With a back shot, Nadal won the French Open finals championship point, defeating the 23-year-old Norwegian Rude 3-0. With this battle, Nadal wrote a series of new records - the 36-year-old and 2-day Espanyol became the oldest men's singles champion in French Open history; he reached the French Open finals 14 times, maintaining a 100% final winning rate; he won the 22nd Grand Slam men's singles championship, leaving Federer and Djokovic behind.
The champion
"This may be the most unexpected and surprising French Open champion," said Nadal.
One day after winning the championship, Nadal limped into a hotel in the center of Paris for an exclusive interview with Reuters. He admitted that due to continuous injuries, he arrived in Paris without a single championship this year's clay season, and in fact he didn't have much confidence in fighting for the Musketeers Cup. "Winning the clay championship will get extra sense of security, but before the start of this year's French Open, I don't even know if I can compete in the second week of the competition."
Although Nadal won the Australian Open championship in one fell swoop on the first day of the year, his performance since then was not ideal. In March, Nadal suffered a rib torn in the Indian Wells Masters; a month and a half later, he returned to the Madrid Masters, losing to 19-year-old supernova Al Racas, and stopped in the quarterfinals; in the next Rome Masters, he missed the promotion due to a foot injury in the third round.
Nadal's French Open promotion path was also difficult. "The most difficult moment was after defeating Motet in the second round. I was even troubled by walking. Fortunately, a doctor accompanied me to participate in the competition. He anesthetized the nerves on my feet and let it 'slept' so that I could play normally." What is little known is that Nadal suffers from Muller-Weis syndrome (scabola osteonecrosis). This difficult-to-remediate degeneration of the foot causes the bone necrosis on the lateral side of the scabola, causing pain and deformity. The Spanish underwent surgery to block nerves in early years to avoid pain, but the consequences of the operation were that it affected movement and could not cure the disease. Nadal admitted that for two and a half weeks before the final, he had to take a lot of anti-inflammatory and painkillers every six hours. Once the medicine is out of the way, the pain will be unbearable.
Under such physical conditions, Nadal still broke out from a series of hard competitions. After returning to Barcelona on Tuesday, the "King of Clay" immediately went to the hospital for treatment with crutches. The ease on the field is in sharp contrast with the difficulties on the field.
18 years only lost to two people at the French Open
This may be the most difficult French Open for Nadal, but he still showed absolute dominance in the final, leaving Rude, who was 13 years younger than himself, unable to see any hope of winning. "In fact, Nadal is far from his best condition, but he has enough wisdom and quality to defeat his younger opponents on the spot." The BBC commented.
Before Nadal, many tennis stars were hailed as the "King of Clay", but now, this crown can only belong to Nadal alone. Since Nadal first played in the French Open in 2005, he has only lost four championships in the past 18 years, including Espanyol withdrew due to injury after two rounds in 2016. Nadal left a record of 112 wins and 3 losses in Roland Garros, and there are only two opponents who can defeat him here - Soderin in 2009 and Djokovic in 2015 and 2021.
Nadal defeated by Roland Garros covers four generations: the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, which is an achievement that was unimaginable in the past. Don’t forget that he is in the special era of the “Big Three”. In the golden age of his career, he faces opponents like Federer and Djokovic who are destined to be recorded in history. Difficulty is hell, and achieves epic level.
Nadal, who has long been plagued by injuries, is even temporarily leading two positions in the "best in history" long-distance running competition, which is still a scene that many people dare not imagine a few years ago. “Actually, for me, it doesn’t have any competition for the best players in history, nor about those records. The key is that I like the job I do, I like playing tennis, I like the feeling of competition."Nadal said after winning the French Open, "I have said a million times that the best satisfaction is always to realize oneself, not those medals or anything else. ”
The media seems to be unable to think of more gorgeous rhetoric for Nadal’s praise. All his success is due to the simplest truth, as the Guardian said, “Nadal’s long-term success is based on his attitude: acceptance of every situation, optimism about adversity, and calmness under pressure. "That's all, but there are only a few people who can implement these for 18 years.
Author: Wu Shu
Editor: Gu Miao
