The power of the mind - Rafael Nadal

For Rafael Nadal, the match was never about prolonging his record or proving his dominance on the dusts of Paris. He is beyond that. This was to prove to everyone out there and to himself, that yes, although he did break down and crumble when life struck him with a blow, he bounced back. He was told to give up, told to stop trying and embrace defeat.

But that is not how Rafael Nadal works.

Tennis is largely a game of the mind and no one exemplifies that better than Nadal. He faced a physically superior and more fit Djokovic and yet, it was the Serb who burnt out first. Every time Nadal’s muscles felt like giving up, his belief would feed and replenish his energy like an electrolyte. Djokovic had to be attended to before the third set and also had a few altercations with the Chair Umpire, including an awkward – and later rejected – request for the clay near his baseline to be watered because it was “too dry and too hard”.

“I learned during all my career to enjoy suffering, and these kind of matches are very special,” Nadal said. “You don’t have the chance to play these kind of matches every day.”

Be it a turbo-powered forehand or a passive backhand, every shot Nadal played yesterday symbolised everything he has needed these past few months – grit, determination and every ounce of strength in his body. The power his mind gives him is like a strength-inducing, performance-enhancing drug – manufactured, produced and supplied by the belief of Rafael Nadal. It enables him to go for that extra lunge, leap that extra stride and smack that extra shot.

In situations where many would have been bereaved of hope and resigned themselves to fate, Nadal stood back up, lifted his head high and patted the dust off of his back. Where many would have been left to bite the dust, he rose from the sea of vulnerability and every time, returned a stronger man.

That is the power of Rafael Nadal’s mind.