“He had the chance” Fernando Gonzalez believes Rafael Nadal could have won the Calendar Slam this season
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Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez
World No. 3 Rafael Nadal has enjoyed a brilliant season so far this year. Although he has been held back by a couple of injuries, he can still hold his head high. Coming fresh from an injury break of nearly 4 months, Nadal went on his best career start to a season by winning 20 consecutive matches that saw him clinch his Grand Slam title number 21 at the 2022 Australian Open, his second in Melbourne Park.
After picking up a stress fracture in his rib that delayed his start on Clay, his comeback was tainted by the recurring foot injury that forced him to play with painkillers at the 2022 French Open where he won his 14th Roland Garros title and record-extending 22nd career major. Rafa is currently 35-3 for the season with a 20-1 record on hard courts, 10-2 on clay courts and 5-0 on Grass.
“Rafael Nadal has stopped surprising me”: Fernando Gonzalez
Nadal could have well won the 3rd Grand Slam of the year as well as he fought his way to the semi-finals of the recently concluded 2022 Wimbledon Championships. He had to retire before his semi-final bout with Nick Kyrgios having torn his abdominal muscle during his quarter-final win over Taylor Fritz. Nadal was forced to withdraw and his chances at winning the Calendar Slam ended with it as he had to stop despite having a 19-0 record in Grand Slam matches for the season.
“He has stopped surprising me. I thought he was going to play until young and he is playing until old. When he blew up we didn’t think he was going to win Wimbledon and he already won it twice and so on. He had chances to continue for the Grand Slam. Djokovic came very close to winning it last year. It must be a huge pressure and very exhausting, I would have liked to see someone achieving that feat,” said former World no. 5 Fernando Gonzalez speaking with Claytenis.
Fernando and Rafa played each other 10 times on the court with Nadal leading the head-to-head tie 7-3. After the first four matches, Fernando was actually leading the tie with a 3-1 score which was later bettered by Nadal in the consequent meetings. Nadal’s Olympics Gold in 2008 came at the expense of Gonzalez who had to settle for the Silver medal having earlier won the Bronze in Singles in 2004 along with the Doubles Gold in 2004, bringing Chile its first-ever Olympic Gold.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)