Bill Simons
You better watch out,
You better not cry,
Better not pout,
I’m telling you why:
Rafa Nadal is comin’ to town!
The wave of anticipation is rising. The buzz is keen. After playing only one small tourney early in January, tennis’ most beloved active player will be back for just a second stint of play since January 2023 when he takes on Carlos Alcaraz in a Netflix exhibition in Las Vegas on Sunday. Then he’ll play next Thursday night at the BNP Paribas Open, where he’s won three times and reached two finals. Never mind that his ranking is a very un-Rafa-like No. 654 – fans can’t wait.
After all, Roger and Serena are gone and Venus is in decline. And, to state the obvious, there’s only one Rafa.
“He’s half-bull, half-bullfighter,” Michael Mewshaw noted. “Rafa displays an on-court, testosterone-driven truculence that might be expected to limit affection for him. But his myriad supporters revere him for his relentless effort and refusal to quit.”
You think? No other tennis superstar this side of Juan Martin del Potro has battled his body more than Rafa, who’s missed 15 Slams during his 22-year career. To his uncle Toni, “Rafael is not a tennis player – he’s an injured person who plays tennis.”
For years fans, players and the media have written him off. About a decade ago, the London Times’ Simon Barnes suggested, “The whiff of sporting mortality has done something to Nadal. He’s learnt how fragile, and brief is a career in sport…There’s a hymn we used to sing at school that encouraged us to live each day as if it were our last. All this year Nadal has played each point as if it were his last.”
Not to be outdone, nine years ago Sports Illustrated suggested, “Rafa is Hamlet. He has more questions than answers. His implacable force has gone missing, maybe forever…For the first time, it’s possible to imagine him never winning another major.”
But, guess what? Somehow, since then, Senor Nadal has managed to win eight Slams, an Olympic gold medal and a Davis Cup Championship.
In fairness, it should be noted that Nadal himself was wary. Five years ago he said he probably could not see himself playing at the age of 37 like Roger and Serena.
What’s certain is that the 37-year-old has long been one of the world’s most celebrated sportsmen. But why?
Sure, Rafa’s beaming smile melts hearts. It’s not just that he has a big youth foundation and he trains kids at his academies. He’s written an autobiography, he’s now, amidst controversy, an ambassador for Saudi Arabia, he has his own museum, he looks great in his Tommy Hilfiger underwear ads, and, like any self-respecting super hero, he comforts a kid who’s getting squashed when seeking an autograph. Plus, he was the inspiration for the game of Quidditch in Harry Potter and, get this, he has an asteroid, No. 128036, named after him.
To some, Rafa’s popularity is simple. Tiger Woods told Inside Tennis, “It’s heart – it’s as simple as that.” Perhaps the biggest battler in tennis history, Jimmy Connors, said, “Even at this late stage, Nadal plays like he’s broke.”
But millions are drawn to the man for a wide-ranging array of reasons. Here are our top ten.
1. WHAT A BODY: Bulging biceps, thighs to kill for, a hunky chest that impresses, Rafa’s body is a marvel. His muscles have muscles. Too bad that, like some problematic Maserati, his chassis’s in the shop far too often.
2. WICKED WEAPONRY: Nadal’s topspin forehand has everything: speed, spin, variety, weight. It pins, it flicks winners, it punishes susceptible backhands. It’s a jab, an uppercut, a knockout punch. “It has so many RPM’s,” said Brett Haber, “that it creates its own wind.” Many consider it the best in the game.
Rafa’s volleys are daggers. At key times he has upgraded his serve. His backhand is a laser. Aussie Darren Kane said that Rafa “positively bludgeons his backhand in the same way I’d attack a to-be-demolished wall with a sledgehammer.”
3. THE KING OF CLAY: Time and again we’ve seen him on a Sunday afternoon spread-eagled on an orange court. Coated in clay, his back on the ground, his eyes gaze into the heavens. And yet again he’s celebrating another topspin-happy triumph on the European dirt he loves so much. One year, after he again had cannonballed his way through the clay court circuit, Rafa said, “What happened in Monte Carlo happened. What happened in Barcelona happened. What happened in Madrid happened. And here we are in Rome.”
No wonder Mary Carillo asked, “Have you ever seen anyone who has the same sense of recognition of the rhythms of a clay court match as Rafa?” Carillo then suggested that the only way to beat Nadal was to “hit the lines on every shot.”
No one has dominated a surface like the king of clay. Want some proof? Well, he’s won 14 French Opens and has a record there of 112-3. He has a 474-45 record on clay. He once won 81 straight clay matches and he’s prevailed at 63 clay court tourneys. For years, few disputed the assertion that beating Rafa in a best of five clay court match was the hardest thing to do in sports.
4. RAFA’S RITUALS HAVE RITUALS: Nadal confided, “I’m lost if I don’t have my rituals.” The man who tells us he doesn’t like to sleep because he considers it a waste of time leaps up in entry corridors before emerging into tennis arenas. He sprints out early to the baseline before matches. He fusses over his hair. With Rafa, flicks and twitches morph into an art form. He pulls at his wedgies and, of course, meticulously arranges his water bottles, then rearranges them with a precision that would make any surgeon proud.
What’s that about? Well, it’s said that, “Nadal likes two water bottles placed at his right foot…He always drinks the bottle on the left-hand side first, and places them delicately back in the same spot when he’s finished.” Rarely has a buff linebacker-like athlete had such delicacy. Aussie Todd Woodbridge noted that once Rafa stops playing, he will “be very good at housework. His sock drawer will be in order.”
And, of course, historians would never dare forget one of the key stats in the game: Rafa’s foes are 0-2 after intentionally tipping over one of his precious bottles.
In Rafa’s early years he sported long pirate pants and breezy shirts that showcased his Popeye-worthy muscularity. At the 2004 Davis Cup, Christopher Clarey noted that Rafa “wears his emotions on his sleeve, which would have been an appropriate metaphor if he had not worn a sleeveless shirt.”
5, RAFA-ISMS: Nadal’s English is a delight. At times it seems like it’s going off the rails. Then he seamlessly makes inspired, almost poetic, corrections. Plus, his “Rafa-isms” are tennis’ answer to “Yogisms,” the delightful if perplexing verbal koans that Yankee catcher Yogi Berra long provided. Rafa once told us, “I was just trying to not do something very good, but not doing something very bad.” Another time he informed us, “When you take decisions, you have mistakes or you don’t.”
But don’t be fooled. In his own way, Rafa’s a reflective thinker. He once told IT, “Doubts are a part of this life. Doubts are good. I doubt about myself. Persons who don’t have doubts are arrogant or not intelligent.”
He says, “My job is to find myself.” Okay Rafa, let’s take this deeper. Do you believe in God? “It’s hard to say ‘I don’t believe in God,’ he replied. “I would love to know if God exists. But it’s very difficult for me to believe…If God exists, he’s intelligent enough to do the important things, the right things.”
6. CRAZY COMMITMENT: No one hits a tennis ball with more intention. No one stays in every single point like Rafa. He runs down everything and never surrenders.
Similarly, time and again, he’s battled to come back and save his career. Uncle Toni recalled, “When he was young, every practice was like a final. [He] cannot understand life without this commitment…It is the most important thing in life…His opponents know that. His father told him, ‘You don’t have to go for that ball because you cannot arrive,’ and he said, ‘No, no, no – it is better to go for it.’”
While explaining why commitment is so important, Toni noted, “The inspiration has to be in the work. It’s the same for a painter, a sportsman, a journalist – for everyone.”
7. WILL, FURY, AND PAIN: Rafa’s symbol is the bull – that sure rings true. But he’s a lion, too. He pounces. His don’t-tread-on-me defense withers foes. This man’s fury and unblinking intensity are his essence.
The Tennis Channel said that Rafa “needs the pain, he needs the conflict, he needs the antagonistic nature of competition.”
After being pummeled by Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas confided, “My brain was used to certain angles. But tonight against Rafa I was always on the wrong foot…He has a talent to make you play bad…I felt empty in the brain.”
8. THE RIVALRY: The battles between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were something else. Rafa and Djokovic have faced off 59 times. Still, there was nothing like the Nadal–Federer rivalry. Their battles always sizzled and their 2008 Wimbledon final, won by Nadal, was the greatest match of all time.
The duo gave us a mosaic of gifts: will and fury, beauty and grace. Throngs gathered to relish these athletic gods. Some traveled thousands of miles just to see them practice. Poets and sages sang their praises.
At one point when Roger and Rafa had won 21 of 23 Slams, John McEnroe joked they were “nasty, stingy people. They are not sharing a lot of majors.” Ion Tiriac commented that Roger plays the piano on court while Rafa plays the drums. Federer’s trainer, Pierre Paganini, suggested that Rafa was “a fighter who became an artist, while Roger was an artist who became a fighter.”
While reflecting on Federer, Nadal said, “There are just two things we probably share…passion for the competition, and the spirit of improvement all the time.” For his part, Federer noted that he would have had an amazing clay court career if Rafa hadn’t been around. Then he stated the obvious, saying, “There will never be a rivalry like ours.” He advised Rafa, “Keep playing – tennis needs you.”
Christopher Clarey said, “Basically, if you haven’t seen Federer or Nadal play, you have not lived 21st-century life to the fullest.”
9. HE’S GOT GAME: There’s a reason Rafa has won 22 Slams. Nadal’s fitness advisor, Angel Cotorro, said he “mixes the explosive pace of a 200-meter sprinter with the resistance of a marathon runner.” The Tennis Channel added, “You have to have a protractor to figure out the angles Rafa is getting.” Federer admitted that, “Nadal’s game is so unique that I can’t find a practice partner to replicate it.”
To Jim Courier, Rafa is “the best pure competitor in men’s tennis I’ve ever seen.” He added, “The pace he generates when he is moving away from his target is just ridiculous…It’s a little bit unfair to have that much power and that much finesse.”
Not surprisingly, Nadal’s beatdowns bring fisticuffs to mind. Aussie John Millman said playing against Rafa was “relentless abuse. It’s like a boxing match where you’re getting hit again and again.” Rafa’s force, said Courier, brings to mind what they said about boxer Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
When it comes to fierce desire combined with sublime skill, Rafa is in the same conversation with Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Pete Rose, Wayne Gretzky, Lionel Messi, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Kobe, Lebron and Serena.
10. A GENTLE, HUMBLE WARRIOR: John McEnroe asked, “How can someone like Rafa be so humble and cocky at the same time?” As we have seen for decades, this warrior somehow manages to leave his combative ferocity on the tennis court. After a wretched Wimbledon loss, Rafa said, “I tried. I lost. It’s not a drama.”
As for the desire to have all the records in the book, he said, “You can’t be frustrated…because the neighbor has a bigger house or TV or a better garden. That’s not the way that I see life.”
Jon Wertheim reported that he heard one security guard in the players’ lounge tell his partner, “There’s the guy who is always saying thank you.” His friend replied, “Yeah, that’s Rafa Nadal.”
Has a superstar ever been so humble?
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