By Bill Simons
Rafa Nadal won at least one Grand Slam each year for the last ten years.
But he won’t in 2015.
He didn’t get past the quarterfinals of any major this year.
Rafa explained, “The only thing that means is I played worse than the last 10 years.”
Nadal was long been a mainstay of the Fab Four.
Now he’s barely in the top ten. He admits he might not even qualify for the year-end championship which includes the top eight.
The Spaniard had won 151 matches in a row from two sets up, but after his epic, late-night third-round loss to Fabio Fognini, that streak is history.
Nadal began his New York stay by selling Tommy Hilfiger underwear. Now his entire career is under scrutiny.
S.L. Price suggested, “Now? Rafa is Hamlet. He has more questions than answers, a perspective at odds with the world he once ruled. His implacable force has gone missing, maybe forever…For the first time, it’s possible to imagine him never winning another major.”
Hamlet wasn’t much of a tennis analyst, but he did once pose a pretty memorable question about intent:
“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.”
In this spirit, Rafa said, Fognini (who blasted an incredible 70 winners) “played better than me, no? I didn’t play bad at all…but not enough. So not happy with that. But accept that he was better.”
Friday night against Fognini, Rafa could not hold his serve. Some are asking whether he can hold on to his career. Why the slump? His knees and wrist seem fine. Is all the wear and tear of his muscular style of play beginning to catch up?
Nadal said he wasn’t fast enough, but then quickly said he was just kidding. Hmm.
Some say Rafa should make a coaching change and separate from a family member – his coach and uncle Toni Nadal – in a manner similar to Serena, who is no longer primarily coached by her dad.
Before his loss to Fognini, Nadal said, “I don’t know what’s going on in the future, but if I have to change something…[it is] myself, not the people around me. If I am able…to play again with less nerves than… [I did] a lot of moments this year…I will be again where I want to be.
“So it’s not a question of coach. It’s not a question of physiotherapist or physical trainer. it’s a question of myself. I am really decided to work hard to find my way.”
Rafa’s uncle Toni told the Wall Street Journal, “You lose a little here, a little here – you lose a little confidence, a little coordination. When you’re nervous…you cannot hit the ball.”
Actually, Rafa can still hit a pretty darn decent ball. But he has won only one of the last 10 majors he’s played. The modest Spaniard, known for his almost transcendent humility, actually revealed a tad of self-promotion after his loss. He noted, “By the way, for me was amazing [to] win 10 years in a row Grand Slam. I think nobody did. You can imagine how difficult is make that happen.”
He added, “When I am losing, I am losing because the opponents beat me, not because I lose the match, as I did a lot of times at the beginning of the season.
“That’s an improvement…so I have a base now. That is a start. I know what I have to do and I [am] going to work on it…We can be talking for one hour trying to create a reason. But the sport for me is simple, no? If you are playing with less confidence and are hitting balls without creating the damage…then they have the possibility to attack…But that’s it. Not a big story…Don’t forget that for everybody [there] is a start and for everybody [there] is an end. We still here, but tomorrow we not going to be here. Sampras was here; he’s not here anymore. Connors, McEnroe: Everybody pass. The sport continues.”
