Throughout his career, Rafael Nadal He has been a magician with a racket in his hand. Through different performances, he has made things look ‘possible’ that seemed ‘impossible’ to the minds of many mortals. Today, in his return to clay two years later, he will try to perform yet another trick. Perhaps the most difficult. There are those who think that, this time, it will be impossible. He will be in charge of proving the opposite.
Since Rafa underwent surgery in September 2021 to undergo treatment for his foot, his career has been a continuous suffering in terms of physical problems. Just in the months following that operation, the Spaniard left the last two great tricks of his career. The first: he was able to win the Australian Open four months after being on crutches. That left half the world speechless. The second: something that we still find difficult to believe.
Because Roland Garros 2022 is difficult to explain. Rafa cracked a rib in March, during the Indian Wells semifinal. To this, we must add that Müller-Weiss syndrome bothered him again at the Rome tournament, less than two weeks from Paris. He limped out of the center court of the tournament with visible expressions of pain. “He is already there,” one might think. “This Roland Garros is impossible.” He took it upon himself to prove that he was.
With his foot falling asleep and almost on one leg, Rafa was able to overcome each and every adversity to lift what, until now (given what has been seen, you never know), is his last Grand Slam. He attempted the last big trick at Wimbledon, a month later, where he reached the semi-finals carrying a torn abdominal muscle. She was close, at least.
Now, in the middle of 2024 and after two years without stepping on this surface at an official level, Rafa wants to try to show us his latest trick. He has taken it upon himself to tell everyone that this will probably be the last Count of Godó’s and, therefore, his last land tour. We must emphasize the ‘probably’, because ‘probably’ sounds like something is ‘almost certain’. And where everyone sees in that ‘almost certain’ an ‘impossible’, Rafa only looks at the ‘almost’ and his mind transforms it into ‘possible’.
From his words yesterday, in the RCTB press room, there are things that went unnoticed by the viewer. Rafa, like a good magician, put the first of the three acts of a good magic trick on the table, as Michael Cane explained in ‘The prestige’, Christopher Nolan’s film.
The first: the promise
The magician, see Rafa, shows something that seems normal. Only, that thing probably isn’t. “I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I take it as my last participation here. I don’t set a deadline, life shows you the path,” Nadal commented yesterday. It seems impossible, doesn’t it?
The second: the turn
The magician, Rafa again, makes that thing that seemed normal no longer is. Something extraordinary has happened. The spectator will try to find the trick, but he will not find it.
The third: prestige
The magician, yes, Rafa again, turns the impossible into possible and leaves the viewer amazed with something they have never seen before.
In his career, we have continually seen him perform each and every act of a good magic trick. After what happened this last year, Rafa has a ‘promise’ never seen before in her career. This ‘impossible’ seems more impossible than ever. We only have to see if he is able to turn it around completely and make us see once again that he is capable of turning it into another ‘possible’. The one who would be the greatest of his life.
We know it seems impossible, but Rafa has shown us that he is capable of doing anything with a racket in his hand. It will be a matter of us taking our seats and getting ready for the show. A magician like him always has something in store. And, perhaps, in a couple of months we will be seeing him perform magic once again and we will have no choice but to say: ‘Someone explain it to me!’.
2024-04-16 09:46:26
#Rafa #Nadal #magician #making #impossible
