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It was after midnight at the Madrid Open, and Rafael Nadal was having more success holding off tears than he had had holding off young Jiri Lehecka. But many others in the Caja Magica were not showing such restraint.
Nadal’s wife, sister and parents were among those crying openly in the stands after what, by all appearances, was Nadal’s final official match in the Spanish capital.
Even his opponent Lehecka was feeling overcome as he sat courtside and took in the scene and ceremony that he had brought about with his cool and often-dazzling performance on an occasion when many players would have cracked.
“Bittersweet,” Lehecka said of his 7-5, 6-4 victory in the round of 16.
Bittersweet seemed the right word from just about any perspective as Nadal bid farewell to the most important individual tournament held in his home country. It has changed seasons and even surfaces through the years, but he first played it in 2003 and won it five times.
“I’m not yet finished, but it’s true that here in Madrid, this is the last time,” he said to the crowd. “For me, it’s been a gift that you’ve given me for all these 21 years that in truth is perhaps more important than a Grand Slam that I won out there. The emotions I get from this court, from playing in Madrid and playing in front of the Spanish public is something that will stay with me forever.
“I have had the luck to be able to make my hobby into my work and to do it in a prominent way. I feel super fortunate for everything that I have experienced in life. I could ask for absolutely nothing more. I hope that in some way I’ve been a positive example for the next generations, which I think is the most important.”
This is not as common a parting wish these days as one might hope, but Nadal, who has never broken a racket in anger, has long emphasized being a role model on court. He certainly has passed the tennis torch in Spain. Hours earlier, Carlos Alcaraz took to the same center court and fought off Jan-Lennard Struff in a third-set tiebreaker to reach the quarterfinals of the event he already has won twice at age 20.
One Spanish prodigy has led to another, which is not the way it necessarily works. There is no foolproof formula when it comes to the alchemy that creates tennis champions and of course no guarantees that Alcaraz will have a career that will some distant day put him in the same breath as Nadal, a winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, two Olympic gold medals and so much more, a lot of it on the red clay where he has routinely reigned supreme.
But dominance has proven elusive in this stretch run. Since his return from a three-month break, which came shortly after an 11-month break, Nadal’s record is 4-2. He was beaten in straight sets in the second round in Barcelona by Alex de Minaur and beaten in straight sets again in the fourth round in Madrid by Lehecka.
De Minaur, ranked 11th, and Lehecka, ranked 31st, are both accomplished and comparatively young. De Minaur is 25 years old; Lehecka is 22. Their early tennis memories include watching Nadal win big and often on television.
And yet neither has won a claycourt title on tour or even reached a claycourt final. These are the sorts of players whom Nadal presumably would have ground to a fine dust in his prime; overwhelming them with grad-school geometry and forcing them to go for too much with his relentless defense and opportunistic offense on the surface that he has made his surface.
The equation has understandably changed with Nadal approaching his 38th birthday in June and planning to make this his final season. He cannot cover the clay as he once did; cannot rely on his weapons to find their targets as often as they once did, either. Recovery seems to be a bigger challenge, too. Both defeats since his comeback have come when he had to play on consecutive days.
But it was still a reaffirming farewell visit to Madrid: bringing him three much-needed victories, including a straight-set score-settler over De Minaur, and, until proof to the contrary, no injuries to keep Nadal from continuing his emotional journey.
“I came here with doubts in every sense, and I am leaving with fewer doubts,” he said, sounding very much like himself.
Next destination: Rome and the Italian Open, where he has won 10 times.
By the end of that event, he plans to announce whether he will head to Paris, where he has won 14 times at Roland Garros and become a part of the landscape with his statue just inside the main gate.
He hopes to return to Paris for the Olympics in July and August and is already talking openly about teaming up with Alcaraz in doubles. He also has announced his participation in the Laver Cup team event in September in Berlin and could play again in Spain in Davis Cup. The group stage is in Valencia and the finals are in Malaga in November.
But given the oft-fragile state of Nadal’s body, nothing is certain, and everything is gravy.
“It’s been a very special week for me, very positive in many ways,” Nadal told the crowd in Madrid. “I’ve had the opportunity to play here again on this court that has given me so much in all senses: on a sporting level and emotional level. Only a few weeks ago, until two days before I left for Barcelona, I didn’t know if I’d be able to come back and play an official match.”
“Sincerely what I want to do is say thank you. It’s been an incredible journey. It started when I was really young and the first time I came here, if I don’t remember badly, was in 2003 but I think the first time I came…”
At this stage, Nadal paused, his voice starting to break. Sensing this, the fans began to roar their support, and Nadal kept it together and continued: .“The first time I came here feeling competitive was in 2005 and that was one of the most emotional victories I had in my career.”
That was before the Caja Magica complex was built and the tournament switched to clay. In 2005, it was held on indoor hardcourts in October in the Madrid Arena. Masters events were then best-of-five sets, and Nadal was able to rally from two sets down to defeat Ivan Ljubicic for the title in a fifth-set tiebreaker.
The downside was that he injured his foot and could not walk the next day. He missed the rest of the season, and the Australian Open in 2006 with some doctors expressing doubt that he would be able to continue his career. He proved them wrong but the foot condition has continued to trouble him.
“It was the beginning of the many problems that I have had,” he said of the Ljubicic match. “But it’s one of the victories that I hold most dear.”
After the tournament moved to May and switched to clay, Nadal won one of the best three-set matches ever played, defeating Novak Djokovic after saving three match points in a four-hour semifinal in 2009 before losing the final to his other defining rival: Roger Federer. Nadal went on to win the title again in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2017.
After the loss to Lehecka, the organizers, including tournament director Feliciano Lopez, Nadal’s longtime friend, marked the moment by unveiling five huge banners: one for each Nadal victory.
The fact that two of the five banners got hung up and did not fall quickly and smoothly into place seemed symbolic. The quicker conditions in Madrid were not an ideal fit for Nadal’s game despite the clay, whether it was red or, very briefly, blue in 2012. He was playing at home but not in the comfort zone.
Tuesday’s defeat provided another example as Lehecka, a strapping Czech with uncommon power, dominated with his first serve, putting 71 percent in play and winning 89 percent of the points when he did. Nadal, one of the finest returners in history, got just one break point and did not convert it.
“He played unbelievable,” Nadal said. “His serve was huge but even more in Madrid with the altitude.”
The power gap was not only evident on the serve. Lehecka’s average groundstroke speed was 17 kilometers-per-hour faster than Nadal’s.
Lehecka, who certainly looks like a future top 10 player to me, also demonstrated a deft touch, winning 14 of 20 points at net where he repeatedly came up with half-volley dropshot winners off dipping Nadal passing shots. He has a complete game, and he had 36 total winners to the Spaniard’s 14.
At one decisive stage late in the first set and early in the second, Lehecka won 16 of 17 points. Not many have done that against Nadal on any surface. Even fewer on clay.
Too good but also not good enough from Nadal if we are looking at him objectively rather than sentimentally. His groundstroke depth needs to improve against the best. He needs to close points with his forehand more consistently instead of letting opponents off the hook. He also needs to volley and serve better and even serve-and-volley better.
None of that is out of the question in the weeks ahead. He is one of the greatest champions in any sport: a fighter and problem solver of the highest order.
He will be a legitimate underdog for a change if he gets to Roland Garros and will be unseeded, which could make for a Djokovic-Nadal or Sinner-Nadal first round.
It is better to face him this year than in, say, 2010. But even now who truly wants to play him there over best-of-five sets with a day off between matches and the crowd surely in his corner?
“I feel lucky enough with all the things that have happened to me, but of course I’m excited for the next couple of weeks on the tour,” he said. “I want to explore the options I’m going to have to keep enjoying more tennis, and I’m going to keep trying.”
Of that we can be certain, even if Nadal is now done striving at the Caja Magica although not necessarily in Madrid (there is chatter about the Real Madrid presidency one day).
In defeat, he did his best to keep the mood light after midnight, at least for a little while.
“It was a joke,” Nadal said when he took the microphone. “Next year, I will be back.”
There was laughter at that, but the tears were soon flowing in the stands if not quite on the court.
“I tried not to look at them, honestly, because I didn’t want to cry,” Nadal said of his family. “For me, even if it’s an emotional day, it’s not my last match. I’m not retiring here, just saying goodbye to a very special place for me. I don’t know when is going to be my last match, but I don’t want to become too emotional, because I want to try to keep going for a while and just try to keep focused on my path.”
Next challenge: Maintaining a dry eye in the Foro Italico.
CC