2008 was a great year for
Rafael Nadal, raising the trophies at Roland Garros and a shocking win over heavy favorite
Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and carried on into 2009 where he again shocked Federer and won the Australian Open. Cruising on that high into the clay court season Nadal was a heavy favorite to win Roland Garros, but that's when everything started to head south.
1. Nadal's 31 match winning streak is ended by a hard hitting Swede
Robin Soderling.
2. Knee problems forced Nadal to withdraw from Wimbledon and he was unable to defend his 2008 win.
3. A 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 beating in the US Open semi-finals at the hands of
Juan Martin Del Potro.
One would think problem after problem would be due to the strenuous calendar the ATP tour follows, with players travelling all around the world and in a different part of the world almost every week. But the on-court faults of Nadal stemmed from problems coming from places not on court. If you watch Nadal's match against Soderling from 2009 you can clearly see he's not all there, shots are coming up short, the crazy spin from his forehand just isn't there. The divorce of his parents I believe had a big part to play in Nadal's slump through the latter part of 2009, and early 2010 where he withdrew from his quarterfinal match against
Andy Murray.
Nadal is a very family-oriented person, it's clearly obvious-his parents were at almost every match he played, and while most players relocate from their hometowns to other various parts of the world, Nadal's homebase is still his hometown in Mallorca. So the divorce wasn't easy on him, but I think he finally found acceptance coming into the 2010 clay court season and it was clearly seen with his change of play in Monte Carlo, it was vintage Nadal, the heavy topspin on his forehand was back, that penetrating backhand became even more penetrating! It was exciting to see Nadal back in top form.
His road to redemption at Roland Garros included winning all three ATP master's titles leading to the French Open (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid) and absolutely steamrolling his way through the draw of the French Open to setup a rematch with just the player he wanted to see on the other side of the net in the final-Robin Soderling, who defeated Nadal in 4 sets to end his 31 match winning streak.
And in classic Nadal fashion, he thrashed Soderling in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to not only redeem his 2009 loss, but to win a 5th French Open title, and reclaim the world #1 ranking.
Vamos Rafa!
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