A champion, on and next to the court tennisnet.com

Rafael Nadal has closed with his triumph at the French Open for the Grand Slam title Roger Federer open mind. However, the Spanish practice modesty.

It was in the minutes after his first round win over Egor Gerasimov that Rafael Nadal said probably the most thoughtful and memorable thing anyone on this planet has said these days. Nadal was asked about the unusual and somewhat gloomy atmosphere of the French Open on center court, above the empty stands, the new orphan stadium. In fact, it was a “feeling of sadness” to be playing here at the moment, the Mallorcan replied to the moderator’s question, “but it must feel that way too. It must be sad. There are many people in the world who are suffering right now. ” That was the end of the conversation, but the message resonated. A message that was so different from the constant complaints about the strange circumstances. Nadal had brought something so clearly and simply to the point that many were probably wondering why they hadn’t thought of that as well.

Two weeks later Nadal was back in Red Square, and not just because of his outstanding performance in the final against Novak Djokovic, one just had the feeling that on this day and this year there could not have been a better and more deserved one. It’s no wonder his longtime rival and friend Roger Federer was one of the first to congratulate him, not because he had to do it out of duty. But because he loved him, because he meant it when he wrote that he always had the “greatest respect” for the person and the champion Nadal. Mind you: it had to be read in exactly this order, first the person, then the athlete, and the man who often spoiled his fun, Federer, and let his dreams fall apart in Paris.

Nadal, also Federer, are story-conscious actors in the great traveling circus of tennis nomads. Both know their role, their importance, their position in the history books of their sport, the records are not entirely indifferent to them. But records are not everything, no more than excessive ambition. Nadal said something else this season, he was still locked up, which characterizes him. It was about the question of what the best performance in Grand Sam titles meant to him, a possible overtaking of Roger Federer, the rank presumably the greatest of all time in tennis. Nadal said: “I have no problem with my neighbor having a nicer house, a bigger boat or a better car. I want to be satisfied. With what I have achieved. And I am even if I don’t have most of the titles. ”

Nadal catches up with Federer

In reality, Nadal had only stayed true to himself with this detachment and restraint, although now, in 2020, he was as close as Federer’s collection of titles. Because even the much younger and younger Nadal had repeatedly emphasized that he would also have become a “very happy person” if he had to resign after winning his first title at the age of 19 in June 2005. How it happened then, with always new victories, with the most unreal series of successes in his sport in Paris, it was “incredible”: “I could never have dreamed such a dream.”

Nadal had swiftly bid farewell to the public in this exceptional year and naturally followed the new social rules. It would never have occurred to him to be part of a superfluous production of a show to somehow kick off the entire tennis entertainment machine. Nadal was enough himself, even at this point, he’s not a man who needs great elegance or glamor and glitz anyway. He preferred to sit on the beach at his house in Mallorca and cast the fishing rod. In his generous training academy, he kept fit and was ready for the moment when the big game began again.

Pushing for reboot wasn’t his thing. It would have seemed inappropriate, completely out of place at a time when so many of his fellow men were suffering. More than once he saw the devastation that the virus caused in Spain, the people who died. Or the people who feared for its existence, especially in Mallorca, the disused tourist stronghold. Nadal didn’t go to the US Open, he didn’t think it was safe. But it was also a balance of opportunities, he was aware that it would be difficult to play two Grand Slam tournaments in such a short time at his age. In the end, he paused for 211 days until he met again with familiar faces in Rome. “I missed the competition, there is no doubt about that,” Nadal said now, after the victory in Paris, “but it was nothing I could or complain about.”

“Good things come to good people”

It’s sheer speculation, but Nadal may also have used the mandatory downtime in the constant rush to meet industry appointments to really recharge his batteries at this exhausting and worn-out undertaking. You just have to think about the end of the last season and the beginning of the new season, first on the home straight of the 2019 series, the ATP final in London and the new Davis Cup tournament in Madrid, before the start. In 2020 the new ATP Cup was played and shortly after the Australian Open. At that time, Nadal was one of the voices calling for a merger of competitions and, with it, the cessation of the unbridled advance of marketing. When asked on Sunday night how things are going in the next few weeks, the 34-year-old took the necessary precaution: “I have not decided anything yet. I have to see what makes sense for me. ” By the way, that also applies to the start or not at the Australian Open.

Reason is one of the words one always associates with Nadal anyway. Reason, convenience, objectivity. Fortunately, what he lacks is much of what can otherwise be seen in the scene: envy, resentment, greed, superficiality, conceit. A slogan about Nadal’s triumph, his 20th Grand Slam title, was posted on the internet Sunday night. He said: “Good things come to good people.” Nadal, the relentless fighter, would have declined: Too much honor, too much praise. He never really likes to be the center of attention, the shy, shy Mallorcan who is reserved at heart. But he can’t help it either. The grandmaster who keeps winning and winning and winning. Preferably always in Paris, her red paradise.

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