RAFAEL NADAL '21'

In tennis, winning a grand slam is considered to be a great achievement as it takes a lot of hard work, strength, mental stability and will to maintain yourself physically and mentally healthy in high pressure situations for almost a month. For some, doing it once may be difficult but doing so for over 20 years and winning a record breaking 21 Grand Slams is a phenomenal achievement. Rafael Nadal after winning the Australian Open 2022 has now become the most successful ever men's player in the open era by winning his 21st grand slam title.

This victory is even more special as before coming into the tournament Nadal was suffering from a foot injury which made him sit out of the court for most of the last year and made him consider retiring altogether. But still somehow he managed to come out of this and take part in this grand event.

Being at wrong side of 30(Nadal is 35 yrs old) and just coming out from a major foot injury Nadal fought for over 5 hours and 24 minutes and came back from trailing by 2 sets down to win 2-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 against world number-2 Daniil Medvedev who is 10 years younger than Nadal. Even Nadal himself couldn't believe that he was able to play such a long physical test. Nadal himself said

"I was not ready physically for these kind of battles, honestly. I am super, super tired in all ways. I even can’t celebrate. But it was the day to give everything, no? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the fight. I enjoyed the emotions. At the end to have this trophy with me means everything."

Nadal received applauds from everyone for his achievement many greats like Rod Laver, Sachin Tendulkar, AB De Villiers and even from his peers with whom he was leveled at 20 grand slams title Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

The title was even more special for Nadal as this was only his 2nd ever Australian Open title since 2009 having lost 4 straight finals in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019. Now Nadal is third in line of players with most Grand Slam titles in open era, just beyond Margaret Court(24), Serena Williams(23) and Steffi Graf(22).

After winning the title Nadal addressed the crowd present at Rod Laver Arena

 “Good evening everyone ... good evening or good morning, at least. First of all I know it’s a tough moment, Daniil, you are an amazing champion, I’ve been in this position a couple of times in this tournament, having chances to have the trophy with me, but I don’t have any doubt that you have this trophy a couple of times in your career, because you’re amazing, so I want to congratulate you. It was one of the most emotional matches of my tennis career and to share a court with you is just an honor, so all the best in the future."

 "I even don’t know what to say guys. For me, it’s just amazing, being honest, one month and a half ago, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to be back on the tour playing tennis again. And today I’m here in front of all you with this trophy with me, and you don’t know how much I’ve fought to be here. I can’t thank you enough for all the support I’ve had since I arrived here, you are just amazing.”

Rafael Nadal's triumph is a true show of grit, perseverance and hard work. Overcoming a career ending injury and then going on to win the title in such challenging conditions is a brave king like achievement. 

We all should learn from Nadal that nothing is difficult if you have strong will power and dedication to achieve it.

" Hard Work compounds like interest, the earlier you start the more time you have for the benefits to pay off"

-Sam Altman

 

Nadal's achievement even forced me to again start writing blogs which I couldn't do from last few months due to busy schedule.