grass you have to remember all the time. The surface is not fresh in your mind like the hard courts or the clay.”

Which brings him neatly to those most fresh memories from Wimbledon, a tournament that not so long ago was anathema to Spanish players.

They dreaded it. I recall phoning Alex Corretja, now in Andy Murray’s coaching camp, when he had withdrawn from the championships, to be told that he was about to go shopping with his wife in Barcelona — and if that is a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, he must have hated Wimbledon.

“It’s a new generation now, but it was hard for the Spanish players to have the motivation before,” Nadal said.
“When I first came as a junior, I loved it. This was the finest club in the world, for sure, that is easy. I had the hope and desire to win.
“For me it was a big surprise to be in the final in 2006. I was lucky with the draw and when I reached the final, it was not with a very good mentality. I did not conform to the situation. I was happy enough to be in the final [he lost 6-0, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 to Federer.

“The next year I came back I had such a difficult draw — Söderling, Youzhny, Berdych, all very hard players on this surface, and then I started to believe I really can play well here. I was ready to win that final but I lost [to Federer again, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2], which was a very difficult moment.”

And so to that glorious Spanish summer of 2008. He dropped only one set en route to the final, crushing Andy Murray in the quarter-finals and playing like a man possessed. The final, of course, is a novel in itself. What images, one wondered, stuck in his mind?

“There are two,” he said. “The first is when I had a serve for the match in the fourth-set tie-break. I had a slice to the backhand of Roger, he returned the slice so-so in the middle of the court and I played that shot [he motions a forehand arc to the backhand.

“It was amazing because when I saw the ball there in the middle of the court to my forehand, it is one of my best shots. The ball was a little low, but as I was touching the ball I was thinking, ‘I am the champion of Wimbledon.’
“No time had that happened to me in any match. I played not a bad shot but not very good — probably I played at the limit of a good shot. I thought, ‘I will play to the backhand’, because sometimes Roger, he misses the backhand.” Not this time.

“The second moment I am on the floor like this [eyes wide open, arms up], I have no control of that. I have won Wimbledon. Very emotional.
“Everybody knows how important the final was for me. If I lost three in a row, two times being very close to winning, it’s going to be very hard for me. At the same time I think I deserved it, I fought a lot when Roger comes back from two sets down. In the fifth I am still fighting until the last ball.”

The same was true of Roddick last year, a story Nadal watched unfold at his apartment in Majorca, where he had retreated to be at one with his family. It is the only match of the tournament he could bring himself to witness, but it stayed with him. He said that to lose three finals to Federer, having been so close, would have been hard for him to accept. Imagine Roddick’s state of mind.

“Andy deserved to win the title because he is a big fighter and plays so well on grass, but when you see that moment, two sets to love over Federer [he takes a big breath], when you have the chance to win and maybe are too nervous to win, it is hard,” Nadal said.
“Even after he lost the second, then the third, he came back unbelievably in the fourth with a great mentality. But he is still remembering his very big chance in the second set and being two sets up with the serve of Andy is almost the match.”

A year on and Nadal and Roddick had just walked off court together yesterday, drenched in sweat. Only a few moments earlier, completing an astonishing rally, the No 1 flung himself to score with a backhand volley. “Calm down,” Roddick shouted. But this is Nadal. He can’t. He is then deep in conversation with Toni, his uncle.

“I was happy because I had a good practice with only one bad game, but in that there were seven straight serves outside the court [faults], so I was a break down and 30-0 on his serve and Toni and I are saying that is the only thing that cannot happen on this surface because that is the set all the time,” Nadal said. “That is the grass. You have to be very focused all the time.”

Nadal is back. Let the championships begin.

The Independent




Rafael Nadal: 'I walk to the courts every day. It feels like I'm at home'

Rafael Nadal is delighted to be at Wimbledon after two years away. In a remarkably open interview, he tells Paul Newman about Federer, family and the life he leads in SW19It is a glorious summer's evening in Aorangi Park. Wimbledon's practice courts are a hive of activity as the world's best tennis players go through the annual ritual of rediscovering the feel of grass beneath their feet.


The All England Club's "predominantly white'' dress rules do not apply here and the players are kitted out in anything from garish green and yellow tops to blue t-shirts and black track suits. On Court 5, however, one man is dressed in immaculate all-white, from his socks to his back-to-front baseball cap.

Other clues give away his identity. There is an intensity to his training match against Britain's Jamie Baker – a running forehand dumped into the net is greeted with the same look of frustration that you would imagine if he were playing in the final on Centre Court – and this is the only practice session where a handful of spectators have gathered. They are here because the man in white is Rafael Nadal. After his injury problems of last year, the 24-year-old Spaniard is back at Wimbledon for the first time since his victory in the 2008 final over Roger Federer in arguably the greatest match ever.


The fact that the most flamboyant and charismatic player in tennis has dressed so soberly tells you much about both the man and the respect he has for what he calls "the nicest club in the world''. An hour later, showered and refreshed, he sits back in a chair in a deserted room at the All England Club and explains his affection for this most traditional of tournaments, in which he suffered successive final defeats by Federer before tasting ultimate glory two years ago.

"I love everything about it,'' Nadal said. "The grass gives something special to the tournament. When you walk around it's different to other places. My goal was always to play well here on grass. I did that in 2006, playing in the final for the first time. That was a big surprise for me. To do it another time the next year made me think: 'I can really play well here.' When I won in 2008, it was one of the most emotional moments of my career, if not the most emotional.

"For me it was a dream to win here – more than a dream. Spanish players in the past saw Wimbledon as something that was impossible to win, a different sport. But I always had my dream of doing well on this surface. I love it. I loved this place – just being here and seeing everything – from the first time I came here to play juniors.

Another big part of Wimbledon's appeal for many of the players is that its location means that they stay in local rented accommodation. Nadal is sharing a house close with his uncle and coach, Toni, and his physical trainer, Rafael Maymo.

"It's good,'' Nadal said. "You stop for practice, you walk home, I walk back to practice. It's different from normal weeks when you are in a hotel. It feels more like you are at home. I walk to the courts every day."

Who does the cooking?

"I cook every day. We haven't had a chance yet to do some shopping, but we're going to the supermarket tomorrow.

And his favorite food?

"I love seafood – but to eat rather than to cook. To cook? I like making pasta. I wouldn't say that I'm a good cook, just pretty normal. I like to cook. It's usually me or my physio who do it.

Is the food they prepare better than what is on offer in the players' lounge?

"Yes, for sure. It's difficult at Grand Slam tournaments, there are so many players. I understand it's difficult. That's one of the things that could improve. Not only here – in Australia, in France, everywhere.

Does Uncle Toni ever do the cooking?

"Never.'' Does he do the washing-up? "Sometimes,'' Nadal laughs.

What about back home in Majorca? Does the world No 1 ever do the cooking there? Nadal sounds surprised at the very suggestion.

"No. At home I normally arrive home from practice at 1.30 or 2pm – and my Mum cooks much better than me.''

Nadal still lives with his family in the Majorcan town of Manacor and goes home at every opportunity. Between losing at Queen's Club last Friday and arriving at Wimbledon on Wednesday he spent four days there.

"I had a very good time,'' he said. "I played golf on two days, I went to a party on Saturday night with some friends, I stayed with my family, I went to the beach.

"I go back to Majorca and I have a completely normal life. I'm at home and I have all my family there, my friends. When I go to practice in the morning there are normally some tourists or some local people watching, but for the rest of the day life is completely normal. There's nobody taking pictures, no tourists, nothing.

"For me the perfect summer holiday is being at home with my family and seeing all my friends. When I finish this tournament I'll go there. This last weekend was a bit of a holiday for me, but I was practicing on Monday and Tuesday for two hours and afterward I did some physical work. I have to try my best to win this tournament. Then I can rest a little bit after that.''

Home is also where Nadal keeps his trophies. Picking up his wallet, Blackberry, mobile phone and – to this interviewer's consternation – the recorder taping our conversation, he explained the lay-out of the family apartment, which is in a large building shared with other relatives.

"On one floor there is my room, my sister's room and my parents' room, and there is another room with a sofa and a big TV. My Wimbledon trophy is in there. I also have my five Roland Garros trophies in there. The Wimbledon trophy is in the middle. I also have five Romes, my six Monte Carlos and my five Barcelona's. I have my Wimbledon trophy on top of my TV.''

Does he clean the trophies?

"My Wimbledon trophy is in perfect condition. The Roland Garros trophies, after a year, two years, they go dark and you have to polish them. The Wimbledon one, it's perfect.

Missing Wimbledon last year with a knee problem, at the same time as his parents were going through marital difficulties, was the lowest point of a troubled 2009. The only match Nadal watched in full on television during Wimbledon was the final.

"It wasn't an easy moment for me, with the knees, with a little bit the problems at home too,'' he said.

Further injuries contributed to a slump in form that saw Nadal go 11 months without winning a tournament and eventually drop to No 4 in the world rankings. He qualified for the World Tour Finals in London in November, only to lose all three of his matches in straight sets. 

"I had accepted before the tournament that I didn't have any chance there because I wasn't ready,'' he said.

From that point Nadal decided to "start from zero'' with his practice for the new season. He began training again within a day of leading Spain to victory in the Davis Cup final at the start of December and

"after two weeks I was feeling great''.

By the time he reached the final of his first tournament of the year in Doha – he lost to Nikolay Davydenko despite winning a first set in which he played "probably one of the best sets of my career'' – the Spaniard believed he was back on track, even if disappointment followed at the Australian Open, where another knee injury forced his retirement against Andy Murray when two sets and 3-0 down in their quarter-final.

"I don't know if I would have won against Andy in that match because he was playing amazingly,'' Nadal said. "I was happy because I was playing one of the best players in the world. My feeling was that he was playing very well, but I had some good chances. I was a break up in both sets.''

Nadal believes Murray's subsequent defeat to Federer in the final may have contributed to the Scot's indifferent performances in the following months, which have been in strict contrast to Nadal's all-conquering form through the recent clay-court season.

"Sometimes it's not easy to accept losing the final of a Grand Slam,'' he said. "Even I thought that Andy was going to win in Australia. But Roger played very well. Mentally that could have been difficult, but Andy has amazing talent and he's a great competitor. He's an amazing player, so he can win here.''

As for Federer, Nadal rejected any suggestion that he and the Swiss should be regarded as joint defending champions at Wimbledon given that the Spaniard beat him in his last match here.

"Roger is the defending champion. I didn't play last year. Roger's always the defending champion here. He's won six times already. That's really unbelievable. And seven finals in a row. Amazing.''

Nadal has never viewed the 2008 final again from start to finish, but he has watched the highlights several times. Seeing his performance gives him encouragement that he can scale those heights again.

"It was amazing,'' he said. "There were a lot of very good points, a lot of very good rallies, amazing shots from both of us. When you see that you think: 'I can do it another time. I can play at this level on grass.' But to play at this level you need to win a lot of matches before and you need to arrive at that moment with big confidence. I have the confidence, but I need to adapt better to this surface. I need to play and win matches.''

The $535,000 [£361,000] watch Nadal is wearing as part of his sponsorship deal with the Swiss manufacturers Richard Mille – it ticks so loudly that you can hear it during our conversation – indicates it is time to leave the All England Club and head for home. He is a big football fan and there is a World Cup match on TV.


Nadal is not unduly concerned by Spain's opening defeat against Switzerland ("We had control of the match all of the time and we will make the next round''), but the fact that it was at the hands of his greatest rival's national team has not escaped his notice. Has he discussed the match with Federer?

"I haven't seen Roger yet,'' Nadal says with a smile. "I don't want to see him.''

There will be time for that. As Nadal leaves to walk alone up the hill towards his rented house – it is hard to imagine many other sportsmen of similar stature making the same journey – you can easily picture him making the return journey in a fortnight's time to face Federer in the final.