Allow me the license: Rafa Nadal is not normal. It is not, sportingly speaking. ¶ Throughout the more than 25 years that I have been on the circuit, I have met thousands of tennis players, but I have never seen anyone, not a single player, who does what he continues to do at 34 years old. We are talking about an athlete of a different kind. Only. Why? Because for Nadal there are no limits, or at least not those that limit the vast majority of elite athletes. For a long time, Rafa has crossed all imaginable and even unimaginable borders, those that do not reach reason or logic. ¶ Recently, while recording a podcast for Eurosport, he chatted with Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl (two giants) and they laughed softly as they discussed Rafa’s latest feat in Paris. “There are 13 Roland Garros. 13! It’s crazy… ”. And I, year after year, I keep reaffirming it: what he endures on the track is not human. It is not normal. He can be tired, more or less slow or successful, but we can never say that he has let go in a single game. How many athletes can boast of something like this? Thanks to what his uncle Toni instilled in him, he is able to contain his emotions to such an extent that he is in another dimension. Neither better nor worse, but different, because nobody accepts adversity better than him. ¶ It is difficult for me to think of someone who performs in the day to day with such brutal intensity, prolonging that effort for so long. It is enough to witness a training session in Manacor, or a simple warm-up before a game. I have the feeling that his energy is inexhaustible and I keep repeating myself: Until when will he be able to …? The answer is simple: until the illusion lasts, not one more day, not one less. Meanwhile, he assumes everything with absolute naturalness and always good disposition. You will never deny an autograph or a greeting in a restaurant. I’ve seen it here or there, in China or in Paris, in any corner. It’s not just Spain, the impact is global. ¶ As a tennis player he has been able to absorb and evolve, to be an ever better player. His physical wear is less, his rally is more aggressive, his serve and his backhand have grown exponentially. I am still amazed at how he is able to learn. Long ago he realized that he had to find solutions for his game, and he has been incorporating them until reaching Roger Federer’s 20 greats in this strange course. And beware, he did it with risk, renouncing the option that New York offered him and betting everything on one letter: the one from Paris. Touch! ¶ He never looks back, he doesn’t indulge in his trophies. Ambition is still in orbit. Ask Wilander or Lendl; that silly laugh says it all. We have Nadal for a while. Let’s enjoy it.
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