Rafael Nadal makes time stop one last time

They say time stops for no man. But ever since Rafael Nadal posted that video, it feels like we've been sucked into a void where time has indeed stopped. Or maybe it is a place where time doesn't exist at all?

At the moment I honestly can't say whether it has been 15 minutes since I was tearing up at Nadal's retirement message, or 15 hours. I don't remember whether I have watched 5 videos paying tribute to the Spaniard, or 55. All I can say is that Nadal is all that matters today.

So Jannik Sinner has pummeled Daniil Medvedev yet again, and sealed the year-end No. 1 ranking? Big deal. Carlos Alcaraz has suffered a shock loss to Tomas Machac? Nobody cares. Aryna Sabalenka has overtaken Iga Swiatek in the race to No. 1? Congratulations Aryna, but I really don't want to get into all that math right now.

Everything else seems trivial, almost offensive. What we do not find trivial is that this year's Davis Cup will be the last time Nadal sets foot on a tennis court. What we can't ignore is that the Big 4 is well and truly a thing of the past, down to just one member. What we are trying - and failing - to put out of our mind is the idea that we'll never see Nadal do his thing at Roland Garros again.

That last bit hurts more than anything else, and it may have something to do with how Nadal's last appearance in Paris went down. In the first round of this year's French Open he faced Alexander Zverev - a player that many think should not be allowed to compete at all - and lost in straight sets. For a player who had only ever lost three matches on Parisian clay (and never in the first round), that kind of end didn't just feel like an anticlimax, it felt like grave injustice.

So today when I see highlights of Nadal's Roland Garros exploits - of which there are MANY - I not only have to fight back tears, I also have to stop myself from clenching my fists. He didn't deserve to go out like that; he didn't deserve to be forced to call time on his career without one last big RG run, without one last dazzling dance on the dirt.

But if you started talking about things that Nadal didn't deserve - a chronically compromised foot and a severely damaged knee are just two of those - you'd never stop. It is staggering to think that a player who won 22 Grand Slams (at one point the all-time record), 36 Masters (again, at one point the all-time record), two Olympic golds and four Davis Cups, could have won considerably more - if only he had better luck with injuries.

That the man achieved so much despite the odds being perpetually against him, is down to that word most commonly associated with him - grit. But it wasn't just your everyday grit, your run-of-the-mill tenacity. Nadal's version of it was so unyielding, so unbreakable, so everlasting, that calling him gritty - or determined, or valiant - felt incredibly reductive.

We'd seen other players with tenacity. We'd seen match point saves, championship point saves, impossible gets, unbelievable comebacks. What we hadn't seen before Nadal came along was a player so singularly focused on giving his all in every single moment that it was impossible to tell whether he was match point up, match point down, or anything in between. That Nike ad that celebrated how Nadal played every point the same way for more than 20 years? It wasn't just a marketing gimmick; it was the best possible depiction of the Rafael Nadal phenomenon.

That's not to say the Spaniard's only unique ability was his otherworldly gumption; Nadal's racquet skills have their own place in history. The curling topspin forehand was a brand new - and jaw-dropping - sight for the tennis world when it first made its appearance. His volleys were extraordinary, his footwork was impeccable, his consistency was mind-numbingly good. And his tennis IQ/court sense? It might have been the highest ever seen.

One feature article is not nearly enough to fully describe what Nadal brought to the table, and it's particularly tough on a day like today, when snippets of Nadal brilliance hit you in the face every minute. But it's almost a little funny that I am even trying, because for a long time he was Enemy No. 1 for me (and a million others).

You know what it was like for Roger Federer fans back in the day. Federer could beat everyone but Nadal; he would be invincible if not for that one annoying player; he was the master of all surfaces except one because he kept running into a brick wall there...enough reasons and more to wish for Nadal to have never picked up a tennis racquet. But just like he wore down his opponents on the court, Nadal slowly brought down the blinds before our eyes too.

He was everything you'd want a model sportperson to be. No, scratch that; he was more than what you'd expect a model sportperson to be. Nadal never put a foot wrong; he never gave you a reason to find fault in him. He was impossibly polite, unfailingly gracious, outrageously humble. And I say 'outrageously' for a reason; there have been times he has been so humble that people have had a hard time believing it was genuine.

Nadal didn't need to win us over; the fact that we hated him was not his problem, it was an 'us' problem. And he didn't make an attempt to win us over either; all through the years we never got the sense that he was trying to please anyone with his words or actions. But he won us over anyway, because are people like him even supposed to exist?

Three years ago I wrote about how Nadal and Djokovic reached an otherworldy state with the quality and intensity of their play. Nadal lost that match, but not before reminding us that even 13 Roland Garros trophies wasn't enough to make him stop fighting.

Sure enough, he returned the very next year to win RG No. 14 (beating Djokovic along the way). And while we didn't know it then, that was the last time he would be fit enough to compete at the highest level.

He tried to make a comeback numerous times, but health issues kept cropping up. And those setbacks took their toll, eventually leading us to this day. Nadal never did stop fighting; he simply accepted that he had already stretched his body beyond any reasonable limit, and that everything in life has an end.

Three years ago - and many times before and since - Nadal left earth and reached a supernatural state with his tennis. But today, with his retirement announcement, he has turned the tables on us. Now it is our turn to leave our normal existence and be suspended in a void, in a place where time has stopped.

Let's watch a thousand more of those highlight reels, read a million more tributes, shed countless more tears, because nothing else matters right now other than Rafael Nadal.