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Gilles Simon has a great deal of admiration and respect towards Rafael Nadal, and he has given a detailed account of that in his latest book titled ‘The Sport that makes you crazy’. In many of the excerpts from the book that have been made public, the Frenchman can be seen showering lavish praise on the 13-time French Open champion.
Now another excerpt has come to light, where Simon lauds the Mallorcan’s humility and highlights specific on-court incidents where that quality has been especially evident.
Rafael Nadal is widely acknowledged to be one of the most humble athletes in all sport, let alone just tennis. Some of his on-court achievements are mind-boggling, and yet Nadal has never used them to give himself an air of pride or to inflate his ego.
Gilles Simon believes that Rafael Nadal’s humility lies in the fact that the Spaniard is able to ‘start from scratch’ at every tournament, even if he has won it several times in the past.
“This is his humility, in his ability to always start from scratch, not in the sentences he makes before and after the games,” Simon wrote.
Rafael Nadal shows his humility on the court: Gilles Simon
Rafael Nadal often tends to underplay his chances during press conferences, and many use that as evidence of his extraordinary modesty. But for Gilles Simon those are mere words, and not a true indication of anything.
"Do not tell me that Rafael Nadal is humble because he said in a press conference that he is not favorite in the first round of Roland Garros,” Simon said.
Instead, Simon believes Rafael Nadal's true humility is best evidenced in his play and demeanor on the court. The Frenchman cited the example of Nadal’s second-round match at the 2016 Indian Wells Masters, where he was playing against Alexander Zverev.
“His humility, he shows it on the court, as in this match against Zverev (2016),” Simon added. “This is humility: being in the present, despite all his records.”
Zverev had a match point in the third set but Rafael Nadal refused to give in, and continued fighting as though it was a matter of life and death for him. And that was despite Nadal’s phenomenal record at Indian Wells (he had already won the title thrice by then), leading Simon to believe that the Spaniard is like a ‘kid’ even after all his achievements.
“Even if that has happened to him 10 times... well he didn't care,” the Frenchman wrote further. “He was like a kid.”
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