At the time of Nadal’s rise to the top of tennis, Federer was the undisputed king of the Tour and the crowd’s favorite. Since becoming world number 1 in 2004, the Swiss held the first position for 237 consecutive weeks until August 2008, when Nadal surpassed him after years of rivalry.
Petkovic talks about how Nadal won hearts on and off the court
With Federer’s retirement two years ago, it was only a matter of time before Nadal set his example. At 38 years old, the Spaniard retires after winning 92 ATP titles, 22 of them Grand Slam, Olympic gold medals in singles and doubles, a Davis Cup title and more than 200 weeks as world number 1. His last two seasons have been tough, with little time on the court, and his journey concludes this week in Malaga.
“Rafael Nadal has said goodbye. Finally, some will say, but I would dare to say that he did it the only way he knew how,” Andrea Petkovic wrote on her blog: “Fighting until the last moment, until the last drop was spilled.” of sweat, until he accepted the tears and blood as part of the journey, until his body screamed with all its might: ENOUGH, leave me alone. Find peace, let me go.
The German noted that the most difficult aspects of Nadal’s rise are often forgotten. “Nowadays, people forget the adversity that Rafa faced from the public. People adored Roger and could not imagine an opponent as dangerous as this boy from Manacor, whose powerful forehand opened the court in a way that was believed to be geometrically impossible. Rafael Nadal did not give up. He did his thing, he continued to win, he continued to defeat Roger, he continued to defeat him with grace and humility in his heart.
“And little by little they began to like him. They loved him more and more. In the end, they loved him. With passion. For his decency and his broken English, for his music video in which he makes out with Shakira and for his humor, which began to shine when he improved his English,” Petkovic added. “Above all, they loved him for his fighting spirit on the court. First he won titles, then he won the hearts of people who were willing to hate him.”
The former tennis player also highlighted that Nadal was always aware that he could lose to any rival at any time, a fear that fueled his competitive spirit. “His greatest strength was always that he was afraid. Before every match, even in the fourteenth year that he won the French Open, he deeply and profoundly believed that he would lose in the first round against a qualifier. That made him run faster, work harder , try harder. That’s where the intensity we learned to love comes from.”
