Beyond Cloud Nine: Rafael Nadal and the race for the Wimbledon treble

Rafael Nadal with the Wimbledon trophy he won in 2010

Remember the mid-2000s? The time when the teenage Rafael Nadal had just burst into the scene, thumping Roger Federer – the player at his peak – in the French Open semifinals, starting a winning trend that continues till the present.

It was the time when many wondered how long this new Spanish kid on the block would survive. For impenetrable as his game was on clay, he seemed distinctly out of sorts on other surfaces. That was obvious at the 2005 Wimbledon championships where he was upset, in the second round, by Gilles Muller.

The very next year though Rafa’s path at Wimbledon took on a completely different trajectory. He made it to the final and troubled Federer for quite a while before the Swiss managed to subdue him in four sets.

The pattern repeated the next year too and even while Federer came out as the last man standing again, it was Rafa’s game that spoke of a transition hardly ever seen before.

Change, in the form of a Rafa storm, looked imminent in the near horizon. That came about the immediate next year, when the Spaniard methodically dethroned Federer. That monumental victory at Wimbledon, a match that has gone down in the sport’s history as one of the finest matches – if not the finest – ever played, eventually brought an end to Federer’s stronghold over the No. 1 ranking.

The years between Nadal winning his first Wimbledon and the present have been eventful, to say the least. Pulling out of the event in 2009 on account of tendinitis, he made a forceful comeback in 2010, winning there for the second time before losing out to Djokovic in a close final in 2011.

The upsets of 2012 and 2013 however brought back an immediate change in people’s opinion of Nadal’s grasscourt ability; it’s almost as if his past success at the venue is of no consequence any longer. A couple of bad losses and talks about Rafa never making it to the upper echelons at Wimbledon and other grasscourt tournaments have re-surfaced all over again. All the plaudits heaped on the Spaniard for his innumerable successes on grass have disappeared as if they were time-bound, confined to cover only his immediate results.

Hindsight, such as it is, has also been conspicuously stunted by the prevailing short-sightedness. We have been led to believe that the past doesn’t have any bearing upon the present and the future. But on the contrary, in Nadal’s case it should hold even greater relevance, given the way he keeps silencing the doubts of his naysayers

Conveniently forgotten has been the fact that following his loss in 2012, Rafa spent almost a year out of action because of flared-up knee injuries, and it took almost everything out of him to get back to where he was before his body threatened to give up on him – yet again. His losses at Wimbledon the past two years may well have had more to do with his physical state than any diminution in his grasscourt prowess.

Even this year, his resounding win at Roland Garros, achieved just a couple of weeks ago, came about despite his body creaking in pain. If he could do that at one place, why can’t he do it elsewhere too? And yet, the cloud of wonderment at watching him lift his ninth title – an unprecedented number – didn’t take long to turn into a bubble of concern in the aftermath of his Halle loss to Dustin Brown. Completely ignored was the most important fact, that the man was making the transition from clay to grass – a changeover that almost all players find hard to make – barely two days after the French Open, which is not nearly enough time for the body to recuperate.

As someone who’s been enriching the sport and its fans with quality tennis and incredible sportsmanship, Rafa’s attitude towards his health and fitness issues have always been well-balanced and even-keeled. Excuses have never been his thing – remember the Australian Open final against Stan Wawrinka? – and underlying his passion for the game, there’s the unmistakable factor of his commitment. He tries to uphold that commitment in every match, no matter how brittle his physical self might be. But somehow in the context of the never-ending expectations, all these aspects have been erased, as if they never existed.

All those years ago, when he did what was perceived to be the unthinkable for him – dethrone Federer at Wimbledon – his commitment and passion weren’t questioned, nor was his will-power to keep fighting.

Yet, ironically, now that he’s equalled Pete Sampras’ tally of 14 Majors, while comprehensively keeping Djokovic at bay – for the third consecutive time – there’s no allowance for the terrifying pillars of struggles upon which his successes rest.

What Rafa now needs is space – and a lot of it – away from the chaos. There’s no better judge than him of what needs to be done in these circumstances. Rather than make grim foretellings of a future that no one really knows about, it would be in the tennis world’s best interests to keep faith in him.

Rafael Nadal knows what it takes to try and win another seven matches on the trot, and to reach another milestone in a continuation of what’s been a remarkable career. Let us just let him do that in peace.