The future of tennis? There is still Rafa Nadal: “I will continue to try and fight”

To hear him speak after the victory at Roland Garros, his fourteenth, it just did not seem that there could be even a grain of truth in the rumors of the past days about a possible farewell to Rafa Nadal. «I would not have thought I would be competitive at 36. Thanks to my family, without you I would have retired for years. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I will continue to fight to go forward ».

The king of Spain was also there to see the announced triumph of Nadal against Casper Ruud who was trained at the Majorcan Academy, but who has no blows that can worry someone who has won 22 slams and has clearly said that does not intend to stop. Despite the left foot that works only thanks to infiltrations. In the press conference after the meeting with Zverev, interrupted by the German’s injury, he said: «I’d rather lose the final but have a new foot. Winning is beautiful but life and health are more important ».

We see that winning was better, once again, even easier we could say. The only real obstacle could be Zverev, but his ankle crumbled after three hours of play and just two sets played in the semifinals. The point is that Nadal, who is at least ten years older than the others, always wins in the long run. Basically a 36-year-old Martian.

In Paris he has been winning since 2005 when he still had the hair and a face of a child. Whenever he reached the final, 14, he always won. He cries and thanks. Shaking hands a Felipe VI which is next to the princes of Norway. She goes to collect the cup of musketeers from the tennis revolutionary Billie Jean King of the seventies. Can you claim to be a legend? Yes, but we already knew it, as we already knew that no one is like him on clay. 22 Slams, two more than Federer and Djokivic, two obtained this year after and in the midst of injuries.

He knows it too: «This year wonderful things are happening, thanks to my team without which I would have retired for a long time by now. Even I didn’t think I would be able to win this tournament again but it happened. See you in 2023… ». Who knows if the VIPs who were at the central station in Paris have already bought the ticket for the next final: from Michael Douglas to Hugh Grantfrom Charlotte Gainsbourg to Sienna Miller. And then many other players who have him as their idol and who understand his greatness. A greatness that also starts from those rituals, tics if you like, that accompany every step of him on the pitch.

“What you call tics,” he told al Corriere della Sera, «They are a way of putting my head in order, for me, who are normally very messy. They are the way to focus and silence the voices within. In order not to listen to the voice that tells me that I will lose, nor that, even more dangerous, that tells me that I will win ». Tennis philosophy by Nadal, a 36-year-old gentleman who has half a Grand Slam in his pocket in 2022no intention of quitting and very few opponents on the horizon.