How and why Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are evergreen
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic being dragged into unnecessary statistics is uncalled for as it only tarnishes the legacies of the two greats.
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Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal make news, whether they play or lose, rise up the rankings or fall, are injured or banned from entering a country. These two gentlemen have been the sum and substance of men’s tennis in the last few years and nowadays. If Rafa is back in the gym and working his butt off, it is big news.
For, it is a sign he is resuming training, even if he is going to take time to plan his return to competitive tennis. The clay swing, culminating at the French Open later in 2023 will be his realistic target of winning his 23rd Grand Slam title. He has been slammed, criticized, and ripped apart, for various reasons. Hardly matters.
If you have followed the career of Spanish legend Rafael Nadal, he has played and missed tennis in tandem. It has been a pattern, for close to two decades, he will play a few weeks, drop off, take an injury break, then return. By nature, his game is injury-prone. He has always pushed the body hard, grinded out points. Now, beyond his mid-30s, he is facing the pressure of staying fit.
Tennis fans may think he will lose motivation. No, never. Each break has seen him return with vengeance. So, why should the second Grand Slams of the 2023 season be different. People are weeping over his dropping out of the Top 10 in decades. He is a human, not a robot. His body cannot take the beating any more like before. Even if he gets a lower seeding than before, he can crank up his game at the Majors. That has been his USP. So, to think, Rafa is a spent force, will be bizarre.
Related: “Chapeau,” Novak Djokovic tips his hat in respect as Rafael Nadal exits the Top-10
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal shouldn’t be dragged into unnecessary number crunching
Over to Novak Djokovic. He broke Steffi Graf’s record of 377 weeks as No.1. Big news, yes. He held a press conference last week to talk about his hamstring tear. Again, big news. Each statement from Novak attracts more comments, and more reactions. Good for the Serbia star, who told fans during the Australian Open he stood in lines in the 90s to get his milk and bread when Serbia and Croatia were warring.
Novak has now talked of the Golden Slam, which means winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024. It’s on clay, where the whole ball game is different. Again, numero uno Novak gets into the news. Can he complete the Golden Slam? Well, it will not be complete in the true sense like what Steffi Graf did in 1988 when she won all four Majors and the Seoul Olympics gold. Today, this feat is unthinkable, man or woman.
Good luck to Novak for 2024. He is a super human, super fit, and defies age. Now comes the latest Novak news, he cannot enter the United States of America for two big events this month. No exemption given by the USA government and Border authorities as, officially, May 11, 2023 Covid Emergency rules end. Sad, Novak cannot make it across the Atlantic or Pacific as he has not taken the Covid vaccine jabs, even though John McEnroe and Billie Jean King campaigned for him. Big news, this.
Definitely, the rankings will change. Speculation begins. Will Carlos Alcaraz become No.1 if he wins the big titles in the spring swing outdoor? Hang on, Carlos is far from fit, why put pressure on him. This whole ranking game is becoming like Ludo (snake and ladder), for fans. There are no dice here to roll with numbers on it. Out here — social media — you can get the Algorithm and make predictions.
Tennis was never as predictable as it is today. People enjoyed the sport, the heroes, and the role models. Frankly speaking, everything is up for debate, everything is a key word in a search, tennis has become a search engine and no longer remains a sport to old timers. Some people enjoy tennis the way it was and are, hard courts, clay, grass, again outdoor hard, and then indoors.
By getting into multiple debates, tennis has become like a stock market trade. The commodities here are humans, not that they command a variable price. They are blue chips. Respect that, please, tennis fans. Tennis cannot be reduced to a game of numbers, ever. Do not bring it to Break Point!
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S Kannan
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