Why Tennis Players Feared Playing Rafael Nadal!

Believe it or not, the ultimate challenge in tennis is facing Rafael Nadal on clay, at Roland Garros. Here's why Nadal never feared anyone in his prime. Now back on tour, everyone is excited at the opportunity to watch Nadal play again, and for many of us, Nadal's return to the sport triggered a nostalgic feeling, because honestly, prime Rafael Nadal was cut from a different cloth. If you watched tennis actively between 2008 and 2013, you might know better, because based on his results, records, and overall game, Nadal was at his peak and was unreal. And I feel like prime Nadal doesn't get talked about as much, because his peak came at a time when Federer was still playing at a high level, and Novak and other tennis players were also getting ready to peak. Between 2008 and 2013, Nadal won 10 Grand Slams, 37 ATP titles, and played in 54 finals. During this period, he also won the Olympic gold medal, and was the year-end number one on three occasions in 2008, 2010, and 2013. Yeah, I bet you forgot that. Let me also remind you that during this period, Nadal was at his best on all surfaces. He beat Federer at Wimbledon in the 08 final, and beat Djokovic twice at the US Open final, and still maintained his god-level dominance on clay. And he achieved all of these while playing with a foot condition and battling a couple of nagging injuries. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, because we're going to get into that and everything more that made Nadal unstoppable in his prime. From the irrepressible competitive spirit and tenacity, to his somewhat underrated technical game, global impact, and rivalries, here is why prime Rafael Nadal never feared anyone. Nadal was arguably one of the greatest teenage players in the history of tennis, and the greatest for some fans. As a kid, he was already winning Spanish junior championships in 1997 and 1998 at the age of 11, while still being undecided about his career. Tennis or football? Well, soccer for us Americans. Well, Nadal ended up choosing tennis, and us fans couldn't be more grateful that he made the right choice. Nadal turned pro at the beginning of 2001 at the age of 14, but didn't compete much on the ITF junior circuit initially. But one year later, he would go on to win 6 of the 9 Futures events he competed in, breaking into the top 200 at the end of 2002. But 2003 was truly the year Nadal burst onto the scene. After reaching the finals of a couple challengers, he beat the then world number 7 and defending French Open champion Albert Costa at the Monte Carlo Masters. Nadal then continued to break records and ended the season inside the top 50. 2004 wasn't as great in terms of results compared to the previous season due to injuries. I'd say the highlight of the 2004 season came when he beat world number 2 Andy Roddick on clay to help Spain to the Davis Cup title at the expense of the United States. 2005 was the year Nadal truly announced himself on the big stage. Federer won 11 titles that year, but so did Nadal. They both won 4 Masters titles, with Nadal winning in Monte Carlo, Rome, Montreal, and Madrid, while Federer won the Sunshine Double, Hamburg, and Cincinnati. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81, and finished the year as world number 2 and ATP's most improved player of the year. The highlight of his year was lifting the French Open trophy in his very first attempt. I feel like this moment could have happened even a year earlier if not for injuries. Alright, so 2006 came and Nadal had another clean sweep on the European clay court swing, winning all 24 matches and defending his French Open crown against Federer, who returned the favor at the Wimbledon final. By now, the Federer-Nadal rivalry was up and running at that point, and we all knew that Rafa was the only real threat to prime Federer's dominance, which we also made a video about right here. And Nadal's 2007 was almost a copy-paste version of 2006, but a little more intense. Nadal beat Federer at the Roland-Garros final yet again, denying him a career grand slam, and Federer returned the favor at Wimbledon. It's 2008 and Rafa has now entered his prime. He's already considered to be the best clay court player after winning Roland-Garros for a fourth year running, but has also beaten 5-time defending champion Roger Federer in the final of Wimbledon in a 5-set thriller that I consider to be one of the best matches of all time. Coupled with making the semis at the Australian Open and the US Open, and winning the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal, Rafa puts an end to Federer's 237 consecutive weeks at the top and ends the year as world number one for the first time. He then beats Federer on the hard courts at the 2009 Australian Open final. And for the next five years, Nadal would become an absolute beast, proving himself to be one of the very best in history. That was 2011, and Djokovic probably had reasons to believe that Nadal was the best at the time. But let's take a moment to talk about something else that I consider to be the best in its class. I recently saw a video detailing what tennis players eat in a day, and it honestly left me feeling inspired to improve what I eat. But the problem is that I don't have much free time to cook. This especially impacted my eating habits, and I'm not exactly proud to admit that I've cooked some not-so-great dinners in my time. That's why I started using America's number one meal kit HelloFresh to make sure I'm eating right. I recently ordered the Cavatappi Bolognese and Bavette steak, and each dinner was pretty much perfect for me. I can eat the perfect amount of food without feeling gross or gloated after. HelloFresh also has over 45 healthy dinner recipes I can choose from, so I'll never get the dreaded recipe boredom some of us may know a bit too well. And it's super convenient too. You just choose the recipes you want to cook, set a delivery date, and HelloFresh handles the rest. Trust me, there's nothing better than getting a perfect box of fresh, pre-portioned ingredients. Literally all you have to do is start cooking. And there's more. Click the link in the description or use my code and get free breakfast for life. So you get one breakfast item per box as long as your subscription is active. Okay, so how about we take a look at Nadal's game and see the four biggest reasons why he never feared anyone. If you've ever wondered how Nadal is capable of just grinding down his opponents, it has something to do with the extreme amounts of topspin he uses on his forehand. You see, Nadal hits the heaviest forehand topspin in the game, and his ball has an average of 3,200 revolutions per minute, but we've even seen it peak at 5,000 revolutions per minute. Bjorn Borg was one of the first players to build his game around topspin, but then Rafa came and took it to another level. Here's the thing with topspin. You achieve higher net clearance, which means fewer errors. You also get to keep balls out of your opponent's strike zone since the balls bounce higher, particularly when you hit deep. Making returns more difficult for opponents means that Nadal also gets more time for recovery and can get back in position if needed. The end result of Nadal's type of game means that he sometimes sacrifices winners for more control in the rallies. Another disadvantage is the fact that that topspin can be attacked when he hits short. The topspin also causes more strain on the body due to the physicality involved to achieve it in the first place. For Nadal's opponents, they had two options. One, to slug it out with Nadal on the baseline, or two, go for uncomfortable shots. Either way, Nadal was going to come out on top, except against a few players like Federer, Djokovic, and Murray, who could sometimes hold up, but even at that, they needed to be playing their best tennis to just stay afloat. But Nadal's game wasn't just about his forehand spin. Another underrated weapon in Prime Nadal's arsenal was his two-handed backhand. Of course, not as lethal or consistent as his forehand, but Nadal was capable of hitting clutch backhand winners on big points. His backhand, which he hits with a lot of spin as well, is effective especially when going cross-court, and it's definitely still a weapon on the clay. Maybe not as effective on brass and faster indoor courts because we don't see as much bite and penetration, and he also did struggle to hit some flat backhands down the line. He was also capable of using slices to sometimes mix up the pace of the rally. There were also times when Nadal would run around and get out of position just to hit a forehand too. No surprises there. It's literally what anyone with one of the best forehands in the world would do. Did Prime Nadal have a top 10 backhand in tennis? The answer is absolutely yes. It wasn't on Agassi's level, but it still was a solid weapon. And we could also talk about Rafa's net game. We all know that Rafa loves the baseline more than anything, but that didn't mean that he had a poor net game in his prime. Prime Nadal was aggressive and approached the net to close out points even though his strong grip wasn't the prettiest out there. His speed and agility allowed him to move up to the net quickly while anticipating and reading the opponent's play before the opponent even hit the ball. Unfortunately, Rafa's defensive playing style meant that many people didn't really know him for his net game in volleys. Perhaps the least effective weapon in Nadal's arsenal was his serve. Back in 2003, he averaged a paltry 99 mph on his first serve. That number rose to 115 mph heading into his prime, though. Although Nadal really improved his serve over the years, what I considered to be the main problem early on was his hitting arm being too straight and too high at the end of the backswing. Rafa had to employ the services of Spanish coach Oscar Barros to improve his serve, and his service motion did improve. Dominating almost everyone even without earning so many free points on his serve was really quite amazing to see for us fans. Although Nadal's serve has always been average compared to other parts of his game, I did find it interesting to see that he has one more percentage of second serve points than anyone else. Another aspect of Rafa's game that factored into his dominance was his tactical approach. Nadal always played a smart tactical game. His game plan was built around using his forehand as much as possible even with an improved serve. As a lefty, he was able to hurt opponents by drawing them out of position with cross-court forehands to their backhands, and one-handed backhand players like Federer particularly had a hard time against this tactic just because the balls jumped up so high. It wasn't as effective against Nole because he had already developed one of the best backhands in the game, but it was relatively easy against other opponents. On the physical side, I'm pretty sure we already get the gist. Prime Nadal was a phenomenal athlete. You could even call him superhuman. His speed, agility, and explosiveness are probably the best we've ever seen in the history of the sport. Even with foot issues, Rafa's movement was next-level rapid. Very few athletes in the history of the sport have demonstrated the stamina that Nadal has too. He could run and run himself out of position to hit a forehand and get back in position, making recoveries and ridiculous shots. Nadal's movement was quite weird in some ways. He sometimes hit balls on a reverse pivot off of his back foot while moving backward and still somehow managed to generate enough racket head speed and momentum to hit aggressive shots. His muscular frame wasn't as flexible as his rival Djokovic, and his movement wasn't as elegant as Federer either. It didn't need to be. At this point, words fail to describe Rafa's movement, so let me ask you guys. How would you best describe Nadal's movement and physicality? Nadal was also one of the very first players to adopt a super deep return position for hardcore tennis, which we now see with the likes of Medvedev. Unfortunately, going all out on every single point sometimes led to or worsened some of Nadal's injuries. Finally, we need to talk about Rafa's mental toughness. Nadal is one of the most difficult players to get off his rhythm. We frequently saw the Spaniard intimidate his opponents with his willpower and fighting spirit. Appearing like a gladiator on the court, many were defeated even before being on the receiving end of one of his devastating forehands. No matter what the score, Nadal seemed to play every point like it was a matter of life or death. Simply put, he didn't know how to lose. Let's paint a scenario. For many players, they'd simply let go and serve out the match on their own serve, but not Nadal. He'd rather fight back to win the final set 6-1 rather than 6-2. That's the kind of mentality that we saw with Prime Rafa. We recently saw this same tenacity pay off against Daniil Medvedev at the 2022 Australian Open final, where Nadal came from two sets down to beat Medi. But Rafa's mentality isn't just seen against opponents. We also see it in the battles that he fought against himself. More than in matches, Nadal has made his greatest comebacks against injuries. From abdominal tears to hip and wrist injuries to multiple surgeries to foot injuries, Nadal has suffered all kinds of physical problems. Literally any other player might have given up. I won't go as far as conjuring a hypothetical scenario on what an injury-free Rafa would have achieved, because staying healthy is part of the whole thing. Still, Nadal's continued comebacks from injuries when everyone wrote him off is laudable. Ironically, and on a lighter note, Rafa revealed his fears in an interview in 2013. Driving too fast, motorbikes, big dogs, and the dark. I found it quite interesting. But at this point, how would you rank Nadal's biggest strengths and abilities? For me, I'll have his physicality at number one. A close second would be his mental game. Tactics come in at number three, and the technical aspect at number four. How would you arrange your list, though? So, by developing a superior technical game on top of his remarkable physical conditioning, tactical approach, and developing a winning mentality, Nadal never feared his rivals at his peak, because he just knew what to do to overcome them. For the most part. But who were these rivals? Let's briefly look at some of the most significant rivalries from Nadal's peak years. Nadal leads Federer 24-16 in their overall rivalry and 10-4 in Grand Slam tournaments. He said that his strategy in beating Federer was patience, knowing that he could force him into mistakes sooner or later. We also saw Nadal frequently exposing the inherent weaknesses on Federer's one-handed backhand. Nadal narrowly trails Nole 29-30 in their rivalry, but leads 11-7 at Grand Slam events. He once said that he wasn't quite sure on the right tactics to beat Novak, but even at that, no player has beaten Djokovic more than Nadal, and vice versa. And then we have Andy Murray, whom Nadal leads 17-7. Interestingly, they've never met in the Grand Slam final, and it's hard to see that happening at the moment now. Murray had the least success against Nadal among anybody in the Big Three. Nadal leads the rivalry 11-6, and hardly any other player outside the Big Four can boast of more wins against Nadal than the Argentine. He was a significant threat on a couple of occasions. Entering into the later stages of his career, and having already been dealt a poor hand in terms of injuries, Nadal had to adapt and adjust his game. He made up for his loss in movement with better tactics, and was able to win five majors and reach two more finals during this period. And I feel like Rafa's resurgence wasn't talked about that much because of Federer's comeback that same year. 2015 and 2016 had been horrible years by his standards. Injuries and poor form meant that Rafa dropped out of the top five for the first time in 10 years in 2015. He also saw his record 10-year streak of winning at least one major come to an end. Nadal also didn't win any majors in 2016, and was losing in slams to literally everyone. At this point, many people wrote him off, but hiring Carlos Moya in 2016, in my opinion, was one of the best choices he made in his career. With Moya, Nadal rediscovered his intensity, which he seemed to have lost due to injuries and early losses. But Moya coming in after Nadal had been coached by his uncle Tony all his life seemed to give him a much needed confidence to head back to his winning ways. Well, asking whether Prime Nadal is the best ever is a somewhat difficult question. I'm not trying to start up any goat debate or anything, but for me, Prime Rafa was between 2008 and 2013, where he was the most genetically gifted player I've ever seen. Novak had many wins against Rafa in 2011 though, but aside from those moments, seeing someone beat Rafa was pretty rare. The king of clay was more dominant on his court than Djokovic on the hard or Federer on grass. I've seen some comments on social media where fans say that Rafa would have been the greatest by a mile if there were two slams on clay like there are for hard courts. Well, I can understand their point of view, and honestly, it's an important argument, but we have to take things as they are. Prime Nadal dominated Federer and gave Djokovic a run for his money in what many fans consider to be the golden age of tennis. We all have arguments on who's considered the goat, but nothing can take away Rafa's place in the history of the sport. His clay court record is something that cannot be adequately described in words. 22 Grand Slam titles, two career Grand Slams, 14 French Open titles, 36 Masters 1000s, a top 10 presence in the ATP rankings consecutively from April 2005 to March 2023, a record spanning 912 weeks, the most clay court titles, an 81-match winning streak on clay, and 50 consecutive sets won, four Grand Slams won without losing a set, 112 match wins at the French Open, 209 weeks as the world number one, five year-end number one trophies, 92 ATP titles. We could go on and on with the records, but I'm sure you get the gist. Some of Rafa's records might never be broken. If you were to describe Rafa in one word, what would it be? Warrior? Intense? Ruthless? Fighter? Rafa's passion for the game and charisma have endeared him to many of us. Hardly anyone could stop him in his prime because of his physical and mental toughness. Adding everything up, it's easy to see why we love and respect Rafa. He brought a new level of competitiveness to tennis, and even if he doesn't win another major or title in 2024 or beyond, it's been an absolute pleasure watching the Spaniard play. I don't know about you, but I'm so excited to see Rafa back on the tour. But let me ask you guys, how well do you see him performing this year? A return to the top 10? Another Roland Garros title? Another Olympic title? Or are we asking too much for the veteran player? And as you guys already know, we make many of our videos based off what y'all want, so what other videos of ATP and WTA players or other tennis-related subjects would you love to see in the coming weeks? And what are your thoughts about HelloFresh? Make sure to let us know in the comments.