Each tennis fan felt compelled to choose in the midst of a latest golden period for the game. Who was one of the best: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal?
By 2012, the three horsemen of males’s tennis received all the pieces, couldn’t be overwhelmed by anybody however one another, and dragged the game into the long run with whirling top-spin forehands and impossibly exact backhands. They expanded what tennis perfection could possibly be, and I felt I wanted to decide on a aspect within the arms race.
I in the end selected Federer, the oldest however most profitable to that time. He by no means appeared to get too upset or too excited, the aspirational reverse of my recreation, which generally included damaged rackets and screams of indignation. He wore cool headbands as an alternative of hats, and his one-handed backhand was easy. When he would play Djokovic, I nicknamed him “Roger Higher-er” in opposition to “Novak Choke-ovic.”
Djokovic spent the final 12 years convincing me I picked the incorrect aspect, declaring himself the Best of All Time with probably the most Grand Slams, most weeks at No. 1 within the rankings, and Olympic God, paying homage to Napoleon crowning himself emperor to point out the place he believed his energy got here from. Federer retired as maybe probably the most dominant over any 10-year stretch, however Djokovic stood the check of time.
The odd man out was Nadal, who retired Thursday morning after a 23-year skilled profession through which he received 22 Grand Slams, second solely to Djokovic. He’s both the second or third-greatest of all time and dominated any clay court docket he stepped foot on. He had explosive reactions, vibrant and likable aura, and is maybe probably the most bodily proficient males’s tennis participant in historical past.
He was nearly excellent, and he’ll go down because the icon he was. The subsequent era of tennis terminators all owe Nadal for the blueprint he wrote, and for the stature he maintained. However I’ll additionally bear in mind the almosts, and I ponder if he may have, and even ought to have, been higher
At his peak, Nadal was a beast even Djokovic and Federer couldn’t deal with. His picturesque left-handed forehand spun sooner than anybody else’s, permitting him to tee off on slow-bouncing balls on springy clay courts with the pressure of a thousand suns with out committing too many errors. He grew up taking part in on clay in Spain, and it’s unfair to the remainder of the world — the place onerous and grass courts are extra widespread — that the Nadal’s expertise was loosed on this floor.
Of his 22 Grand Slams, 14 of them got here on the French Open, the lone clay main match. Between 2005 and 2022 Nadal received it 4 occasions in a row three totally different occasions, and selecting anybody to beat him there was as clumsy because it was silly. He didn’t simply really feel inevitable, he really was. His 81 match clay win streak stands alone because the longest of anybody on any floor, but it felt three-times longer. It was absurd, unbeatable and even boring at occasions. No person else had an opportunity. Ever.
His physique was constructed on a lab bench to play tennis on clay. His legs had been lengthy and versatile however nonetheless constructed like tree trunks, permitting him to slip to balls he had no enterprise reaching. But his shoulders and torso are compact, permitting his higher arms free-range of movement to hit a wide range of angled-shots whereas sustaining energy. Whereas Federer and Djokovic beat everybody by taking part in completely for longer and extra typically, Nadal simply pulled out a shotgun and destroyed you.
He may all the time hit the ball tougher than his opponents, and so he discovered the way to maximize that benefit. Nadal proved that working round your backhand to get to your forehand was a viable transfer, all however inventing a tactic that has come to dominate fashionable males’s tennis. Why hit a weak, difficult-to-control backhand when you possibly can contort your upper-third to grip, rip and ship a 100 mile-per-hour forehand proper the place you need it to go?
Nadal may maintain his bodily benefit above his two contemporaries till his physique started to surrender on him, when the chilly, plodding fashion of Djokovic was too environment friendly to withstand. However he stored profitable the French Open, over and over and over.
His single-surface dominance is a double-edged sword; each an unprecedented achievement and an argument in opposition to his greatness. Nadal received a Grand Slam on each floor at the least twice amongst his 22, nevertheless it did generally really feel low-cost that he had the French Open in his pocket yearly. Nadal knew this — in direction of the top, he would skip different majors to ensure he was wholesome sufficient for July. Whereas Djokovic and Federer had been locked in a warfare for each match they entered, Nadal would seize a spare onerous court docket title right here and there whereas calmly accumulating French Opens and growing his slam rely.
Ought to that detract from his greatness, making him 2B to Federer’s 2A, a person he has two extra Grand Slams than? Maybe, although it’s fairer to say the 2 males achieved their stature via totally different calculations. It could be correct to name Nadal “one of many best” grass and onerous court docket gamers and “by far the best” clay court docket participant within the historical past of males’s tennis, arriving at “second-greatest” from a special components than the Swiss maestro’s all-around portfolio.
And due to his bodily prowess, his recreation shone via the lengthy march to perfection that Federer and Djokovic had been having. No picture of Nadal is full with out his highly effective roars and full-body fist-pumps after spectacular winners, nor with out his infectious smile, displaying his tennis-body prolonged to speaking the proper-level of happiness after a win.
Nadal’s retirement might have jogged my memory of all of the issues he nearly was, however he was really, really nice ultimately, irrespective of the diploma. He was the bringer of his personal future; fully inevitable as he marched to extra French Opens, worldwide fame and finally to the top. He confirmed that tennis was cool, explosive and passionate. Nadal was distinctive, but additionally the forerunner to right now’s era of bodily gamers with forehands-of-mass-destruction. Federer and Djokovic captured my creativeness, however Nadal might have accomplished extra to make the sport the gorgeous battlefield it’s right now than both of them. For that, I’ll bear in mind him fondly.
