Rafael Nadal - The humble and reserved record man
Rafael Nadal has been the male Grand Slam record holder since Sunday. However, the 35-year-old does not lose sight of the big picture
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Feb 01, 2022, 03:35 pm
It was midway through the Australian Open 2022 when Rafael Nadal got tired of a certain topic. And gave the world press a call to order. Far too much has been said and reported about his injuries in recent months, said Nadal, and then added: "It's nothing compared to what millions of people have been through lately. What are my problems with that?” That's actually always been the case with Nadal and has remained so: The now 35-year-old Mallorcan can only shake his head at the minor and major excitements in his professional sport, at all the seemingly important and glittering trifles.
Nadal is a reasonable person through and through, a man who never loses sight of the big picture - one who, despite his superstar status, does not go through the world with deformed tunnel vision and insists on special rights as a first-person shooter. He also proved that succinctly on another hotly debated topic during his record-breaking campaign in Melbourne. While the entry farce around his rival Novak Djokovic was boiling up in Melbourne and even causing diplomatic complications between Serbia and Australia, Nadal stated soberly at a press conference: "For me there is no alternative to vaccination against the virus," said the matador, " we travel the world for months. It's the only way to protect yourself and everyone else." And only with a vaccination, Nadal said, will it be possible "to practice this profession."
Only in exceptional cases did he use the formal word “profession”. Because the pure game of tennis is actually the passion for the down-to-earth exceptional fighter from the holiday island - for the greatest fighter that tennis has ever known. Nadal lives by a maxim that he once described as follows: "I always give 100 percent. That's the only way I can survive in professional tennis. If my 100 percent isn't enough, the opponent was just better.” Another Nadal, according to Nadal, “simply doesn't exist.”
Nadal lives from the fight
Nadal's career has always been accompanied by injuries, forced breaks and concerns about a possibly untimely end to his career. His uncle Toni, who served as his coach for long stretches of the long tennis march, once said that he didn't know anyone who could ignore pain and push it aside like his nephew. Nadal didn't even reject it himself, he was used to "testing the limits as a player": "I live from the fight, from the willingness to invest everything for victory. This mental toughness is part of me as a professional.”
Similar to his lifelong tennis rival and friend Roger Federer, Nadal has always trusted a small circle of people as companions. In addition to his parents, his wife Maria Francesca and uncle Toni, there are his coach Carlos Moya, a former number one player and also a native of Mallorca. As well as manager Carlos Costa, PR man Benito Perez-Barbadillo and physiotherapist Rafael Maymo. “We are all one big family. We trust each other unconditionally," says Nadal, who has long since made provisions for the time after his career. In addition to a large training facility for tennis talents at home in Manacor, there are now Rafael Nadal academies in Cancun, Mexico, and in Kuwait, and further locations in a global network are being planned.
When Nadal won his first Grand Slam title under the Eiffel Tower almost 17 years ago, at the French Open, he said later that 2005 season that he was "already a happy man": "If I had to stop, I would be super happy . And would have fulfilled my dream.” Now 20 more major trophies have been added to the trophy room at home in the Manacor Academy, 13 of them in Paris alone. Nadal is now the sole record holder in the superstar race with Federer and Djokovic.
One can confidently believe that the hunt for best performances is not his primary concern - Nadal gets intoxicated by the game, by the fight, by the duel, by winning over himself and his doubts. But not in numbers, data, statistics. Much of the excitement that is constantly being produced around him, says Nadal, “simply leaves me cold”: “I would like to be remembered as a fair and honest athlete. As someone who always did his best.” The fact that he now has more Grand Slam titles than Federer for the first time in his career – also this: a gift, secondary. Especially since, as Nadal thinks, "the story is not over for all of us."
Nadal: "You can't be carefree"
Even in his nightly press conference after the incredible comeback against Medvedev in Melbourne, Nadal remained what he always was: modest, reserved, down-to-earth. He would never say that this win was "deserved" for him, said the Spaniard, because there are dozens of other players who could have been deserved winners as well. He only knows one thing about himself, says Nadal: "I've shown a good mentality in the last few months, I had to fight very hard to even get back on the pitch." In fact, the matador even had to continue because of a serious foot injury of his career - before he snagged the top prize Down Under.
In all his years at the top of the world, Nadal has never lost respect for his opponents - be they famous names or green newcomers to the industry. Conceit, arrogance or pride are the last things associated with his name: "I go into every match with the thought: This is an opponent who deserves my respect, who has what it takes to beat me." If you don't pay attention to that , according to Nadal, has no place in sport in general: “You shouldn’t be carefree, nor should you have an exaggerated ego. Because that's the beginning of the end."
Nadal has long been a wealthy man, a multiple millionaire. But most of all he likes to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, at home in Mallorca, on his beloved island. When he returns there from his tennis adventures, his favorite things to do are go fishing, catch up with old friends or watch a soccer game at local clubs. Even if his boundless fun in the Center Court duel keeps him fighting, he has definitely made his peace with tennis: "It doesn't look like it. But I also go into a tournament with a certain calm," said Nadal, "with the certainty that I have achieved everything I could ever wish for."
Here is the individual tableau at the Australian Open
laver arena