Rafael Nadal: Born to do battle, bred for brutal combat

Rafael Nadal – Loved around the world

As it is, Nadal fought back vigorously to save those break points and remain within touch of his speeding opponent. After surviving another break point in the sixth game, once again with bloody minded determination, Nadal had done enough to unsettle the confidence of his opponent. The strike had been made and once again Nadal succeeded in the brutal art of turning the hunter into the hunted.

The Spaniard has a great knack of lifting himself off the mat and turning aggressor by leaning on the strength of his consistency. He had done it to the best of them, including his arch rivals Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, in the greatest of amphitheatres that tennis has had to offer. So much so, that his opponents rarely feel safe even if Nadal were down a double break in the decider.

Nadal’s comments in the aftermath of the match were most educating, providing an insight into the corridors of his fearless mind. “If you are only one break away, at the end of the match pressure is there, nerves are there,” he explained, as he discussed the dynamics of finding his feet back in a difficult situation. “You try to put one more ball inside, try to find a little bit more, play a little bit more, and probably you are going to have the chance.”

Walking you further inside his mind, Nadal elaborated, “when you are playing against an opponent playing well, the thing that you have to do is try to push him to the limit and try to make him play very well for a very, very long time.” Most often his opponents wilt, knowing that they need to paint the lines repeatedly just to hang with the impervious Spaniard.

But Nadal was off the court by now and the beast was safely tucked away in a cosy bed. The humble, almost insinuatingly polite avatar of the great warrior was back to the fore. “I am going to have a very tough opponent in front of me. In the end, it’s another match,” waxed Nadal about his next opponent. “I am going to try to be competitive and try to play my best tennis. If not, I am going to have no chance to be through. It is not the moment to think about No. 1; it is the moment to think about Berdych.”

As educating as those words are from the greatest warrior in modern tennis, even to consider that they may have spilt out of Nadal’s heart would be the worst mistake an opponent can make. Because Nadal lies in wait like a hungry tiger, eager for the next opportunity to tear into yet another hapless opponent. A grand feast awaits his many followers when Nadal takes the court to try and put it past Berdych in the semifinals, in the process reclaiming the number one ranking for the first time since 2011.