More farewell than tennis: Rafael Nadal’s painful limp to the finish line of an iconic career

Hobbled by a spate of injuries for the past two years, Nadal returned to the court this spring hoping to make the rounds of his favourite tournaments one final time before he plans to call it a career at the end of the season. But putting together even a handful of competitive matches has turned into one of the toughest challenges of his tennis life.

Nadal’s latest attempt to build some momentum is under way in Madrid this week, where he is hoping to rediscover his clay-court form ahead of next month’s French Open. And on Thursday, he powered past a highly regarded, 16-year-old American named Darwin Blanch despite admitting that he was “not 100% ready to play.”

The entire first-round match, a 6-1, 6-0 victory, took barely an hour, accelerated by Blanch’s nerves on the big stage. But these days, Nadal is happy for any time he can spend on court at all. Thursday was only his sixth competitive match of the season and his 10th since the start of 2023. And by now, there are no longer any doubts that Nadal’s career-ending physical decline has taken hold. He is slower and smaller than he used to be. He plays in pain every time he laces up his sneakers.

At this stage, Nadal is simply trying to close out his two decades as a pro on something resembling his own terms.

“My objective has always been to go out on court with the peace of mind of having done everything possible so that things go well,” Nadal said in Madrid before Thursday’s match. “In another situation in my career, I probably wouldn’t be playing, but I have to give it a shot. Time isn’t infinite anymore.”

In his dream goodbye, Nadal would make one more charmed run at Roland-Garros, on the red court that he has turned into his living room. That’s where he won his first of his 22 Grand Slam titles, as a top spinning teenager in Capri pants in 2005. And it’s where he claimed what was likely his last as a creaking 30-something on painkillers in 2022.

In Nadal’s current shape, however, limping through two weeks of best-of-five-set tennis seems far beyond him. The Paris Olympics, also held at Roland-Garros, are theoretically more forgiving since matches are only best of three. But that tournament could also be more than his body can stand. Nadal hasn’t lasted longer than three matches at any tournament since the 2022 U.S. Open, where he made a fourth-round exit against Frances Tiafoe.

Shortly after that match in New York, Nadal shut himself down for a while and vowed to focus on repairing the various ailments that turned his rallies into torture — the abdominal problems, the ankles, the back, the foot, the hip. The last thing he wanted was to fade into retirement like his great rival, Roger Federer, who gave up his hopes of a return to the court following knee surgery.

So Nadal drew up a plan. After a couple of abortive comebacks in late 2022 and early 2023, he committed himself to one more major period of recovery. He planned to take the season off, retreat to Mallorca, and come back in 2024 for a final lap around the tennis calendar. He didn’t have a clue how it would go, but in January of this year, he was back on a plane to kick off the season in Australia.

“I expect from myself not to expect anything,” he said at the time. “This is the truth.”

That’s when his plan went off the rails again. Nadal injured himself again before the Australian Open and sat out until the Barcelona Open earlier this month. Now, the all-time great who wanted to map out an entire farewell season can’t even tell what the coming weeks will hold. The date he’s keeping his eye on is May 20, when the French Open begins in Paris.

“If I was in Paris today, I wouldn’t go out to play,” Nadal said on Wednesday. “Few weeks [ago], I didn’t know if I will be able to play again on the professional tour.”

More Coverage

‘Had to happen’: Demon beats Nadal in legend’s backyard as Spaniard clings to Open dream

AFP

For now, he trusts his body enough to get him out on court and at least brush off players like Blanch, who are younger than his professional career — Nadal was winning Grand Slam tournaments before Blanch was born. The question now is whether it can carry him to a Parisian curtain call.

“The ideal thing would be to be able to play without limitations, whatever happens,” Nadal says. “I don’t know what will happen in the next three weeks.”

– The Wall Street Journal