By John McEnroe
Telegraph
May 29, 2024
Not since the days of Boris Becker have I seen such intimidation on a tennis court. Rafael Nadal is on clay what the German phenomenon was on grass. And like Becker, the amazing thing is he is so young to be so strong - both physically and mentally. The 18-year-old Spaniard is setting about his first French Open with the same conviction and fearlessness that Becker displayed when winning his first Wimbledon in 1985 - and in his case at least he had been to the All England Club once before.
This kind of physicality can frighten opponents into submission almost without a stroke being played, which is what seemed to happen to the talented young Frenchman Richard Gasquet in their eagerly awaited third-round match last week. He said he felt like a junior playing against a senior, which is no sort of admission to make, but at least at his age, 18, he has some excuse for feeling like that. Even experienced players are feeling threatened by Nadal.
Xavier Malisse, who has been around for a while, was telling me in the locker room afterwards how unnerving it was to face such strength and spins that were so different and so hard to adjust to. "You could see me moved from side to side like a yo-yo," he said. Nadal really seems to have a mental edge on these guys, so he's got twice the advantage. And if you throw in the fact that he's a lefty, his opponents aren't going to come up against too many like him to give them practice at learning how to beat him.
Gasquet's attitude was not what was required to win that match, not in the furnace that was the Philippe Chatrier Court last week. If you're a good player you have to rise to the occasion. You have to tell yourself you have to play better, 'this is going to make me better'. If Gasquet had believed in himself more - and remember he's the same age - he would have said to himself, 'Well, the crowd's going to give me a game a set, I can do this differently', not 'I feel like I'm a junior and he's a senior'. That's totally the wrong attitude. His problem at the moment is that he has a couple of good runs but he has too many bad ones.
But to get back to Nadal (pictured right). He hustles and moves so well on the court, just like Becker. What I particularly like about him is that he shrugs off bad points and plays hard on every point. He gives his opponent no breathing space. He just doesn't seem to let bad shots affect him and that's really hard to do. I suppose it's the beauty of youth: he's fearless and he loves to compete. That's a pretty lethal combination.
I don't see any weaknesses in his game when discussing the French Open. Sure, his serve could be better and it is getting better but it doesn't need to be to win this event. Nor does he need to be better at the net to do so. He would need to improve in both these areas if he had designs on Wimbledon or the US Open.
But as the defending champion Gaston Gaudio said the other day when asked if Nadal was Superman: "What does that make Roger Federer?" What it makes for is the beginnings of a beautiful rivalry. I see only two men in the field who can beat him - Federer and the Argentine Guillermo Coria, and even they may need a little help. There seems nothing in the draw to prevent a Federer versus Nadal semi-final - nor would we want there to be. It's going to be an incredible match. Right now, I think if Federer played Nadal on clay he would lose to him six times out of 10. But the world No 1 is getting his feet nicely under the table at this French Open, which hasn't always been the case in the past. He looks as though he believes he can win the tournament and he'll need that against Nadal because he's not going to be able to be as precise as he likes to be on this surface. The Swiss has shown here that he can play the defensive game, too, although not at Nadal's level, but he's a player who generally likes to dictate, which makes his match-up with the Mallorcan all the more exciting.
Federer remains the best and the only player I can see with a realistic chance of doing the Grand Slam in the foreseeable future. Nadal still has to prove he can be as effective on grass as he is on clay or hard courts.
Unfortunately Tim Henman's love affair with the French didn't last as long as some had hoped, but if anyone thought he was going to repeat last year's freak result they were kidding themselves. At least it gives him longer to prepare for the grass. Talking of which, he has my sympathy over this business with the balls being taken out of the cans early. I would like to know why they have done that at Wimbledon and I can't agree with Slazenger that it makes no difference.
But if a faster game is what's really required I don't know why they can't speed things up with the grass, even if it is this rye-grass. It's no secret that they made the courts at the US Open faster because Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi preferred it that way, so why can't Wimbledon give their own man some help. They do it in cricket, don't they? And as for whether the balls are faster or not if left in the can, so long as Henman believes it, and this time they are cracked open on court, that's all that matters. A lot of tennis happens in the head.
Maria Sharapova is almost the equivalent of Nadal in the women's game inasmuch as she competes hard for every point and seems to lack fear, although, of course, she's not as happy on clay as he is. It looks like she could take over from Lindsay Davenport as the world's No 1 this week and then she might start knowing something about fear.
When I became No 1 I suddenly found myself looking over my shoulder all the time. One way to take the pressure off yourself when approaching the No 1 spot is to say to yourself 'I'll deal with it when I get there'. I didn't want to have a strategy because I didn't want to assume that I would become No 1. But let's face it, when you get there, there's only one way to go. People expect it to continue indefinitely - and I remained No 1 for four years -even though as a human being you know what's going to happen, you just hope it's later rather than sooner.
It's difficult to know what to do when you get to that position. Do you keep playing the same way or do you try to stay ahead by doing something different? One thing's for sure, for whatever reason you're a much bigger scalp for other players when you're No 1 than when you're No 2. Sharapova will soon find that out. The trouble is, I found that even when I wasn't No 1 people still saw me as a worthwhile notch on their belt.
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