Each tennis fan felt compelled to choose in the midst of a latest golden period for the game. Who was the very best: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal?
By 2012, the three horsemen of males’s tennis received every thing, 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 might be, and I felt I wanted to decide on a aspect within the arms race.
I finally 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 sport, which typically included damaged rackets and screams of indignation. He wore cool headbands as a substitute of hats, and his one-handed backhand was clean. 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 fallacious aspect, declaring himself the Biggest 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 by 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 courtroom he stepped foot on. He had explosive reactions, vibrant and likable aura, and is maybe probably the most bodily gifted males’s tennis participant in historical past.
He was virtually 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 keep in mind the almosts, and I’m wondering if he might 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 quicker than anybody else’s, permitting him to tee off on slow-bouncing balls on springy clay courts with the drive of a thousand suns with out committing too many errors. He grew up enjoying on clay in Spain, and it’s unfair to the remainder of the world — the place laborious and grass courts are extra frequent — 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 event. Between 2005 and 2022 Nadal received it 4 instances in a row three completely different instances, and choosing 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 instances. No person else had an opportunity. Ever.
His physique was constructed on a lab bench to play tennis on clay. His legs have 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 enjoying completely for longer and extra usually, Nadal simply pulled out a shotgun and destroyed you.
He might all the time hit the ball more durable than his opponents, and so he found out 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 trendy males’s tennis. Why hit a weak, difficult-to-control backhand when you may contort your upper-third to grip, rip and ship a 100 mile-per-hour forehand proper the place you need it to go?
Nadal might 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 successful the French Open, over and again and again.
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 not less than twice amongst his 22, however it did typically really feel low cost that he had the French Open in his pocket yearly. Nadal knew this — in the direction of the tip, he would skip different majors to verify he was wholesome sufficient for July. Whereas Djokovic and Federer have been locked in a warfare for each event they entered, Nadal would seize a spare laborious courtroom title right here and there whereas calmly accumulating French Opens and rising his slam depend.
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 by means of completely different calculations. It might be correct to name Nadal “one of many best” grass and laborious courtroom gamers and “by far the best” clay courtroom 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 sport shone by means of the lengthy march to perfection that Federer and Djokovic have 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 virtually was, however he was actually, actually nice ultimately, regardless 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 tip. He confirmed that tennis was cool, explosive and passionate. Nadal was distinctive, but additionally the forerunner to immediately’s era of bodily gamers with forehands-of-mass-destruction. Federer and Djokovic captured my creativeness, however Nadal might have performed extra to make the sport the gorgeous battlefield it’s immediately than both of them. For that, I’ll keep in mind him fondly.
