An open letter to Rafa...
Dear Rafa,
It is not often that I struggle with emotions for anyone other than Roger Federer in tennis but I certainly did when I watched you demolish Casper Ruud with one of your feet asleep! I will come back to that in a bit. 2021 and 2022 have not been the best of years if you have been worshipping Federer for the last 17 years. Daniil Medvedev gave me some time to recover from 2021 having seen Djokovic play insane level to win 3 majors and get level with Roger and yourself on the grand slam count. I was all set to follow the Australian Open without much of a worry because of the ugly Djokovic saga and the fact that you were definitely not one of the first 3 favorites to win. You built up the momentum pretty well with a win in Melbourne prior to the Australian Open and started to peak at the right time. Going through tricky matches against Shapo and Matteo, you set up the final showdown against the in form Russian. After you lost the first 2 sets convincingly, everyone thought that it was just a matter of time. But you came back like you always do, this time from being 2 sets down and 2-3 (0-40) in the third set. I have no clue how you came back from it. Even after watching you for so many years, I was stupid enough to doubt you at the Roland Garros this year. I had reasons to doubt, the most prominent being the increasingly worrisome looking foot injury that you have been carrying for more than a decade. With Novak getting better with every match, even you didn't look assured in the press conference, did you? As it turned out to be one of the best matches to be played on clay, very few could believe that you outserved, outpowered, and outrun the great Novak Djokovic. The average duration of each game was seven minutes and that is a ridiculous stat for anyone who knows tennis. Another fantastic match against Sascha which lasted over 3 hours without completing even 2 sets looked to have taken a lot out of you. An unfortunate and terrible injury to the German meant that you were going into your 14th French Open Final, a match you have never lost in your career. You demolished the poor Norwegian in straight sets and lifted the famous trophy yet another time. Fast forward to your press conference where you briefed on your injury really gave a lot of us goosebumps. I mean playing the last three matches of a major by injecting the nerves to make one foot senseless? Oh Rafa! Hats off and massive respect towards you. This is without doubt a greater comeback than Federer's 2017 season.
I have to confess that I have spent more days fuming at you than I have praising you not because I hate you or anything remotely close to that but just because of the admiration I have towards Roger Federer and the godly figure that I see him as. Your earliest memory I have is you beating Roger in Paris in the sem final of Roland Garros in 2005. My grandfather actually told me about this young Spaniard who had come close to beating Federer for the second time in a row in Miami and there you were actually beating the world number 1 just a few weeks later in Paris. Little did I know that Federer was going to come up against you five more times at Roland Garros and fail to win on all of those occasions. I was hopeful in the 2006 and 2007 French Open finals simply because of the level of tennis Federer was playing in those Calender years. I have never seen anyone play to that standard to be honest and yet you won both the finals comprehensively in four sets. In 2008 I was just hoping for it not to be a one-sided final and it turned out to be one. You annihilated the helpless swiss maestro losing only 4 games in the whole match. Those 2 hours made me fearful about the 2008 Wimbledon Final where the two of you were facing each other for the 3rd successive year, Federer triumphant in 2006 and 2007. I never thought in those 2-3 years that anyone would stand a chance against a fully fit Roger Federer on grass but that's the thing about you, isn't it? You had convinced me over those 3 years that you could really beat Roger on grass as well and you did! After I don't know how many hours of top-quality tennis and five grueling sets, Roger was finally dethroned at Wimbledon after 5 long years. I was heartbroken, crying and trying to digest what had just happened. You had made it clear back in 2006 that there was a challenger to Federer to fight for those grand slam finals but what you achieved in such a short period of time took the tennis world by storm. I must confess that I did hate you during the initial years because you were bothering Roger so much on all surfaces. After the 2008 Wimbledon, the hate slowly turned into admiration. One just couldn't help but appreciate you for the things you were doing in your early 20s. Nobody should ever forget that you were literally beating the best version of Roger Federer hands down on clay and even earning some huge victories on hard courts like the Australian Open in 2009 where 'pound for pound' I think he was the better player.
Even though I think that you were Roger's greatest ever rival, the rivalry you have had with Novak is unparalleled. You two have played some of the greatest matches in tennis history. You barely had lungs left after some of those encounters, truly unmatched! I genuinely think that in terms of all-round ability, Novak is the most complete player we have ever seen but it doesn't matter when he comes up against you, does it? Despite Novak's thrive for perfection, its your determination and fighting spirit that has taken you over the line on many occasions against Novak, especially on hard courts where he has far more arsenal than you have and I am pretty sure you will agree with it.
I was thinking about it the other day when you lifted the trophy in Paris. Is Rafa Nadal the greatest player in tennis history? Probably yes. Is Rafa Nadal the greatest fighter we have seen in tennis? The answer is a definite 'yes'. Be it the 2012 Australian Open final against Novak or the French Open semifinal in 2013 or any of the numerous crazy matches that you have fought for, no one can convince me that there is a greater fighter than you. I will never forgive you for giving me a number of heartbreaks and sleepless nights by defeating Roger. Having seen a few more heart-shattering moments after 2008 like the Wimbledon final in 2019, if I was given the superpower to change the result of one match in the history of tennis, I would choose the 2008 Wimbledon Final because it hurts as much right now as it did back then. Just like you owe me an apology for 2008, I owe you something far greater than that which can not be expressed in words. The joy I have derived from watching you play the high percentage tennis which not many players play to be honest, the excitement of the long rallies and you hitting winners off shots that other players would fail to put racquet on ball, the charisma of that forehand, the famous fist pump and sometimes the chainsaw when it really got to you! Oh man, I feel privileged to have watched you do your thing from the very start and I hope you can go on for as long as you can.
Last but not the least I have attached a digital portrait of yours as a tribute from my side.
Yours truly
Gandhar Sathe
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