Paris in Autumn ...

 

A change of season ...

Same old French Open champion ...

20-20. It's fitting ...

Well here I am.  Long time, no post.  It's taken me a while to dust down the cobwebs of this old place and find my way around it again.  It's almost "as you were" from when I first started this little blog.  Doing it quietly in the background and not letting anyone know I was doing it.  I started this back in 2009, just before the start of the clay season when all the talk was whether could co5/5.  He didn't.  But it's purpose was so that I could use it as a sort of on-line diary of Rafa's career, because there would be some point in the future where I could look back and enjoy it all.  So I quietly went about doing my business here until eventually it got found, grew legs, and became what it was.  But it was a bit of a commitment to keep it going.  Finding the pictures and videos and the time to write up what I thought after Rafa's every match.  And then the sheer exhaustion of being a Rafa fan.  The absences through injury and just getting too overwhelmed in some sportsperson's career.  Time and life took over and yes, the obsession waned.  I see that I last posted in 2017.  La Decima and Rafa's Sweet Sixteen were the highlights of the year and here I am today posting about a tumultuous Twentieth.

I don't follow Rafa's matches as much as I did, but when he's in Europe it makes it easier for me.  Plus, of course, it mostly centres around Rafa's season on the clay.  And do I even mention the C-word here (corona) when its taken over all of our lives across the world and decimated what we knew as normal?  Even the clay court season.  Who would ever have thought that Rafa would defend his Roland Garos title during October, in autumn and largely under a roof?  Absolutely noone.  And yet, that's what he did.  

Because of the virus I'm confined by my company to working from home and that is the "new normal" for me.  But it did give me the chance to watch the French Open and Rafa's matches from the comfort of my sofa and I didn't miss a stroke.  Even when I had to sit up till around midnight to watch him complete a match.  Another first for the French Open.  And although I thought he played a nervy third set in his semi-final against that annoying little mosquito Swartzman ... bang.  There he was.  In another French Open final.  I even watched the Prince of Darkness's semi just in case I was able - read hopeful - of seeing an upset.  But at already 2 sets up and as he was about to serve for the match I switched off.  I didn't want to see a P-o-D victory and I'd got bored of hearing Djokovic's Rent-a-Mob foul fans.  Couldn't believe it when a PseudoFed tweet alerted me to the fact that what?  The match had just finished and he'd ended up being taken to 5 sets?  What the ...

But did that make me think that Rafa had a chance?  I hoped that he'd give it a real good go but deep down in the recesses of my soul, I didn't think he would win.  Been there too many times you see.  You always end up hopeful ... but sadly it usually ends up with the same result.  The P-o-D has always too much swagger against Rafa.  Barely a doubt that he's not going to win.  And whilst my thoughts on Saturday were taken up by the final and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up on Sunday morning, I busied myself till it was time to sit down and watch the match and to keep myself levelled to a probability that he wasn't going to win.

But then wow.  I never, ever in a million expected to see what we saw.  A 6-0 first set?  Unheard of.  Tactically astute, always under control.  Not ever being flummoxed away from his plan.  He nullified Nole.  Amazing.  But even when he won the second set the fear in my stomach was still there.  It just is when you're a fan, isn't it?  You just feel that surely this can't keep on going till the end of the match, that a some point, somewhere, something will happen to spark Djokovic and he'll slime his way back into it.  But Rafa secured a break in the third.  Surely, will this be?  Will it be enough?  Not quite.  When the P-o-D broke back and roared himself and Rent-A-Mob into action, I became fearful.  Part of tennis's attraction is that matches turn in a heartbeat, even when a player seems down and is losing, there's always a way to drag themselves back.  So when Djerk then held serve and Rafa was in catch up meaning that any single slip up would mean the loss of the set ... I felt sick.  But Djerk carried on making the odd mistakes in the games.  He couldn't get the momentum running of flawless play and at 5-5 when serving, he cracked.  Two close and correct calls putting his serves out gifted Rafa the break.

Oh ... My ... God.

In my old Rafateer days it was my job to count down the points when Rafa was serving for championship matches.  1-2-3-4.  And mentally I was going ... 1.  Then 2.  But to be honest,  my heart was in my mouth and I couldn't even tell you about the final two points.  Did Rafa win on an ace?  I seriously don't remember.  And there you have it, folks.  His thirteenth title played over a tournament lasting 13 hours and 13 minutes.  You couldn't write it.

I cannot remember a final played with such commensurate skill, thought, tactical nous and sheer commitment.  His mental attitude was awesome.  Too many times we've seen Rafa crumble under the toxic nautiousness that is Novak Djokovic.  But to perform that game plan with such steely determination and down right unadulterated skill was awesome to watch.  Well done Charly Moya and team for getting Rafa in a position to perform like that.  And may we see more of it in the future.

And so here we are.  Rafael Nadal now holds 20 Slams.  20.  Throughout all of his career he's been inextricably linked with that of Roger Federer.  Our shared history has lived through fan wars and the naysayers who were aghast that a "dirt monkey", a "moonballer" from Majorca in funny clothes with long hair and fist pumps could take their man to the cleaners in terms of their head-to-head but when all is said and done, he would never, no NEVER amass the same number of Slams as him to challenge the infamous GOAT title.  Well he just did.

And for me, if it all ends like this then it is fitting.  20-20 in 2020 for these two rivals across all that has gone on over the years is simply ... fitting.  Equal, but always different.  And we thank the Lord that Rafa was.

I won't make this my last post as there will eventually be one.  And we all know what it might be.  With the world in the current turmoil that it is, who knows when tennis and the tournaments will return to what we know and what we enjoy?  Who knows when and how this story might end?  Until then we keep moving forward safe in the knowledge of one, familiar fact.

Rafael Nadal is the French Open champion.