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Is it the beginning of the end for Rafael Nadal?

Roar Guru
25th January, 2018
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How far will Rafa go? (AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)
Roar Guru
25th January, 2018
8
1352 Reads

Following his latest misfortune at the Australian Open, one wonders whether Rafael Nadal will ever return to Melbourne Park for another shot at a double Career Grand Slam.

Nadal, the 2009 champion, was forced to retire after dropping his serve to fall 0-2 down in the final set of his quarter-final match against Marin Cilic, which was shaping as another classic match for the ages.

He had led by two sets to one, and was seemingly on his way to his sixth Australian Open semi-final dating back to 2008, but then took a medical time out for an upper leg injury at 1-4 down in the fourth set.

The 31-year-old then battled on for another five games before eventually pulling the pin on whatever hopes he had left of completing a double Career Grand Slam.

The Spaniard’s injury-enforced retirement, his second in over 250 Grand Slam matches, adds to the bad luck he has suffered at Melbourne Park since winning the title in a classic 2009 final against Roger Federer.

Firstly, as the defending champion in the 2010 event, he dropped the first two sets against Great Britain’s Andy Murray, and then fell behind 0-3 in the third, before retiring due to a right knee injury.

It was the second time his defence of a Grand Slam title had to be aborted by injury – the previous year, he was unable to defend the Wimbledon title he won in 2008 due to his troublesome knees.

However, he would bounce back to sweep the remainder of the 2010 Grand Slam calendar year, winning his fifth French Open title and second Wimbledon title before completing his set of majors at the US Open.

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Then aged 24, the Spaniard then entered the 2011 Australian Open as not only the favourite to win the title, but also with the chance to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles simultaneously.

Rafael Nadal

(AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)

He won his first four matches in straight sets (including in the first round when his opponent, Marcos Daniel, retired at 0-6, 0-5 down in the second set), before a hamstring injury suffered in the opening set of his quarter-final match against David Ferrer conspired against him as he lost in straight sets.

That ended his bid to achieve the ‘Rafa Slam’, as it had been dubbed.

He would win another French Open title (defeating Roger Federer in the final), before falling foul of Novak Djokovic in the finals at Wimbledon and US Open, where he was the defending champion at both events.

He then started his 2012 season by reaching the final of the Australian Open for the first time since winning the title in 2009, and would duke it out with Novak Djokovic in what many regard as one of the greatest Grand Slam finals in recent tennis history.

After taking the opening set 7-5, the Spaniard dropped the next two sets, before forcing a one-set championship shootout by way of a fourth set tiebreak win.

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Nadal then broke for a 4-2 lead in the final set, but would then lose five of the final six games of the match to fall to a gut-wrenching defeat in a contest that lasted nearly six hours and didn’t finish until after 1:30am in the morning.

Such was the exhaustion suffered by both players after such a war of attrition, both players were offered chairs to sit on during the post-match ceremony.

As was the case in previous years, the Spaniard would hit back, dominating the clay court season with wins in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and the French Open, defeating Djokovic in three of the four finals.

His win over Djokovic at Roland Garros denied the Serb the chance to hold all four major titles at once (though he would eventually achieve this by finally ending his French Open curse in 2016).

Nadal was then considered a serious chance of winning a third Wimbledon title, only to have those hopes crushed in a shock second round defeat at the hands of the unheralded Lukas Rosol in five sets.

Following this, he then announced that he would not participate at the London Olympics, where he would have been the favourite to retain the gold medal he won in Beijing despite his early exit from the All England Club.

He would also withdraw from the US Open, and would not serve another ball in anger until February the following year, missing the 2013 Australian Open and dropping out of the top four for the first time since 2005 in the process.

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Rafael Nadal

(Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

He made his comeback at a minor tournament in Chile, making this the earliest time in a calendar year that he had contested a clay court tournament for many years.

He proceeded to reach the final, only to be beaten by Horacio Zeballos in three sets. Zeballos’ win saw him become the third of four men (after Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) to beat the Spaniard in a clay court final.

However, he would dominate for the remainder of the season, winning an eighth French Open title and a second US Open title to finish the year ranked world number one for the third time (after 2008 and 2010).

In between his glory at the French and US Opens, however, he suffered more Wimbledon embarrassment as he lost to another unheralded opponent, this time Steve Darcis, in the first round in straight sets.

The Spaniard started the 2014 season as the favourite to win the Australian Open, and expectations rang true when he reached the final for the third time, where he was to oppose Stan Wawrinka.

In twelve previous meetings, the Lausanne native had failed to win a set against Nadal, with only six of the 26 sets (and three of the previous four to that point) going to tiebreaks.

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This made Nadal the favourite to complete his double Career Grand Slam.

However, after dropping his first set to Wawrinka, the King of Clay would take a controversial medical time-out to receive treatment for a back injury, earning Wawrinka’s and the crowd’s ire.

He then managed to take the third set, but would fall in four as Wawrinka finally claimed his first win over the Spaniard in a match that mattered the most.

Another French Open title followed in June, again by beating Novak Djokovic in the final, before he suffered yet another upset loss at Wimbledon, losing to world number 144 Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round in four sets.

Rafael Nadal French Open 2017 Tennis tall

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Again, Nadal would miss the US Open, this time due to a wrist injury, marking the second time he had to forgo a Grand Slam title defence (after withdrawing from Wimbledon in 2009 due to a knee injury).

Despite an injury-plagued 2014 season, the Spaniard still finished third in the rankings, behind Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, but the next two years would prove to be the most challenging period of his career.

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He started the 2015 Grand Slam season with a quarter-final loss to Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open, his first loss against the Czech in nearly a decade.

Then, owing to Novak Djokovic’s dominance throughout the season, the Spaniard entered Roland Garros without the tag of favourite for the first time since debuting in 2005.

Still, the Mallorcan managed to reach the quarter-finals where he suffered his first straight-sets defeat (and just his second defeat overall) at the tournament, losing to Djokovic.

Another disastrous Wimbledon campaign followed, in where he lost to Dustin Brown in the second round in four sets, before he lost a Grand Slam match from two sets to love up for the first time in his career when he lost to Fabio Fognini in the third round of the US Open.

This capped off his first title-less year at the majors since 2004, but his 2016 was to be worse – losing in the first round of the Australian Open and having to withdraw midway through the French Open with a wrist injury which would also force his withdrawal from Wimbledon for the third time.

His best result was reaching the fourth round at the US Open, where he lost to Frenchman Lucas Pouille in a thrilling final set tiebreak.

He finished the year ranked ninth, his lowest year-end ranking since 2004.

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Entering the 2017 season aged 30, nothing much was to be expected from a man whose dominance on clay for the past decade took its toll on his knees.

However, he and Roger Federer would surprise many by facing off in the first major final for the year at the Australian Open, in what shaped as the sequel to the classic 2009 final, which Nadal won to become the first (and so far only) Spaniard to reign Down Under.

After the pair split the first four sets, Nadal then broke for a 3-1 lead in the final set only to concede the final five games of the match and suffer his first loss to his Swiss rival at a major for the since Wimbledon 2007.

roger-federer-rafael-nadal-tennis-australian-open-2017

(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

While the gut-wrenching defeat appeared demoralising on paper, it would be the launchpad for a successful 2017 season in which the Mallorcan native would strike ‘La Decima’ at Roland Garros, win a third US Open title and end the year on top of the rankings for the fourth time.

He, along with Federer, entered the Australian Open as one of the favourites to win the first major of the year, and all went to script as he won his first three matches in straight sets, before being tested by Diego Schwartzman in four sets in the fourth round.

Then came the quarter-final challenge of Marin Cilic, a player whom Nadal had beaten five out of six times, including a straight sets win in the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open.

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After Nadal took the opening set, and going up a break in the second, the 31-year-old appeared to be on his merry way to another semi-final at Melbourne Park, before Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, upped his game to take the second set and thus level the match at one set all.

The Spaniard then took the third set in a tiebreak, before trouble struck at 1-4 in the fourth set, whereby he was treated for an upper leg injury which would ultimately cause him to retire at 0-2 down in the fifth and final set.

Subsequent scans have revealed that he suffered a torn hip muscle, an injury which is not expected to sideline him for more than three weeks, meaning he would be back in time for the Indian Wells-Miami swing in March.

His injury-enforced retirement has grown fears among tennis fans that this could have been his final appearance at the Australian Open, the Grand Slam tournament where he has been cursed the most.

His title win in 2009, in which he defeated Roger Federer in a classic for the ages, remains his only real highlight in Australia.

This leads us to imagine for a moment if he had capitalised on his final-set leads in the 2012 (*4-2) and 2017 (3-1*) finals against Novak Djokovic and Federer respectively?

His major title tally would’ve been 18 (currently 16) and, assuming every other major final in between (i.e. from the 2012 French Open to the 2016 US Open inclusive) eventuated the way they did, he would’ve been level on Federer with 18 majors (the Swiss Maestro now has 19).

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He will turn 32 during the French Open, where he will have the chance to create history and win an unprecedented eleventh title at Roland Garros, which has been his happy hunting ground since 2005.

While his battered body should be up for the challenge of another French Open title pursuit, it’s inevitable that the beginning of the end of Rafael Nadal may have just begun in earnest.

But for the fans’ sake, let’s hope he can salute on the grand stage at least one more time before he hangs up the racquet for good – the question is, when will the end arrive?

Later rather than sooner, we hope, because the Spaniard will not want his persistent injuries to finally defeat him.

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