As the curtain fell on Rafael Nadal’s latest attempt to capture the one big title that has eluded him, the obvious reference point was November 2009. That was the last time Nadal lost four matches in a row, a low-water mark he revisited on Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Felix Auger-Aliassime that, coupled with Casper Ruud’s dramatic three-set win over Taylor Fritz in the evening session, put paid to his hopes of advancing to the final four at the ATP Finals in Turin.
In one sense, the comparison could not be more accurate. Then, as now, Nadal’s losing sequence spanned the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals, events that are contested on quick indoor surfaces unsuited to his game, and held at a time of year when he is traditionally at his lowest ebb physically. It is no coincidence that two of his most notable periods of struggle have come at this point in the season, even if they are 13 years apart.
Yet, for that very reason, it would be foolhardy to interpret Nadal’s recent travails as evidence of decline. Yes, he is 36 now. Yes, his four losses have come against Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz and Auger-Aliassime, all (to a greater or lesser degree) rising talents aged 25 or under. And yes, he has at times looked off the pace physically over the past fortnight. But this is not a changing-of-the-guard moment. It is hard to see how Nadal can be in crisis after four matches when, five matches ago, he was still on course to complete an unbeaten season at the majors. Age hasn’t caught up with him overnight.
What has caught up with him, as he has repeatedly emphasised, is inactivity. The Spaniard’s meeting with Auger-Aliassime was only his ninth competitive match since Wimbledon, where he tore an abdominal muscle and was forced to withdraw from his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios. Nadal suffered a recurrence of the injury the week before the US Open, where he was beaten in the fourth round by Tiafoe, and his subsequent involvement at Roger Federer’s Laver Cup farewell was limited by the need to be with his wife, Mery, who gave birth to the couple’s first child last month after a difficult pregnancy.
“Six tough months in all ways,” said Nadal. “When you are facing all the circumstances that I faced the last six months, [just to] be here is positive.
“I was able to play two tournaments in the last three weeks. That’s the positive thing, something that I was not able to do for a while.
“I don’t think I forgot how to play tennis, how to be strong enough mentally. I just need to recover all the positive feelings and all the confidence and the strong mentality that I need to be at the level I want to be.”
There has been little chance to recover those feelings in Turin, where the quick conditions have played into the big-serving hands of Fritz and Auger-Aliassime, denying him time and sapping the venom from his groundstrokes. It is hard to play catch-up when your rivals are moving at breakneck speed.
Yet some perspective is necessary. Nadal’s recent travails might echo the final weeks of 2009, but they are merely a footnote to a season that, taken as a whole, bears a closer resemblance to 2010, his annus mirablis. That was the year Nadal triumphed at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and, most memorably, the US Open, where he completed a career grand slam and became the first man to win three consecutive majors since Rod Laver in 1969. It was also part of a 25-match winning streak at the majors that continued all the way to the quarter-finals of the following year’s Australian Open, where a knee injury forced him to retire against Andy Murray, ending his hopes of a “Rafa Slam”.
Nadal’s 22-match unbeaten sequence at the majors this season, which encompassed victories at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, five wins at Wimbledon and a run to the last 16 in New York, represents his best return since. Arguably it is even better, given his age and the fact that his two slam wins this year have taken his tally to 22, hauling him one clear of Novak Djokovic – for the time being at least – as the most successful male player in history.
Equally remarkable is the way Nadal has persistently defied injury. In the weeks preceding the Australian Open, he feared the chronic foot problem that has afflicted him since youth might end his career for good. Instead, he went on to win his first title at Melbourne Park since 2009, part of a 20-match winning streak that lasted until March, when he was finally beaten by Fritz in the Indian Wells final after sustaining a rib fracture.
As he raced to recover in time for the French Open, the pain in Nadal’s foot returned with a vengeance, necessitating daily anaesthetic injections throughout the fortnight. He nonetheless left Paris with a 14th title, avenging his loss to Djokovic the previous year and dismissing Casper Ruud in the final for the loss of just six games. No wonder Ruud, seeded third in Turin, refused to get carried away by suggestions from Fritz and Auger-Aliassime that he has the beating of the Spaniard.
“You can never feel comfortable playing against Rafa, no matter what form he is in or what shape,” said the Norwegian, who will face Nadal in his final group match.
“I’m sure he would like to seek some sort of revenge for his two losses and finish his ATP season in a good way.”
That much is not in doubt. If Nadal has demonstrated anything this year, it is that his appetite for the game and ability to overcome adversity remain undiminished. In time, age, injuries and fatherhood may change that. Four straight losses, at the end of a season that has evoked memories of his peak, will not. Nadal had barely shaken hands with Auger-Aliassime before he was looking ahead to next year.
“Tomorrow starts my 2023 season,” he said. “That’s all. The only thing that I can do is keep working, keep doing the things that I need to do to give myself a chance to start with real chances in 2023.
“I don’t know if I going to reach that level again. But what I don’t have any doubt [about is] that I’m going to die for it.”
He is not done yet.