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No medal, no problem: Nadal's Olympic showing still golden
Despite a lack of singles success in Rio, Rafa has set himself up nicely for the US Open. Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

No medal, no problem: Nadal's Olympic showing still golden

On July 6, 2008, I stayed up until nearly 2 a.m. in the den of my grandmother’s Long Beach home – a house she’s owned on Pacific Avenue for the entirety of my life. The wood floors were recently re-done, but the creak on the floor next to the tower holding myriad picture frames still existed. If I got up to use the bathroom, there was a chance I’d wake someone up. So I sat there and watched the greatest tennis match in the history of the sport, the 2008 Wimbledon marathon between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

Nadal, only 22 years old at the time, not only matched Federer shot-for-shot on his best surface, but he exceeded his level of play in the most critical moments in the fifth set that ended 9-7 in Nadal’s favor. I always liked tennis, but I fell in love with the sport that night. My dad would take the family to the courts in Buena Park’s Boisseranc Park when my sister and I were kids, and I’d lose 100 percent of the matches I played against my dad as I got older. I keep a racket in my car at all times just in case there’s an opportunity for me to step around the ball and unload a forehand winner a la Nadal against Federer.

While Nadal had already established himself as one of the best players in the world before the match, beating Federer on grass allowed him to move into the conversation of tennis’ elite, proving he was much more than a clay-court phenom. From that point on, if Nadal was healthy, he was a threat to win any major title — and he won quite a few. But Nadal’s career hasn’t always been about his wins. It’s been about his unique style of play, consistent injuries, and a relentless will to make it back into the conversation with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

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Rafael Nadal didn’t even medal at the 2016 Olympic Games. After looking great in the first few rounds, Nadal lost to Juan Martin del Porto in the semis and to Kei Nishikori in the bronze medal match, both defeats at 2-1. Despite ending his bid to become the first man to win two tennis gold medals, Nadal should leave Rio with heightened confidence as he prepares to close out the 2016 season with the US Open looming.

Nadal earned his seat in the pantheon of tennis gods because of a style of play and swinging motion unique to anyone who came before him. Nadal, who is naturally right-handed, learned to play left-handed through coaching from his uncle, Toni. While swinging from his forehand side, instead of a complete follow-through that would finish over his right shoulder, Nadal yanks the racket upwards to create a topspin that is hundreds of revolutions per second faster than his contemporaries Federer and Djokovic.

The topspin, when bouncing off any surface, bounced off the ground with the pace of a pouncing jaguar, forcing cutting down on the allowed reaction time for his opponents. Combined with his speed and willingness to get to any ball hit on his side of the court, he presented a problem that was rarely solved. He was stronger, almost always faster, crafty and relentless. He was everything Federer wasn’t, and Federer was just the most perfect version of the status quo to date.

What stopped Nadal’s reign as the world’s No. 1 wasn’t exactly Djokovic’s rise, but that rise at the same time saw Nadal’s health began to falter. All of that physical exertion and the torque required to create the topspin that made him so great put a toll on his body, creating knee and back problems that kept him out of tournaments, or kept him from playing his game during those he was allowed to participate in. For the last three years, Nadal has rarely been himself, but in Rio, there were flashes of who he used to be.

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It shook my soul to the core when I watched Novak Djokovic finally dismantle Rafael Nadal in the 2015 French Open. When you adopt a favorite player, you also adopt his or her rivals, and Djokovic has become my biggest sports nemesis since Paul Pierce. There’s nothing inherently bad about Djokovic as a person. He seems like a genuinely nice guy with a penchant for playing perfect tennis against the guys you don’t want him to play perfect tennis against. Every glaring flaw in his game – his serve and his backhand early in his career – have become devastating weapons. His rose up the ranks because of his superior defensive play and is now one of the best offensive players on the tour.

There’s a sort of inevitability with Djokovic that’s easier to understand if you’ve never watched him play tennis. Federer made tennis watchable to the most casual of fans with the impossibility of his brilliance and Djokovic just sort of exists as this tennis deity – an all-knowing being whose meticulous attention to detail has allowed him to become the most complete player on tour during my tennis-watching lifetime. There isn’t anything fun about Djokovic’s style, and I think that’s what makes it easy for me to hate him on the court.

It was easy to live with Djokovic as the world’s No. 1 knowing that he still hadn’t beaten Nadal on clay, that he still hadn’t completed the career slam. And there he was in 2015 dictating the pace and tempo for three dominant sets on Nadal’s birthday. Things seemed bleak for Nadal heading into these Olympics. Since that match, Nadal had spent more time off nursing injuries and struggling when he played. He lost in the first round of the Australian Open, sat out of Wimbledon and even sat out of this year’s French Open, a tournament that Djokovic finally won after years of just missing out on the major.

Despite the lead up to Rio leaving major doubts about his ability to compete with the world’s best, Nadal exceeded expectations in the men’s singles bracket and didn’t exactly leave empty-handed as he earned a gold medal in the doubles tournament. It’s the first step in the right direction toward him frequenting major semis with opportunities to add to his career major total. He didn’t see the success that he’s grown accustomed to throughout his storied career, but the Olympics aren’t always about the medals — they’re about human stories, redemption and the idea that these experiences can lead to the world’s greatest athletes to do great things tomorrow that are impossible to predict today. Rio can propel Nadal back to heights only imaginable to a guy who has already created them.

Can you name the tennis players with the most Grand Slam men's singles titles in the Open Era?
SCORE:
0/14
TIME:
5:00
SWI (17)
Roger Federer
USA (14)
Pete Sampras
ESP (14)
Rafael Nadal
SER (12)
Novak Djokovic
SWE (11)
Bjorn Borg
USA (8)
Jimmy Connors
CZE (8)
Ivan Lendl
USA (8)
Andre Agassi
USA (7)
John McEnroe
SWE (7)
Mats Wilander
SWE (6)
Stefan Edberg
GER (6)
Boris Becker
AUS (5)
Rod Laver
AUS (5)
John Newcombe

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