T
ECHNICALLY, NADAL started his 2022 season
on New Year’s Eve. Having just kicked COVID-19—
because he needed yet another obstacle—he landed in
Australia to play a tune-up event in Melbourne. When
he checked into his hotel room, he did not anticipate a
31-night stay. After a few days of practice, Nadal took to
the court fully aware, he says, that his foot might f lare
up and he might soon be back in Spain.
He started tentatively but won that event without drop-
ping a set. And with neither Federer nor Djokovic in the
draw, Nadal suddenly became the Australian Open men’s
headliner. He warmed to the occasion. He met groups of
kids on the court during practice sessions and dispensed
life advice. While Djokovic became an international cause
célèbre for his anti-vaccination stance, Nadal offered this:
“We went through and are going through very challenging
times worldwide, without a doubt, with this pandemic. I
mean, I know tennis is zero important comparing what we
are facing now, this virus, no? Tennis is just an entertain-
ment sport for people, and for us is our job. In terms of
importance in the world, is not important....If there is
any solution, and the solution is the vaccine, that’s it.” A
smile never left his face. When he repeatedly offered the
old standby, “I’m just happy to be here,” it felt sincere.
At the Australian Open—a major he’d won only once
before—he blazed through six opponents, each younger
than him, sometimes significantly so. In the final, Nadal
was the underdog against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev,
a decade his junior and winner of the previous major.
Medvedev won the first two sets. Nadal then simply
refused to leave the court without the title. He prevailed
2–6, 6–7, 6–4, 6–4, 7–5.
Nadal then won in Acapulco and reeled off five matches
in Indian Wells before cracking a rib and losing in the
final. Still, his record for the first 100 days of 2022: 20–1
with three titles. And that was before the start of clay
season, when Nadal usually turns draws into boneyards.
Nadal is winning by playing the classics. Deploying
his sui generis lefty game; the spin-drizzled shots that
kick like a bronco; the thunderous offense; the relent-
less defense, neutralizing shots that would be clean
winners against other, less dogged players. “Until you
experience it for yourself,” says Adrian Mannarino, a
French veteran Nadal defeated earlier this year, “you
can’t imagine how hard it is to win points against him.
He just gives nothing away.”
There is also Nadal’s sui generis mix of insecurity
and self-belief. Nadal has long convinced himself that
every match is a potential defeat. He confronts these
stubborn doubts by bringing to bear supernatural levels
of fight. For years this power of persistence won him
all sorts of abstract praise, most often from opponentsA MAN FOR
ALL SEASONS
Nadal has hoisted the
trophy at each major
at least twice, most
recently ( from top) at
Wimbledon (in 2010),
the U.S. Open (’19) and
the French Open (’20).
RAFAEL NADALFR
OM(^) TO
P:
BO
B (^) M
AR
TIN
; (^) ER
ICK
(^) W.
(^) RA
SC
O; (^) T
HO
MA
S (^) L
OV
EL
OC
K