Johannesburg - So yes, that was me at 1.16am yesterday throwing my fist in the air, shouting ‘Yes!’ and waking my girlfriend and the dogs as Rafael Nadal cracked a backhand winner down the line past Novak Djokovic to win the 59th match of their epic rivalry.
I’d missed the first set on account of being at a pub quiz where, ironically, my team and I were asked to list 10 French Open men’s champions, got one wrong and lost out on first place (bloody Jimmy Connors didn’t win in 1974, in case you’re wondering).
I’m not even a Rafa fan - been a ‘Fed guy’ since 2001 - but with all that’s happened with him physically in the last 18 months, the kind of mental fortitude he displayed in winning the Australian Open and what he’s done in his last two matches at Roland Garros is endearing.
Also Djokovic is hard to like, from his vaccine stance, to his thinking that you can purify water by sending it positive thoughts, and all that strange ‘roaring’ that he does occasionally on court, he makes an ideal bad guy - except when he’s playing Alex Zverev, because that guy is a spoiled brat.
But back to Nadal. As a ‘Fed guy’ I didn’t much like Nadal for most of the 2000s. There was grudging respect for what he did at Roland Garros, but him beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2008, actually hurt. The hurt turned into respect and the respect into endearment.
Nadal’s one of the most incredible athletes of the 21st century, who has put himself atop ‘the Big 3 tree’ in the most extraordinary era in men’s tennis through sheer force of will. That’s not to say the other two don’t have the willpower or that they don’t match Nadal’s, but it’s hard to think either Federer or Djokovic would have come back from two sets and a break down in the third set as Nadal did against Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne, to win in five sets.
Nadal turned back the clock yesterday morning, particularly in the last half an hour of that match, where he barely made a mistake. He was hitting his forehand like it was 2007, and ‘Vamossing’ to the delight of a crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier that was predominantly on his side.
The injuries are catching up to him. He missed half of last year, after losing in the semis at Roland Garros to Djokovic, came back to win the Australian Open, then broke a rib and still took American Taylor Fritz - 10 year younger than him - to a second set tiebreak before losing the prestigious hardcourt event in Indian Wells, California, following which he was out of the sport again for a couple of months.
And then yesterday happened. Most will now think him favourite to win Roland Garros a 14th time and that is understandable, but Zverev represents a mountain in the semis.
Regardless, Nadal has again proved a point, about the strength of his sheer force of will, an element that an athlete cannot train or do analysis for or get a psychologist to help unlock. It has to come from within, and Nadal showed once again he has a deep well of it.
@Shockerhess