While the
world, including those that were in the stadium just hours before, turned their
attention to England coming home without the trophy, the best sporting event
was taking place before our eyes. On Center Court in Wimbledon, two stars put
on a show worthy of a final. Rafael Nadal’s win over Juan Martin del Potro was
tennis ecstasy, with a setting eerily reminiscent to the Greatest Match Ever
Played (Nadal d. Federer) ten years prior – the match ended under similarly
dimming twilight, and both matches took the same 4:48 to complete. While even
Nadal mentioned in his post-match presser that it was not a final, you could
not be faulted for considering otherwise. That high was the quality of the
match, including a dramatic, pulsating fifth set featuring multiple large men
splayed all over Center Court. It ended with Nadal on top, but ended more
fittingly with Nadal and Del Potro embracing.
For Del
Potro, this was the latest confirmation of his ultimate comeback, hopefully one
that begets sustained health and success. Behind Federer’s and Nadal’s
resurgence the last year-and-a-half, quietly Juan Martin del Potro has done the
same, the longest sustained period of success for him since his first wrist
injury in 2010. He was always the ‘what-if?’ of the last ten years in tennis,
but interspersed throughout his various injuries have been some fantastic
matches that he has taken part in, and this is just the latest one. Sadly, Del
Potro has lost most of those, but arguably no player is able to gain as much
love, support and additional legacy points in defeat as Del Potro.
Shockingly,
though, this might be more meaningful for Nadal. His woes at Wimbledon the last
six years were well documented, never making it to the Quarterfinals, losing
four straight years to players ranked 100+ (admittedly, one was a young Nick
Kyrgios). What made it more shocking was the six years before that, he made the
final all five times he played the event, winning twice. Yes, Nadal went six
years making five finals, and followed it with six years of flameouts. He often
said he had not forgotten how to play grass. That just last year he felt he was
ready to do great things before losing 18-16 in the 5th set to
Gilles Muller. It was getting hard to believe him though. When you pull back,
Del Potro, despite all injuries and pain, had made the Wimbledon Semifinals
more recently than Nadal, doing so in 2013. For Nadal, six years of horror are
over.
The match
itself was played at an insane level from both players – each had well more
winners than errors (Nadal nearly 2:1). Del Potro’s forehand was firing on
point the entire match, and his backhand showing a level of power we haven’t
seen in a while. Nadal himself continues to pound that backhand, being able to
redirect with depth many times over. Nadal had his usual ridiculous gets,
hopping around Center Court the way he used to. Del Potro caught a second wind
in the 5th set, tracking down Nadal’s repeated drop-shots, especially
during a dramatic, 12-minute war that was the game with Nadal serving up 4-3.
Nadal’s
performance was so interesting, turning to grass court tactics more than ever
before, like the drop-shots (doubly effective with the low bounce), perfectly carving
them time and time again, and volleying excellently. The match had a scary
level at times, one that drew back Del Potro’s win over Nadal in the Rio 2016
Olympics. What was interesting was Nadal was answering power with power. In
most of the great Nadal wins, we picture him running down ridiculous shots and
hitting incredible passing shots or sharp angles. He did that here too, but
also just overpowered Del Potro at times, penetrating the court in a way he’s
been able to do so well everywhere but Wimbledon.
When the
match ended, with Del Potro flung out on the floor for one last time, Nadal
hopped the net and embraced Del Potro in a sense that even seemed more
meaningful and emotional than most for Nadal. There is a lot of respect, not
just between the two players in isolation, but in what each brought that day.
There had to be a loser, but in reality there are two winners. In reality,
there were millions of winners: each and every person who watched the match. It
was a special contest, everything we could have hoped for. Even as a Nadal fan,
I would have been 100% fine if he had lost to Del Potro. I never thought I
would see Nadal in a pressurized, second week, Wimbledon match against a top
player again. We got that, and we got five sets, nearly five hours, and
hundreds of thunderous points of it, and it was all glorious.
