Epic is coming back from two sets down in an Australian Open final. She also won twenty-two Grand Slam titles, including fourteen Roland Garros. Enter this dynamic to get twelve Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeo Conde de Godó.
But the feat is not only results, impossible comebacks or agonizing matches. The rebellion against the uncertainty of how the body will respond after two years of chaining one physical problem after another also goes further. Go under the knife, and not settle. Finish a Roland Garros leaning on crutches, and continue looking for solutions.
Rafael Nadal He reactivated the epic mode, feat or whatever you want to describe a superhuman athlete. At 37 years old, having to serve with many precautions to protect the abdominal player, he returned 1,087 days later to his club, RCT Barcelona, sweeping.
The king of clay is immortal. He can win or lose (he’s more used to the former), but his response is still out of this world. In his only third tournament in a year and a half, he achieved a very creditable victory at home.
He faces it as if it were his last Godó, but with the combative spirit that makes up his DNA. He returned as he left off in 2021 when he lifted the trophy. Nadal won 6-2 and 6-3 in 1h.25′. To number 62 in the world, to a young Italian named Flavio Cobolliwho knew firsthand how a legend behaves.
This Wednesday, not before 4 in the afternoon, the level rises a lot, because he will have the Australian in front of him Alex de Miñaur, No. 11 ATP, but Nadal will be a hero. Rafa Nadal arrived on the court with the public up and left with an even greater ovation. The public surrendered to his inexhaustible resilience.
“My doubts are not going to go away in one day, the physical ones. You need days on the circuit. It was a first round, he made mistakes and I played the game I had to play. As far as I can control, happy for the victory and playing at home,” he said after reaching the second round, sixteenth.
“I’m not going to start dealing with a crazy person, with the caution that my moment commands me. At times I’m more careful, sometimes I free myself. It’s within logic and accepting it,” he explained.
He has always been a master at competing with what he has in each situation. Surrender is not in the manual. Use the resource that helps you compete.
It is true that Cobolli failed. It was his debut in the tournament, against a myth and with everyone against him, with the exception of his technical team. But the focus is, as it could not be otherwise, on Rafa Nadal, who gave another lesson that the mind takes you to unknown dimensions until you force it.
681 days without stepping on clay in competition, when he won his fourteenth Roland Garros in June 2022, with his left foot asleep. At 4:45 p.m. this Monday the center roared with 8,000 spectators pushing Rafa Nadal.
“Let’s go Rafa!” a fan shouted intensely after Rafa Nadal committed a double fault, losing the first two points. Serving at 170 km/h. with the first serve, around 150 with the seconds. He then he would dare to do some 185 km / h. With fewer weapons, with equal conviction. With that predatory look, the serious, concentrated gesture, appearing like a wall before the inexperienced rival.
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Managing times, spaces, the moment. Master’s degree. Rafael Nadal. One more feat. Only he knows how he weathers difficulties, how he experiences them well alone or surrounded by his loved ones. When he competes, he goes all out.
Let’s see how your body responds. “I don’t know if I will be able to keep up with that pace,” which Alex de Minaur will set. “It’s a bit like the jungle, you don’t know what you’re going to find there, in my body,” said the manacorí.
Rafa Nadal, on his return to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Conde de Godó Trophy
Pep Morata / Propias
2024-04-16 17:05:18
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