And then there was Sunday, and all of that went aside, the injuries, the prospect of Novak, the next gen, and Rafa was Rafa, in ways that he hasn't done before (coming back from 0-2 sets down in a final) and ways he has (general ridiculousness and audaciousness of his shots). And when it was, I found myself both in shock that he pulled it off -- I entered the day fairly sure he was going to lose to his younger, more in-form, foe, and even more assured of this after those first two sets -- but a bit stunned at the sudden revelation that Rafa has done it - he stands alone at 21. I have many thoughts on this, on the match, on the record, on my life as a Rafa fan.
Rafa remains one of the least conceited all time greats in basically any sport, but even he very bluntly said in his press conference after the match that "[he] knows the significance of this number 21". He knows the history he made, he knows it was staring him in the face. Nadal will never engage directly in GOAT discussions, at least while he's an active player, but it was cool for him to so clearly speak to, and show in his reaction and presence, the momentous achievement that this was.
I started following Nadal basically from day-1 of his main breakthrough in winning the 2005 French Open. I was fairly anti-Federer back then, for no real reason, and really the only connection I had with Nadal was that he owned Federer on clay. For the first three years of that rivalry from 2005-2007, Nadal was the only thing keeping the sport's balance somewhat equal - the only person that stood between Federer and 10 straight slams from 2005-2007.
Well, nearly seventeen years later, Rafael Nadal is the athlete I've followed as a fan longer than anyone. Manning was 12 years (2003-2015), Brodeur for about the same (2000-2012). Oswalt was a decade. No one is really close. I was 14 when Nadal won his first title, during a tournament where he turned 19. We are still similarly 4-5 years apart in age, but a gap that stood as massive, watching this teen/adult jack-rabbit around a court, has turned to something else, watching someone adapt to changes, to getting older and remaining just as good.
I don't know when was the first time I seriously considered the chance that Nadal would one day take the lead in slams. I'm sure the first time I thought it, the idea that he would break a tie with both Federer and Djokovic would've seemed absurd. I was confident enough in 2014 to bet my friend $200 that he would end up with more than Federer (the count was 17-14 at the time). But it probably started before that.
It probably, coincidentally, was when he won his first Australian Open in 2009, in a brilliant 5-set win over Federer. To that point, he had never seriously threatened in a hardcourt major, turned aside easily in two prior Semifinals. He had won Wimbledon and made two other Finals, and of course was peerless on clay, but to make a case of best ever he had to do better on hard courts. Then in 2009, he flattened his backhand a bit, got more aggressive, and won the Australian Open. The count was 13-6 at that point, but Nadal was significantly younger and we seem poised to enter the Reign of Rafa. And then he got hurt.
Getting hurt was always supposed to be part of the plan - from nearly day one everyone questioned Rafa's longevity given the bruising way he played. I remember people back then thinking he couldn't make it to 28, let alone 30. To be fair, at the time no one played well in their 30s, but it is still hilarious to think a man we all thought would not last ends up winning 7 (and counting) majors in his 30s.
But anyway, when Nadal first (1) lost a match at the French Open and then (2) pulled out of Wimbledon with a knee injury, and finally (3) lost meekly in the US Open and Australian Open after that, it seemed like things would never be the same - well then Rafa pulled off the still unprecedented since Rod Laver run of winning the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back-to-back - completing his career slam in he process, and bringing the gap to 16-9.
For the second time we were in the reign of Rafa, but a funny thing happened right after that: Novak Djokovic took off. It was 16-9-1 at that moment the 2010 US Open ended. It is 4-12-19 since. Djokovic's rise was unpredicted and sudden, but let's not lose sight that Rafa still did add in 12 more slams,
The road to the top had a few more twists. The first major one was in 2012, when he lost in the 2nd round of Wimbledon and basically didn't play again until the next Spring. He returned by winning the French Open, sweeping the US Summer and getting a 2nd US Open and reclaiming the #1 ranking.
The most serious one was soon after I made that bet, when he got hurt later in 2014 and returned in 2015 a changed, seemingly broken man. The year-by-year chart of Nadal's slam results are wondrous to look at, but that period from 2015-2016 is a huge black hole. Two quarterfinal defeats to start it to Berdych and Djokovic (at the French) were the high points, followed by six slams of losing early, not once making the quarters. And that leads us to the final rebirth - ironically for Federer as well.
I wrote about the 2017 Australian Open Final at the time, calling it one of my 'Acceptable Losses' because it was just great to see Nadal play in a major final again, something that seemed so far away in that 2015-16 period where Djokovic fully took over (before ironically having his own two-year malaise) and when he entered that dreading '30' age where tennis players normally fall off. I wrote in that piece I was ok if he didn't win again, if he never caught Federer, because we had that comeback.
Well, now we have a far better comeback. I truly put that match on Sunday morning with low expectations. Nadal had played well in the two weeks but Medvedev was on a roll, was on track for a #1 ranking, was ten years Nadal's junior, and showed all of those advantages in those first two sets. And then Nadal fought back.
And fought back, and fought back some more. It was probably as he won that 4th set that I finally started to believe, and maybe more worryingly for my own sanity, started to hope. I was very calm as he was seemingly on the way to getting rolled in the Australian Open final - at least this time it wouldn't be to Djokovic as it was three years back in Melbourne. But by the time Nadal forced a fifth and especially as he took a break lead and served for the match, I was all in.
And then he threw away a 30-0 lead. We've been here before, us Rafa fans. Maybe just behind winning the 21st slam, for us Rafa fans, him getting his 2nd Australian Open was just as important and just as meaningful. This was the site of his first hardcourt major, but also the biggest site of heartbreaks.
Whether it was pulling his hamstring and losing to Ferrer in 2011 in the quarters after rolling through that tournament to that point when he was going for his 'Rafa Slam'. To pulling his back in warmups in the 2014 Final against Wawrinka. To of course the dual 5-set losses in 2012 to Djokovic and 2017 to Federer, each time by and large being the lesser player that day, but both times finding himself up a break in the 5th set only to see it slip away.
Nadal himself admitted that he had these thoughts in his head. Not about losing a chance at #21, but just having to relive those two terrible moments, but for whatever reason he was able to block it out and immediately break back with some inspired tennis given we were 5:20 into the match at that point. When he got a second chance to serve it out, he saved us all some tension and won the game easily.
Rafa's reaction when winning said it all - pure joy, relief and contentness, with that giant wide grin, a celebration that seemed so different than his usual fall to the ground in exultation that he had done for so many of the prior twenty. For us Rafa fans too it was the same, for seeing him finally getting his 2nd Aussie after so much heartbreak, and seeing that graphic flash up on ESPN that put him at 21 slams and Federer and Djokovic at 20.
Unlike Rafa, I do want to dwell a bit on just the feeling of seeing him get there. And I think the best part is we know the same things that Rafa does, that he isn't retiring and Novak isn't retiring, and there might be some random five year old wonderkid to win 25 or something. But for this moment, the record is his. There's a non-zero chance he doesn't have it at the end of the year (more and more unlikely given of course the Vaccine-question of it all with Novak). There's a pretty decent chance he doesn't hold this record if we fast forward to 2024. But he holds it now.
For however long he has it, this man who was questioned as a clay court specialist while also clearly being the 2nd best player in the world, is now a man with more major wins than anyone else, including eight (as many as Jimmy Connors and Andre Agassi for their careers) outside of clay. This man is the target, the guy at the top of the mountain after for years staring up at that Swiss legend. He got him, he passed him, and did it before Novak did so he gets his time as the all time leader.
Maybe I shouldn't be that petty -- as stated, Rafa isn't. But I can't help it. You invest 17 years of your life as a sports fan watching him grow, improve, win, fall, get hurt, win more, get hurt again, and win more and more at ages you didn't expect him to even play at. It was an incredible ride and incredible climb, and he's there, conquering his personal house of horrors, in the most unexpected, incredible way possible, taking his place on top of that mountain.
