Rafael Nadal Parera has been a household name in the tennis world ever since he came on the scene as a child prodigy in 2003.
For the first few years of his career, he was considered almost exclusively a clay-court player, and during that period, he made some astounding records. One of those records is 81 consecutive wins on clay which is the longest single-surface win streak.
Nadal’s evolution into an all-court tennis player, the number of titles and over 200 weeks spent at the top of the ATP list placed him among the greatest men’s tennis players of all time.
Injuries are also part of his career and something he struggled with much more than his competitors.
That is why we didn’t know what we could expect from him in 2022.
End of 2021
Although he was not at the top of his game, Rafa was quite competitive in the first half of 2021. He won titles in Barcelona and Rome before losing in the semi-finals at Roland Garros in another epic showdown against Novak Djokovic.
After the clay-court season, Nadal withdrew from both Wimbledon and the Olympics.
He briefly returned to Washington, but officially ended the season before US Open due to problems with a foot injury that plagued him throughout his career.
Nadal started his preparation for the 2022 season in mid-December, playing at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, where he lost to both Murray and Shapovalov.
Early hard court season
After the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, Nadal had symptoms of the coronavirus, so his appearance in Australia was deemed questionable. He managed to recover in time and even won the Melbourne Summer Set 1 tournament as part of preparations for the first Grand Slam of the season.
The 2022 Australian Open can turn out to be one of the most important tournaments in Rafa’s career. Before the start of the tournament, no one thought that Nadal was one of the favorites to win the trophy.
Even without Djokovic in the draw, Rafael Nadal got a very tough route. The first 4 rounds were quite easy, but in the quarterfinals, Nadal had to come back from the brink of defeat against Denis Shapovalov. The semi-final match against Matteo Berrettini was far from easy, but Rafa’s dominant performance was enough to reach the 6th AO final.
Medvedev was a huge favorite and by the middle of the third set, Danil Medvedev had a 2-0 advantage in sets and three break points. At that moment, a miracle began, which ended a few hours later with Nadal’s second title in Melbourne. Thus, Nadal became the second player in the Open Era after Djokovic who won every Grand Slam at least twice.
It was expected that after winning the AO, Rafa would take a break until the clay season, but he decided to play the Mexican Open and Indian Wells Masters.
His undefeated streak on hard courts continued, as he won the Mexican Open and reached the final in California. In the semi-finals, he suffered a rib injury that prevented him from playing anywhere near his highest level, so he lost the Indian Wells final against Fritz.
European clay-court swing
Rafa’s preparation for his favourite part of the season certainly didn’t look as he would have liked as he has been nursing a rib fracture for more than a month. This affected his schedule, so instead of starting the clay-court season in Monte Carlo, he had to skip the Masters in Monaco and the tournament in Barcelona, before returning to ATP Tour in Madrid.
Losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open was certainly not a cause for concern. But the loss to Shapovalov in Rome after he had an apparent foot problem scared all his fans and nobody was sure if he would be able to play at Roland Garros.
Roland-Garros
Rafa arrived in Paris a few days before the start of the tournament to check if he is capable of playing long matches on clay.
Numerous pain medications and injections helped him win his record-extending 14th French Open title and record-extending 22nd major title overall. The fourth-round match against Auger-Aliassime and the quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic were very dramatic matches.
Before Zverev’s injury in the semi-finals, that match looked like it is going to be one of the longest in history, while Nadal beat Ruud routinely in the final.
Wimbledon
Almost no one expected to see Nadal at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019. Rafa underwent radio frequency treatments during June, after which he stopped feeling pain in his foot.
The opportunity to win a calendar Grand Slam was something he couldn’t miss, so he decided to play on the grass courts of the All England Club.
Unfortunately, an abdominal muscle tear forced him to become only the second player in the Open Era to surrender a match before the start of the semi-finals.
North American hard court season
That abdominal muscle injury proved crucial to Nadal’s North American hard court season. He had to miss the tournament in Canada and then lost his second-round match in Cincinnati to Borna Coric.
It certainly wasn’t the preparation for the last Grand Slam in the season that he wanted, and this time he just couldn’t perform another miracle like in Australia. Defeat to Tiafoe in the fourth round of the US Open ended his dreams of returning to the top spot of the ATP list once again.
What’s next for Rafa?
Rafa has a very slim chance to clinch Year-End No.1 because it is a well-known fact that the indoor hard court period at the end of the season is his least favorite. Paris Masters and ATP Finals are the only two major tournaments he has never won which is great indicator of his form in such conditions during the autumn months.
This year, the situation is even more difficult because he is expecting his first child and therefore does not know when he will return to the court.
He will not play in the Davis Cup, and his appearance at the Laver Cup is questionable. Hence, it is possible we will not see Nadal until the end of October when the Paris Masters starts.
Conclusion
Rafael Nadal again seems like someone very close to the end of his career. After at least temporarily solving the problem with his foot, he immediately experienced several new injuries.
But if Rafa has taught us something over the course of more than 15 years, it’s that we should never count him off. His fighting spirit and unbelievable tennis skills will continue to push him.
That’s why we can eagerly look forward to the 2023 tennis season and the continuation of the battle for the GOAT!
