Andrea Petkovic recently took to social media to share an exhausted picture of Rafael Nadal in a bid to explain her current writing scenario. Petkovic recently expressed her views on the Spaniard, who bid farewell to tennis after his performance at the 2024 Davis Cup.
Petkovic was ranked No. 10 in the world rankings in 2011, becoming the first German player to earn a rank inside the top 10 since Steffi Graff in 1999. The 2014 French Open semi-finalist capped her illustrious career at the 2022 US Open, losing to Belinda Bencic in straight sets in the first round of the annual Grand Slam tournament.
Andrea Petkovic continues to opine on tennis players and tournaments despite retiring from her sport. On November 30, she took to her Instagram story to share a picture of Nadal's exhausted face, making a meme to explain her current struggles with writing.
"I'm writing," she hilariously captioned.
Petkovic has been into writing for quite some time now, as she started being a columnist for the German daily, Süddeutsche Zeitung, in 2018. Additionally, her essay for Racquet Magazine in 2019, titled "Tennis vs. Tennis" was recognized by Longreads with a notable mention in the Best American Sports Writing 2019 category. She has also authored multiple books like 'All the women in my (tennis) life', 'It's Time to Cut and Run' and 'The hero's journey'.
Rafael Nadal on the other hand served as a torchbearer in the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics but lost to eventual singles champion Novak Djokovic. On the eve of the Spaniard announcing his retirement, Petkovic had also shared an instance about how the tennis star would always be anxious before games.
Andrea Petkovic on Rafael Nadal - "Rafa is the best athlete in the history of sports who was always anxious"
Despite Nadal's dominance in the sport, earning two Olympic gold medals and 22 Grand Slam titles, he was always terrified of a match, as noted by Andrea Petkovic. In the Rennae Stubbs podcast, the 37-year-old said that Nadal is the best player in sport's history who always had anxiety.
"What I argued was that Rafa is the best athlete in the history of sports who was always anxious. Some tried to mince it into, ‘He’s the best athlete in the history of sports.’ That’s not what I said but he is the best athlete in the history of sports who was always anxious, he was always afraid,” Petkovic said [53:25].
She then narrated an incident from the 2022 French Open, where Petkovic witnessed Nadal sweating before his match against an unseeded opponent. Having figured out the reason behind his anxiety, she said that the Spaniard was more 'addicted' to the sport than others because winning after being terrified gave him a different sense of relief.
"I swear to God, I was like this guy is panicked, he’s terrified that he will lose to the lucky loser and then he won 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. I think why the addiction would made him addicted is he’s anxious to lose and when he wins and that’s almost a bigger emotional reward than the triumph, it gave him relief. And that’s why I think he was more addicted than others,” the German noted. [54:15]
The 38-year-old retired with 14 Roland Garros titles, earning the honor of 'King of Clay' for his dominance on clay courts.
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