Rafa Nadal is the new 2014 French Open Champion. It’s not his first time, by the way. It is, in fact, his ninth time in ten years. Rafa has only ever lost once at the French Open.
His record is 66 match wins and one loss. An amazing record and one that may last the test of time.
Oh, and he is not finished yet. Nadal will come back next year to defend his title and the year after that and, more than likely, the next couple of years after that.
Rafa Nadal is the greatest player of all time on the clay courts of Roland Garos, the French Open venue. He is a very humble champion. Rafa thanks his coach, his family, the crowd and his opponents. He enjoys the battle so much, he credits this enjoyment as the constant driving force and motivation behind his relentless efforts to train hard and be the best he can possibly be.
Some say Rafa is the all time leader in the area of mental toughness. You see clay tennis courts are a breed of their own. They are slow, high bouncing, capture the spin to propel the ball up and over the shoulder height, slippery when dry and heavy when wet. To win a match on clay takes amazing bravery to track, chase and scrape every ball and get it back one more time than your opponent can.
I was fortunate to take my academy to France for tournaments several years in a row. We lobbed into Paris, found our training venue, hit a million practice balls over three days and then travelled to the first tournament destination. Two of my players entered the gates for their first match. Four and a half hours later, the first exited those same gates with a win under his belt. He couldn’t actually walk. We had to go on court and help him off. The second spent five minutes hanging onto the net after his victory, then slowly dragged himself from the arena. They were spent. They slept all afternoon and then lost the next day. What an experience. Rafa does it day in day out.
They say it takes the highest level of mental toughness to win a match. Rafa has been undefeated all but once in 10 years on this heart-wrenching surface at Roland Garos.
Is it actually amazing mental toughness, though….OR….does he just thrive on the enjoyment of the battle.
Rafa understands ‘competition’. He knows how to engage himself and his opponent and go head to head using every ounce of his ability to gain the upper hand. He loves the challenge of pushing himself to the limits. He respects the guy up the other end in every match he plays. He understands how to break that player down and come away with the win. He enjoys the battle.
Rafa said in an interview that the reason he, Federer and Djocovic have dominated world tennis for the past eight years, is that they love the toughest moments in a match and figure out winning ways during those moments. They all love the battle.
So next time someone says to you, “you need to be more mentally tough”, maybe you just need to enjoy the toughest moments and find your winning way. It’s actually why we play sport!
You just need to enjoy the battle!
Leave a Reply