by Linda Robertson, Miami Herald
May 22, 2024
MIAMI - At first glance, you notice Rafael Nadal's pants, and how oddly old-fashioned they are. White, calf-length pedal pushers on a tennis player in 2005?
But once Nadal starts hitting the ball, you realize there is nothing conservative about his game. The 18-year-old lefty, swashbuckling around the court in what he calls his "piratas,'' is making a statement, but it has little to do with fashion.
He is a prodigy on a 17-match, three-tournament hot streak, suddenly the favorite to win the French Open, which starts Monday in Paris.
The kid they call "El Nino'' has taken tennis by storm.
He has been so dominant on clay this season that he could turn Suzanne Lenglen court at Roland Garros into his own private sandbox.
Nadal, a Spaniard who grew up on the island of Majorca - He has never played the French Open before, because of injury, but that hasn't kept everyone in tennis from raving about his chances to win the most grueling Grand Slam.
"It's been an unbelievable rise for him,'' said U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, who got a close-up view of Nadal's skills when Spain trounced the United States. "He is a physical animal. At 18 he's built like a Mack truck. If he gets in position to hit a ball, he doesn't miss.''
Nadal has the all-around game of Roger Federer, the fiery presence of Lleyton Hewitt and the imposing size and power of Andy Roddick - although Nadal's serve is not yet the bullet that Roddick shoots. Nadal is so promising that he threatens to usurp all three. He's the leader of the sport's teenaged "New Wave.''
"I'd be more surprised if Nadal lost in the first week than if Federer lost early,'' McEnroe said.
McEnroe compares Nadal's "intensity and arrogance'' to Thomas Muster, the last left-hander to win the French Open, in 1995. Muster practiced with Nadal four times earlier this month and was impressed with the way Nadal set up shots and read angles.
"We'll have to see how much energy he has left for the French because he's very young and there are a lot of things for him to cope with mentally,'' Muster said. ``But he's not waiting for it to come to him - he's got the attitude that he's going to go for it.''
Nadal was turning heads last season, his second full year on the ATP Tour. But this year he has been - in his sleeveless electric orange shirt - aflame.
He came within two points of upsetting No. 1 Federer then lost in five sets in the NASDAQ-100 final in Key Biscayne. He has compiled a 31-2 record on clay, winning five titles and three straight at Monte Carlo, Monaco, Barcelona and Rome in April and May. He climbed from No. 31 to No. 5 in five weeks, before taking two weeks off before the French Open, to become the youngest player to ascend to the top five since Michael Chang (17 years, five months) on Aug. 7, 1989.
Statistically, Nadal has broken opponents an average of 4.6 times per match, and he leads men's tennis in three return-of-serve categories.
"He just loves the battle and it doesn't matter whether he wins or loses the first set - he comes right back in the second ready to go,'' said Jim Courier, French Open champion in 1991 and 1992. ``He hits a very heavy ball and uses the weight of his shots effectively. One thing I think is underrated is his movement. He's able to turn defense into offense with his power.''
Nadal showed off his speed and agility in two victories against former clay king Guillermo Coria, regarded as the quickest in the game. He beat Coria in Monte Carlo, then in a five-set, 5 hour 14 minute test of endurance and will in Rome.
"At 0-3 in the fifth, my energy is finish,'' Nadal said after winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. ``It is thanks to the public, their support, I knew I could win. It was my toughest match ever.''
The two could meet again in Paris. Argentina's Coria was on the verge of winning last year when he was overcome by cramps and nerves and in a bizarre collapse, lost to countryman Gaston Gaudio. Nadal also could play Federer, who tuned up with a win on the slow clay of Hamburg. Or he could meet his boyhood idol and island neighbor Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion.
Nadal was primarily a soccer player until age 12, only fitting since his uncle Miguel Angel Nadal was the strapping defender on the Spanish national team for three World Cups and a club star for Majorca and as the "Beast of Barcelona'' before his retirement this year.
Encouraged by junior tennis titles and his uncle Toni, Nadal chose to concentrate on tennis six years ago. Toni remains his coach and Rafael prefers to train at home, near his close-knit family.
Nadal, who turns 19 on June 3, has five more opportunities to make this exclusive list: Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Pete Sampras and Chang all won Grand Slam titles as teenagers.
His best chance would appear to be on clay, which rewards his extreme topspin and silky footwork, but he proved he's adaptable to the faster surfaces at the Australian Open (where he lost in five sets to Hewitt in the fourth round), the NASDAQ and Wimbledon in 2003 (where he advanced to the third round in his debut.)
"For him the upside is fairly large because he's already shown he's not afraid of other surfaces,'' Courier said. "His game may not be adaptable to grass, but his attitude is. He's firmly committed to it and as the grass courts have firmed up at Wimbledon, it's given the ground-strokers the ability to compete there.''
Nadal is fun to watch - sliding and skidding and diving, his long black hair bouncing with each shot, his smile lighting up on winners - and he says it's because he's having fun on the court.
"I feel good on the court, I am happy on the court,'' Nadal said. "And I think that's the reason I win matches.''
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