Nadal's comeback highlights French Open 2013

“I cannot be arrogant, but I cannot be stupidly humble either,” Nadal replied when asked whether he thought he was back to his best. “All I can say is that I am playing at the highest level that I could be today. I don’t know if I’m at 100 per cent, 80 per cent, 50 per cent, 90 per cent.”

With the finale of the clay court season starting today at Roland Garros, will Rafael Nadal be able to bite the French Open title for the 8th time? That’s the question which will be answered in a fortnight’s time as ‘Coupe des Mousquetaires’ comes into play starting today. After a self-imposed exile of 7 months, where he was out injured nursing a knee injury, the King of Clay may not be in the best of touch, but here, that won’t matter much. His results in the recent past show that his game still has what it takes to beat the top five in the game. He has reached the finals of all the eight tournaments he has played since his return, winning six of them (five of them on the clay). That’s truly a remarkable feat, considering he has beaten the likes of Ferrer and Federer during this run. Nadal mentioned about this comeback, “The important thing is to become competitive and to manage to win tournaments and what I did in winning six is huge.”

After his 2nd round loss at Wimbledon last year to Lukas Rosol, Nadal took a break from the ATP tour to give time for his knee to recover. After 7 long months, he was persuaded to participate at the low profile VTR Open by his uncle and coach Toni Nadal. Having reached the finals, Nadal lost to World No. 73 Horacio Zeballos, his first loss of the season. His feet weren’t moving well but his form was improving with each match. Gradually, he found his touch and the obvious started happening.

At Madrid and Rome, though he looked a tad uneasy; the magician was getting back into his forte. Even so, he floored his opponents with the same ease as in the past and then there was no looking back. His only other loss in this comeback has been to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, which makes this one of the greatest sporting comebacks this year.

Everytime I see Nadal play, he resembles the protagonist of the yet to be released, “Man of Steel”, where his uncle Toni would have said to him “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards…” Just when the critics were claiming that his best days were behind him, his game has given them a resounding slap on their faces. Having won seven out of the previous eight editions at Roland Garros (his only miss coming in 2009 thanks to Robin Soderling), he remains a unanimous favorite this year too. Add to that an ageing Federer, and an injured Murray and Del Petro sitting out, there’s only one man who could turn out to be his Achilles heel, and that is Novak Djokovic.

Despite having lost to Djokovic in the Monte Carlo Masters, a tournament he has dominated throughout his career, his consistency remains unparalleled. Nadal would like to go more towards the weaker forehand of the aggressive Djokovic, and try to dominate the game from the baseline. But Djokovic’s backhand is unmatched, and coupled with the stamina and confidence he’s gained over the years, it would truly be a fantastic matchup. It would all boil down to the mental strength and the belief to beat the other.

It would be surprising to find anyone stopping Nadal before the semi-finals, where he will likely clash with Djokovic, who is on the same side of the draw. At a personal level, if you just watch him play you would start to believe that hard work is what it takes to reach the top. For all the Nadal fans out there, just hope that his knee injury doesn’t flare up, and he could well be on his way to clinching the record eight French Open title. Vamos Rafa!