Rafael Nadal and Roland Garros: A better love story than...anything, really

We could see it coming from a mile away. Heck, we could see it from a continent away. And yet, we weren’t entirely convinced. Could something so fantastic, so out-of-this-world, so un-freaking-believable, really come to pass?

Initially, it seemed Rafael Nadal didn’t think it was possible either. Throughout the tournament, and even before that, during the claycourt season, he was guarded about his chances of lifting his 10th Roland Garros trophy. He kept talking about how he needs to take it one day at a time and to keep fighting for every point of every game of every match. History could wait; for him, it was only the present that mattered.

But history has told us that that shouldn’t really be the case with someone like him. He has turned into one of those rare individuals who make forgone conclusions a reality, and that shouldn't change no matter how much he downplays himself.

Over the course of the last 12 years, Nadal has thrown every convention out of the window. He has broken records at will, created a legacy that will likely never be surpassed, and established a persona for himself that is less like that of a tennis player and more like that of a supernatural deity. Nadal’s presence at Roland Garros has become so huge that it sounds almost mythical; every time he grinds an opponent into the dirt, we ask ourselves: is this really happening?

Stan Wawrinka certainly didn’t seem like he could believe his eyes for much of the 2017 French Open final. The stats may show that he played a poor match, but what they don’t show is just how much pressure Nadal put on him with his trademark topspin shots. Whatever Wawrinka did, however hard he hit, the ball kept coming back. And when it’s not your day – and it certainly wasn’t Wawrinka’s day – you end up flubbing the final shot more often than not.

The Spaniard’s record against players with one-handed backhands is the stuff of folklore – he has lost just five sets to them in all his matches at Roland Garros. Wawrinka’s backhand is better than most other one-handers, but the fundamental dynamic remained unchanged. The higher the ball went, the tougher it was for the Swiss to control it.

The start of the match was close, mainly because Nadal was being far more erratic than he was during any of his previous six matches this tournament. Through the first five games of the match, Nadal committed eight unforced errors, and the set remained on serve. It was another matter that Wawrinka was even more error-prone – he made 10 errors at the same time – but this was uncharacteristic from the Spaniard.

Nadal’s forehands again scripted a glorious tale

“I always have doubts,” Nadal said later at his press conference. And those doubts were starkly visible at the start of the match. But when you have won nine titles at one of the biggest events in the sport, you tend to find it just a tad easier to banish those doubts.

Wawrinka obliged with a few more untimely errors in the sixth game of the set, and that was all the invitation that Nadal needed. He went on a roll from there, tightening up his game drastically; he had made eight errors in those first five games, but committed just four more in the next 19.

He ended up dropping just four more games, and he hit one final crunching crosscourt forehand to seal one of his most one-sided finals. And that’s saying something, because he’s had more than his fair share of one-sided victories over the years.

“I just do my thing,” Nadal said later when asked how he managed to stay calm despite all the distractions in the match, including an epic Wawrinka racquet smash. And when Nadal ‘does his thing’, everyone else starts shitting their pants.

But we knew all of this already. We knew that Nadal’s defence would be too hard for Wawrinka to hit through. We knew that his forehand would cause an endless litany of problems for the Swiss’ backhand (notice how the word ‘Swiss’ could easily have referred to a certain other player from that country, and I could be writing this same piece a few years ago?). We knew that Nadal was just too strong on a court that he’s made his home.

What we didn’t know was that Nadal would be just as hungry to win the title here as he was 12 years ago. That he wouldn’t rest until he had the magical ‘La Decima’ collection in his bag. That he wouldn’t stop retrieving the would-be winners from the racquets of Wawrinka, and also Thiem, Haase, Paire....That he wouldn’t stop running.

We could talk about the X’s and O’s all day, about how Nadal overcame his opponents with his technical superiority. The backhand certainly deserves a mention; it was a bigger weapon this week than it has been at any point since 2008, and the crosscourt version in particular left Wawrinka gasping for breath on more than one occasion. The serve was also lethal whenever he wanted it to be; the only time he was in trouble on serve in the final, at 1-1 in the first set, he came up with three unreturnables.

But I doubt I’ll remember much of that when I look back on this final a few years from now. I’ll remember, instead, the way he brushed aside a time violation from the umpire and proceeded to win the next three points in businesslike fashion. I’ll remember his searing forehand down-the-line winner off a crushing Wawrinka backhand in the second set, a shot so unreal that it has already been replayed across social media handles around the world a million times. And I’ll remember the emotion that he displayed on winning match point, falling to the ground and looking as though he had just achieved something that he had never dreamed of achieving.

Roland garros @RafaelNadal pic.twitter.com/8XVwlhHOUL

— RIDVAN YILMAZ (@ridvanyillmaz) June 11, 2017

Why would he feel that way? What could possibly have made him think that this was a goal he would have difficulty attaining? It’s not for us mortals to question the ways of the supernatural, but contradictions like these do make for memorable viewing experiences.

At the trophy presentation, the organisers displayed a montage of Nadal’s French Open winning moments – all 10 of them. And that was followed by Toni Nadal, the man behind it all, arriving at the stand and accepting a replica of the trophy that was just given to his nephew. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a lump in my throat at that moment.

The video montage, together with the presence of Toni, showcased to everyone what had really gone into making this possible. It had taken years of toil and struggle and doubts, and more than a few buckets of sweat and blood. At the end of it all, two men were left still standing, and they were in possession of a record that stands alone in the world of sport. It was never easy, even if Nadal’s brilliant play over the years had made it seem so, and now it was set in stone.

Rafael Nadal takes home the French Open crown for the tenth time as Toni Nadal’s efforts are reconginsed as well

As Nadal did his trademark ‘trophy bite’, the chants of “RA-FA! RA-FA! RA-FA!” reverberated loud and clear all across the stadium. It felt like we had been transported to another world, where Nadal and his trophy were the only things of significance; everything else paled in comparison and felt somehow artificial.

Wawrinka brought us back to earth with his sordid press conference that showed that there are always two contrasting sides to every story. But he also said something that left us all deep in thought: “Nadal is playing the best tennis of his career; not just on clay, but everywhere.”

If Nadal really has been playing the best tennis of his career in 2017, why did we ever doubt him at Roland Garros? We should’ve known that for him, La Decima was never an unbelievable idea.

Nadal is unlike any other individual from this world, so it makes sense that what we think is as out-of-the-world, would be something quite normal for him.