In 1993 I had the great fortune to narrate for EL PAÍS from the center of Roland Garros the victory of Sergi Bruguera in the final of the tournament, the first of his two titles in the land of Paris. It was against American Jim Courier, world number one since 1992. Those were years in which Spanish men’s tennis – Arantxa Sánchez Vicario had achieved her first Grand Slam also in Paris in 1989 – gave us few joys and the list of winners was dominated by the Americans (Sampras, Agassi, Courier… ), with the permission of guys like Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg or Boris Becker. Bruguera’s was an unexpected victory against the blond with the openwork cap. Since Andrés Gimeno in 1972, no Spaniard had entered his name in the Musketeers Cup. Only Manolo Orantes opened a crack in that evil fate in 1975 with his triumph at the US Open. Skinny and somewhat lanky, but with a tremendous internal rage, Bruguera broke the predictions and opened the door to Paris for Moyá, Costa, Ferrero and… Rafael Nadal, who won his first Cup in Paris in 2005 (the last one was the 13th). in 2020).
Chance has wanted Jim Courier, the same from Paris but with a few years more and a cap less, has been a privileged witness, as an interviewer of the Australian Open, of the greatest feat of Spanish tennis: the one that Rafael Nadal has starred in with his 21st Grand Slam title, which makes him the best tennis player of all time. On that bright Sunday afternoon (closed night in Melbourne), while Nadal made half of Spain cry with his always generous words of thanks to his rival, the public and the tournament organizers, I couldn’t help but notice the expression on Courier’s face, half hidden by Nadal and his purple shirt. His face was that of someone who had seen something unique, inexplicable, illogical… a miracle, Nadal’s specialty. doHow can you win like that? Or better: how can you win 21 Grand Slam tournaments (90 ATP) that way? Because of Nadal we know that he wins, but how he does it, at 35 years old, a broken foot bone and just a few weeks after considering retirement on crutches remains a mystery, a wonderful mystery.
Don’t go to the data. They will crash. Yesterday, against Daniil Medvedev, number two in the world and leader of the new legion of great and young players, Nadal was below the Russian in almost all the magnitudes of the game: percentage of first services, points won from the return, direct serves… Only he was ahead in double faults and in break points converted. How does a guy who only manages three aces to his opponent’s 23 in a Grand Slam final win the title? Perhaps because the key to what Manacor is is in what cannot be seen.
Nadal wins every match before going out on the court. Everyone. The rivals know that there is no other like him on the circuit. So they come out with a set below. A set that is not on the scoreboard, but in the head of the rival. Everyone who faces Nadal has to use all his repertoire against the Spaniard because he plays every point as if it were the last. Each blow, each displacement, each cry of Nadal is the work of a Stakhanovist, a stonecutter, a Stoic… And he has made an art out of that. Nadal has no weak points because he does not live on virtuosity. His repertoire is a toolbox in the mine. And from there he gets gold. His rivals try to break him, but it’s impossible, because they can’t even hate him. They would like his mental strength, his best weapon, unmatched so far, but they succumb to it. And everything built from a child based on an education full of values –thanks, Toni Nadal— and principles. From that heritage, victory is not the end for Nadal, but the means to walk the world as he is, a unique athlete, a superb tennis player and, above all, a man of legend.
“You are brave when you are defeated and you keep going anyway, no matter what happens. Before living with other people you must learn to live with yourself. The only thing that is not governed by majority rule is conscience. Remember that it is a sin to kill a nightingale.” This is one of the many reflections that Atticus Finch, the protagonist of Kill a Mockingbird, the great work of the American writer Harper Lee, dedicates her children to train them as good people in a racist and depressed environment. I don’t know if Rafael Nadal has read the book, but I am almost sure that Toni Nadal, the tennis player’s uncle and his great trainer and companion in the key years of his career, has. And so many times.
#Killing #mockingbird #sin