RAFAEL NADAL’S FOURTH CAREER LOSS AT ROLAND GARROS MEANS THIS: LA FIN
A wonderful moment in sports — watching him rule the French Open — appears to be ending, as menacing injuries have taken him down near 38 after he joined Djokovic and Federer in mesmerizing us all
The statue of Rafael Nadal stands almost 10 feet tall. It’s made of steel and rises so imposingly over Roland Garros, I waited for Les Heros de Paris or Superdupont or some other French superhero to fix his wounded sculpturing. Stadiums and arenas worldwide never have had an athlete attached to such dictatorship, meaning he played 115 times at the French Open and won 112, a triumphant rate of 97.4 percent.
Jelly Roll regrets 98 percent of his tattoos. Sturgeon’s Law insists 95 percent of everything is crap. Cal Ripken Jr. eventually stopped playing baseball at Camden Yards in Baltimore. So when Nadal lost for the fourth time Monday, it launched hysteria that he’ll never again play at the site where he won 14 Grand Slam championships. He said retirement is possible, though the Summer Olympics will be played there this summer, and if he’s finished winning majors on the red clay at Court Philippe-Chatrier, maybe they should implode the facility.
No building ever has more perfectly personified one man, which includes the Vatican. The French love him more than their own, with a stand-up demanded between Nadal and Kylian Mbappe. In America, we’ve adopted the Spaniard in the image we’d prefer in our male tennis champions, whatever happened to them. The sport would like to call him the greatest player ever except injuries have ruined him, allowing Novak Djokovic to slip by with 24 big ones. He might show up next May, for one last roar. If not, the digits 112-4 and 14 will live forever.
“I’m a simple guy,” Nadal said. “I enjoy what I do. You know, I am passionate about sport, I am passionate about competition. I like to practice, I like to play tennis. I’m in a different moment of my personal life too, traveling with my son and wife, you know. I am enjoying these moments that will not come back. So if I keep enjoying doing what I am doing and I feel myself competitive and healthy enough to enjoy, I want to keep going for a little while.
“I don’t know for how long, but I want to keep going, because they are having fun, I am having fun. And I need to see, I need to give myself a bit longer chances to see if my level is growing and my body is holding, and then let’s make a decision. Give me two months 'til the Olympics, and then let's see if I am able to keep going or I say, ‘OK, guys, it's more than enough.’ Let's see.”
But …
“If it’s the last time that I played here,” he said, “I am at peace with myself.”
Mediocre tennis is not what we want from Nadal, who will turn 38 next week. His injuries are so monumental — a hip injury that required surgery, an abdominal issue of late — that he drifts into tears. “I wake up one day and feel like a snake bit me, the next day a tiger,” he said. “I tried everything for two years to be ready for this. I lost, but that is part of the business.”
Roger Federer retired at 41. Nadal is on the verge. The Big Three is down to a gloomy solo act, Djokovic, who lost to Jannik Sinner in Australia, No. 123 Luca Nardi at Indian Wells and Alejandro Tabilo in Rome. “Everything needs to be in order for me to have at least a chance to win it,” Joker said. If 12 of his Grand Slams have come after 30, what happens at a crusty 37? Will he leave as well? Are we down to Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner ruling the game?
The gold we consumed for almost two decades has turned to rust. Paris wasn’t just a stop on the European tour. It was the identity of Rafael Nadal. Speaking to the fans after his three-set loss to Alexander Zverev, he said, “The feelings that you made me feel here are unbelievable. I really hope to see you again, but I don’t know. Merci beaucoup.”
“Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” they chanted back.
La fin.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.