I was 14 years old when Rafael Nadal first won the French Open. I was visiting my Great Aunt in Chicago when it happened. I knew of Nadal, in that I knew of the concept of this long-haired, capri-pant wearing dynamo that took the tennis world by storm leading up to that event. Lest we forget he was already ranked #4 in the world, and the co-favorite heading in with Federer. He beat Federer in the Semifinals. Then beat an overmatched Mariano Puerta to win his first French Open title. At the time, people thought this was the future of clay court tennis. They were wrong. He wasn't the future. He is clay court tennis.
Rafael Nadal now has a perfect 10 French Open titles. Just typing that is wrong. In some ways, this seemed so inevitable when he got #9 three years ago, upping his career total to 14. But since then it also seemed so far away. Nadal lost early at Wimbledon and shut it down for 2014. He made the QFs in 2015 in Australia and Roland Garros, losing in straights each time. The loss to Novak Djokovic in the 2015 French Open Quarterfinals was the changing of the guard, so we thought. It was, for 18 months, but something happened around the time Nadal made a great run to the Semifinals in the Olympics last year. He found his game. And all of that soul searching and stroke searching led him up to these past two weeks.
The best Rafael Nadal ever played was the 2008 French Open, when he won the tournament without a set, capping it off beating Roger Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0 in the Final. Amazingly, nine years later, he had a more dominant run. I would still argue that the '08 vintage of Nadal was more dominant, beating better players with more or less equal domination (he dominated guys that made multiple quarter and semifinal trips with such ease, before beating Djokovic and Federer in three straight), but the 2017 version was incredible in a different way. He was stronger, more offensive, more direct. Nadal in '08 played the best clay court tennis ever. He ran, he defended. He passed Federer so effortlessly in the final from all angles it became almost tough to watch. Nine years later, he is still by far the best clay court player in the world, just doing it in a different way.
Nadal at times seems so robotic in the way he plays. He has his routines he's stuck to with needless obsession for 13 years, from the placement of his water bottle to the shirt and shorts tugging he does prior to each serve. But Nadal the person has become more and more emotional as time went on. Nadal has struggled with injuries off and on since 2009, and these past two years struggled even more openly with confidence. In 2015-16 he blew so many matches the old Nadal would have put away, struggling time and time again to serve out matches. Nadal spoke openly during this time of his struggles with confidence, of his fight to find his game. Always saying how close he was right before another harrowing loss. Somewhere late in 2016 he regained form, and there really was no one who would stop him here.
Nadal's romp through the 2017 French Open was the best kind of inevitable. It was his tournament from the start. With the amount of pre-planned ceremony the French put into the Trophy Celebration, one would think they too thought it was definitely going to be his the second the tournament began. Nadal was so dominant, so effortless. The best match of his to me was his semifinal demolition of Dominic Theim. Here was the guy who played him close twice in Nadal wins earlier in the clay court season and then beat Nadal in Rome. He then beat Djokovic, anhillating the defending champ (who's mysterious decline deserves its own piece), bagelling him in the last set. Nadal matched that domination, bagelling Theim himself.
Rafael Nadal's ten titles did shake the tennis world. Players, rivals even, took to twitter and social media to give Nadal his due - including Federer the man who's respect for Nadal seems to grow day by day (love that he admitted today he wouldn't of touched Nadal had he played the French). It is just such an astounding fact, 13 years in the making. Nadal seemed like a historically great player when he was 17 and beat Federer in 2004. He seemed moreso when he won his first slam as a teenager. Overtime he turned into a contender for GOAT by adapting his game to all surfaces, but his magesterial ability on clay never waned - if anything it improved. 10. Just unbelievable.
The fact we are in 2017, and the best two players on tour this year have been Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is so heartening for a tennis fan who was lost in a Novak-filled world. One year ago, Novak's slow climb to GOAT seemed inevitable. A year later, the old guard have taken control, and don't seem ready to give it back. A healthy Nadal, emboldened with confidence, is still somewhat in his prime, given how 'prime' is a mysterious concept in today's tennis world. Let's remember he is just a year older than Novak and Andy, younger than Wawrinka. Nadal may not be close to done - and yes this makes his loss to Federer in the Australian Open even all the more painful (it would be 17-16 in slams right now, with Nadal having two career slams), it gives some great energy to the upcoming years.
Rafael Nadal may be done winning. He said in his postmatch interview with John McEnroe that you always wonder if this grand slam win would be last. You can toss that up to the normal Nadal humility that has been such a core facet of his public persona. But right after that he told McEnroe a more hidden, but equally important nugget, that he 'is playing well, and when I play well I will have my chances.' Nadal knows where he is right now, having accomplished a career lifetime achievement of 10 Slams at the French, but he also knows there could be so much more to come. Like his favorite soccer team (Real), winning La Decima was just the beginning - La Undecima and La Duodecima could be right around the corner.
