Nadal Overcomes Adversity to Return to the Top
Eighteen months ago, the tennis world was stunned when a 26-year old Czech player named Lukas Rosol, ranked 100 in the world at the time, defeated Rafael Nadal in a five-set battle on Centre Court at Wimbledon. It marked Rafa’s earliest Grand Slam loss in seven years. What we didn’t know was that it would be the beginning of a seven-month hiatus for the Spaniard.
Rafael Nadal, who suffers from chronic tendonitis in both knees, had torn his patella tendon causing him to miss the 2012 Olympic Games in London, in addition to the 2012 U.S. Open and Australian Open tournaments, as well as Davis Cup matches and a host of other scheduled ATP Tour events. According to his team, Nadal took two months off from tennis to “let the pain subside” and then he came back to the practice courts as hard as ever getting ready for 2013.
His first tournament back was Viña Del Mar in Chile on Feb. 4th. It was a clay court tournament, his favorite surface, on which he holds the best winning percentage of any player in the history of the Open era. Rafa made it through the first three matches handily, losing only 14 games in six sets, one of which over a tough top 30 opponent in Jeremy Chardy, 6-2, 6-2. His finals match in Chile would be against Horacio Zeballos, an Argentine player who was in the midst of fighting his way back into the top 50 for the first time in over two years. It was a hard-fought match that went to three sets and took over two-and-a-half hours to complete and much to the surprise of everyone, Zeballos came out on top.
Nadal took no time to recuperate, heading straight to Brazil for the Brasil Open 2013 after the loss where he met David Nalbandian in the finals and won, 6-2, 6-3 for his first title of the year. After a week off, he headed north to Mexico for another clay tournament, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, where he met David Ferrer for a much anticipated all-Spanish final. Although Ferrer was, at the time, the top ranked Spaniard and number four in the ATP World Rankings, Nadal made quick work of him, winning 6-0, 6-2 for his second title in as many tournaments.
His first match on hard courts was the BNP Paribas Showdown exhibition match at Madison Square Garden against Juan Martin del Potro against whom he had a 3-3 record on hard courts. While it was an exhibition match, the first set had the feel of a Grand Slam semifinal, with each player breaking serve once to lead to a tie-breaker which was won by del Potro. During the second set, the match became more lighthearted and after actor Ben Stiller and a young fan were brought out on the court for some impromptu doubles play, Nadal gave up a quick break at 3-2 and the match quickly slipped to del Potro’s favor, 6-4.
From MSG, Nadal headed straight to Indian Wells for the 2013 BNP Paribas Open and a second round match (first round bye) with American Ryan Harrison. After disposing of Harrison, Nadal had a walkover and then matched up with Ernests Gulbis in a tough three-setter that he edged out 7-5 in the final set. The remainder of Indian Wells would prove to be a true test of his physicality moving forward, as it was his first tournament on hard courts, and he would have to fight through three opponents in the top seven in the world rankings.
First up was his longtime to be so on foe, Roger Federer in the quarters, arguably the greatest player of all time who did not seem that day as Nadal cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory. Next up was Tomas Berdych, the big swinging, hard hitting Czech whom Rafa hadn’t lost to since 2006, and this would be no exception as Rafa would claim the, albeit close, win, 6-4, 7-5. The finals would be a rematch against Juan Martin del Potro, the man who had defeated him on a similar court in New York City just five days prior. However, this match would decide who finished the week with a title, and there would be no doubles interlude strewn with celebrities. In other words, this was business, and Rafael Nadal does not take his business lightly. Del Potro came out strong, taking the first set 6-4, but Nadal fought back and despite not being able to hold a single break point, he created too many opportunities on del Potro’s serve (18 break point chances) and won the final two sets 6-3, 6-4 to take the Indian Wells title. Along with the record-breaking 22nd ATP Tour Masters 1000 title, notching his 600th career ATP victory, and the cool $1 million prize, Nadal had assurance that he could compete with the best in the world again and win.
Best of all for Rafa, his part of the season was about to begin, the clay court stretch leading up to Roland Garros, the tournament that he practically owned and would be going for a record-setting eighth title this year. From the start of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco, where he made the finals and lost a tough match to Novak Djokovic, through the beginning of the French Open, he won three tournaments, the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in Barcelona, the Mutua Madrid Open in Madrid and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, losing only three sets during the whole campaign.
Entering Roland Garros, Rafa was the world number four and although he was the three-time defending champion, was slated to face the world number one and the only man to beat him in over three months, Novak Djokovic, in the semifinals. After a slow start, taking four sets in his first two rounds, Nadal cruised to his semifinal meeting where he and Djokovic had one of the best matches of the year with Rafa squeaking it out 9-7 in the fifth and final set. No man had ever won the same Grand Slam title eight times, but Rafa set himself up to do just that against his countryman David Ferrer, whom he had only lost to once since 2008. When the clay settled, Rafa was once again victorious and had capped off yet another amazing clay season in 2013 after a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win over Ferrer.
Rafa chose to skip the warm-up tournaments before Wimbledon to give his knees a rest after playing 46 matches in just 18 short weeks. Going into Wimbledon, all the excitement was surrounding the “Big Four” and they would finally be in the same tournament again, for the first time in a year, since the last Grand Slam at the All-England Club. Well the hoopla did not help Nadal in his first round match as the obviously tired superstar fell to the 135th-ranked Steve Darcis in straight sets.
Some could point to this early exit as the catalyst to what would become one of the most dominant North American hard court seasons on record. Nadal took over a month off and entered August’s 2013 Coupe Rogers in Montreal with the competitive fire he is famous for. He won in Montreal, moved on to the Western & Southern Open–Cincinnati and won there as well, and made it to the finals of the U.S. Open, dropping only four sets over the entire month of August. Nadal had the lead in the Emirates Airlines U.S. Open Series due to his dominance in August, and had an extra $1 million up for grabs, should he win the U.S. Open Championship match against the world number one Novak Djokovic. It wasn’t about the money. The match was one of the greatest Grand Slam finals in recent history, up there with the epic 2008 Nadal-Federer battle. Nadal came out strong and took the first set 6-2. After Djokovic leveled it at a set apiece, he led in the third set and it looked as if the consistency would be too much for Nadal to handle, but he fought back from 0-40 in the ninth game of the set to go up 5-4 and broke the next game to take a 2-1 set lead in the match, and there was no looking back. Nadal took the title, his 11th Grand Slam title and second U.S. Open crown.
The year was not over, although the four majors had been played. Rafa was still number two in the ATP rankings heading to the Asian swing. With solid performances, he knew he could regain the number one spot in the world, because he had not been able to play in Asia the previous year and thus had no points to defend. After making the finals at the China Open in Beijing his spot on top of the rankings was secure even though he had to face Novak Djokovic for the title. He lost to Djokovic, but gained enough points on the Serbian to overtake him and complete his comeback to the top. It’s amazing to think that this phenomenal athlete spent three years under the unforgiving Federer as the world number two, and finally leaped over him to take the top spot after a seven-month hiatus. And at just 27-years-old, many feel that the best is yet to come for Rafael Nadal.
