Rafael Nadal - The Clay Monster of Tennis

The first warning of Rafael Nadal

The greatest victory during the career of Pat Cash came 1987 in Wimbledon. He won the current world number one in the ATP-list, Ivan Lendl , in the final in straight sets: 7-6, 6-2, 7-5. The career of Cash ended 1997 but he was never able to reach the level of his Wimbledon win because of his numerous injuries. This Australian ex tennis-star was supposed to play 2001 an exhibition match in Spain, Mallorca against another tennis legend, Boris Becker. Becker was never able to enter the match because of his injury. Tournament arrangers had no many possibilities. They wanted the audience to get their match so they gave a chance for a local 14 years old junior, Rafael Nadal to play a match against Cash. At first Cash took this new match arrangement as an offense towards himself but after they started to play, 36-years old Cash realized how wrong he had been. He realized the talent of Rafael Nadal being something special. After their tight match Rafael Nadal exited as a winner and Cash predicted a great career for Nadal.

The achievements

After the season 2009 has ended and the season 2010 is starting Rafael “Rafa” Nadal Parera, “The King of Clay” at the age of 23 has won almost everything possible. He has won six Grand Slam titles. He has won Olympic gold medal and been a part in Spain's Davis Cup tournament team achieving Davis Cup championship twice. He achieved world number one player status in the ATP-list 18.08.2008, ending Roger Federer's 160 week lasting domination on the first place of the list. Rafael Nadal lost his number one placement about a year later, when Federer managed to retake his old world number one status. Rafa had 81 matches winning streak on the clay between 2005 and 2007 what is the longest winning streak on any surface ever in tennis. He tournament prize money is so far 20 757 647 dollars. When Rafa was 12 years old his father, Sebastián Nadal ordered his son to select one sport. Young Rafael Nadal had to choose between football and tennis because his grades had gone lower in the school. Rafa selected tennis and as it seems to be in my eyes, there is no need to regret in that decision, even he was at that age also very talented football player.

The abilities you need to have the success in sports

So what makes Rafael Nadal such extraordinary tennis player? What does he have what other players does not have? We should not speak about abilities other players does not have because Nadal is combination of many good abilities what makes him to be already at this age one best tennis players ever.  Rafa was three years old at the first time when tennis was introduced for him. His uncle Toni Nadal started to coach him and is still coaching him. Rafa is right handed but plays with his left hand. This is because of his uncle. Rafa was around eight years old when his uncle started to encourage him to play with left hand. This was a choice made because he saw the potential of his nephew to use his left hand well and because in almost any sports left handed people have natural advantage.  It is because only about 5% of all people on earth is left handed, though in the sports you can see lefties with higher percentage than in normal life. This is because players has to face opponents who are usually right handed, no matter if you are right or left handed but when you face left handed player, it is something what you are not so used to so often and you have no as much practice against lefties compared to right handed player. Tennis game gives small advantage in serving too for lefties.  Anyway we can say making Rafa to be left handed tennis player was a great call by his uncle.

Rafael Nadal has also great physical appearance what comes to his condition. He does extremely much work on the court never giving up even a little bit, playing every ball in a way it would be the most important ball in the match.  He is fast, getting the balls back with high percentage opponent is hitting. He has power in his hits but his power is not near the power what the top-hitters in tennis are using in their hits. Rafa is using heavy topspin in his hits what suits better to the clay courts and added this to his accuracy, makes him almost perfect clay player. The most important dimension in his game has actually nothing to do with his playing abilities. In individual sports you are alone on the court and there is nobody with you. Sure the coach is in the audience, maybe your friends and family too but on the court you are alone. In many matches there are two players who have very close playing skills between them and draw would be the fairest result, but in tennis somebody has to win, always. Sometimes it looks like the winner is the player who has more luck but more often players have a personal fight with themselves inside in their heads. You have to keep your nerves together when bad moments will come during the game. You have no afford to lose the concentration, you have to give full focus for the match all time. If you lose this focus you have a big problem. Many talented tennis players have big problems inside their heads when they play big matches or have important points in tight matches. In these situations they lose many times these important points to some easy unforced error what they are not usually doing. What comes to Rafael Nadal, his mental strength is something what the tennis world have not seen before. He can raise his level when needed and he usually gets only some extra boost from the bad moments. So mental strength, will to fight without giving up, fitness, speed and endurance are the abilities what makes any sportsman or woman to be hard opponent towards anybody. We have those skills in Rafael Nadal and the result is a “clay monster”.

Rafael Nadal's hardest title to win

Even Rafael Nadal has won so far almost everything possible he probably has the one title he would like to get. It is the victory of US Open. The dream of every tennis player is to win every Grand Slam tournament at least once. Roger Federer was so far the last player joining in this group achieving 2009 his 15^th Grand Slam win. Rafa has so far managed to win from the four Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open and Wimbledon once and French Open four times. US Open has always been the hardest place to Rafa to play his own game. You can give many explanations to this. The conditions of the tournament can be told to be the biggest reason. The court is fast and the balls are bouncing lower than in many other tournaments. Because Nadal uses heavy topspin, he likes if the ball bounces higher. The Wilson balls used in US-Open tournament also uses to fly fast what always favors players which have much strength in their hits. The US-Open Grand Slam tennis tournament is also scheduled to the end of the year. Nadal has usually suffered on the previous season about small injuries and has not been anymore in his top form when the US-Open has started.

The Future

Rafa is at the moment 23 years old and he should still have many years left on his top level but you can hear negative speculations too about his future. When Rafa was considered at the start of his career to be pure clay player he has managed to surprise many by bringing his game to the grass and to other faster courts. During the last two off seasons Rafa has had problems with his knees and so he had similar problems this year too. His game style gives much stress to his knees and even Rafa is at the moment the moment no doubt the best clay player in the world there has been many “clay kings” before him who have lost their sharpest level for the injuries. Rafa has been able to develop his serve during the years but his movement is still the greatest aspect in his game and if he is losing a part of that because of injuries it can be seen especially on faster courts where harder hitting players have always troubled Nadal.

As during the previous seasons, the end of this season on harder surfaces was again hard and his level seemed to be much lower, compared to the normal level what people have used to see by him playing on. Anyway Rafael Nadal has been able to shut the mouths of the doubters on previous seasons effectively. Only the time will show what Rafael Nadal can do on the coming years.