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A14 sports
Monday 6 June 2022
Foot pain leaves French Open champ Nadal’s future uncertain

By HOWARD FENDRICH name, so it sounded as if
AP Tennis Writer they might be booing.
PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nad- Nadal is 14-0 in finals at Ro-
al’s painful left foot was land Garros, 112-3 overall.
numbed by multiple injec- When this one ended with
tions to two nerves through- a down-the-line backhand
out the French Open, the from Nadal, he chucked his
only way he has found to racket to the red clay he
deal with a chronic condi- loves so much and covered
tion he acknowledges puts his face with the taped-up
his tennis future in doubt. fingers on both of his hands.
At any other tournament, No man or woman ever
Nadal said, he would not has won the singles trophy
have persisted through at any major event more
what he called such “ex- than his 14 in Paris. And no
treme conditions.” man has won more Grand
Ah, but five simple words Slam titles than Nadal.
uttered after he strung to- He is two ahead of Roger
gether the last 11 games of Federer, who hasn’t played
a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 victory over in almost a year after a se-
an overwhelmed Casper ries of knee operations,
Ruud in Sunday’s intrigu- and Djokovic, who missed
ing-for-a-handful-of-min- the Australian Open in Jan-
utes final at Court Philippe uary because he is not vac-
Chatrier explained Nadal’s cinated against COVID-19.
mindset: “Roland Garros is For all that he has accom-
Roland Garros.” plished already, Nadal
And so even if Nadal, a now has done something
French Open champion for he never managed previ-
the 14th time now at age ously: He is halfway to a
36, is in obvious ways differ- calendar-year Grand Slam
ent from Nadal, a French thanks to titles at the Aus-
Open champion for the tralian Open and French
first time all the way back Spain's Rafael Nadal lifts the trophy after winning the final match against Norway's Casper Ruud in Open in the same season.
three sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0, at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris,
in 2005 at age 19, that de- France, Sunday, June 5, 2022. But if he can’t play at Wim-
sire to give his all, no matter Associated Press bledon, which he has won
what, to “find solutions” — twice, that doesn’t really
one of his oft-used phrases from side to side, forward the All England Club on making just 16 to Ruud’s 26. matter much.
— remains the same. and backward, speeding June 27. After trailing 3-1 in the sec- Ruud considers Nadal his
He is the oldest champion in to, and redirecting, balls If these new treatments do ond set, Nadal would not idol. He recalls watching
the history of a tournament off an opponent’s racket not work, Nadal said, then cede another game. all of Nadal’s past finals in
that began in 1925, and his seemingly destined to be he will need to consider “After that moment,” Nad- Paris on TV. He has trained
hair is thinning on top. The unreachable.Nadal is noth- having what he termed al said, “everything went at Nadal’s tennis academy
chartreuse T-shirt he wore ing if not indefatigable, major surgery — and, even- very smooth.” in Mallorca.
Sunday had sleeves, unlike just as he was in consecu- tually, a “decision about Sure did. They have played count-
his biceps-baring look of tive four-hour-plus victories what’s the next step in my The view from the other less practice sets together
nearly two decades ago. earlier in the tournament future.” side of the net? there with nothing more at
The white capri pants that — including against Novak “It’s obvious that with the “I’m just another one of the stake than bragging rights.
ran below his knees back Djokovic, the defending circumstances that I am victims,” Ruud said, “that Nadal usually won those,
in the day were long since champion and No. 1 seed playing (in),” Nadal said, “I he has destroyed on this and Ruud joked the other
traded in for more stan- — and again on this after- can’t and I don’t want to court.” day that’s because he was
dard shorts; Sunday’s were noon, even while compet- keep going.” One of the most indelible trying to be a polite guest.
turquoise. ing on a foot devoid of any During the trophy cere- memories Ruud will take The two had never met in
Here’s what hasn’t feeling. mony, Nadal thanked his away from this day was a real match until Sunday,
changed along the way to “When you are playing family and support team, hearing the announcer re- when a championship,
his 22 Grand Slam titles in defensive against Rafa on including a doctor who ac- cite the long list of years money, ranking points,
all, another record, in ad- clay,” said Ruud, a 23-year- companied him to Paris, Nadal had previously won prestige and a piece of his-
dition to his between-point old Norwegian who was for helping him, because the French Open: 2005, tory were on the line. And
mannerisms and meticu- participating in his first ma- otherwise he would have 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, Nadal demonstrated, as
lous attention paid to the jor final, “he will eat you needed to “retire much 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, he has so often, why he’s
must-be-just-so placement alive.” before.” 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. known as the King of Clay
of water bottles and towels: Nadal said afterward he “I don’t know what can “Never stops, it seems like,” — and among the game’s
That lefty uppercut of a top- will try other methods of happen in the future,” Ruud said. “That takes like greatest ever.
spin-slathered, high-bounc- helping his foot — includ- Nadal told the crowd, “but half a minute.” “It’s something that I, for
ing forehand still finds the ing, even, a way “to burn, I’m going to keep fighting When the players met at sure, never believed — to
mark much more frequent- a little bit, the nerve” — to try to keep going.” the net for the prematch be here at 36, being com-
ly than it misses, confound- over the next week to see He played so crisply and coin toss, the first chants petitive again, playing in
ing foes. That ability to read whether that might allow cleanly Sunday, accumu- of “Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” rang out the most favorite court of
serves and return them with him to enter Wimbledon, lating more than twice as in the 15,000-seat stadium. my career, one more time
a purpose still stings. That where he has won two of many winners as Ruud, 37 Ruud would later hear folks in the final,” Nadal said. “It
never-concede-a-thing his men’s-record 22 Grand to 16. Nadal also commit- in the stands do drawn-out means a lot to me. Means
attitude propelling Nadal Slam titles. Play begins at ted fewer unforced errors, pronouncements of his last everything.”q