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Not more recently last December, Rafael Nadal was listed by bookmakers among the favorites to win the French Open this month. To anyone even followed tennis with casualness, only one thing made it surprising: he had retired in November. This was the domination of Spanish over the ocher clay lessons in Paris, where he raised the trophy 14 times in 18 years, that it will take time to absorb his absence.
Since 2003, Nadal and his closest rivals, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – The so -called Big Three of male tennis – have a very improbable titles of 66 Grand Chelem titles between them. Fans have placed themselves in a golden age which undoubtedly overshadowed the time of boom in the 1970s and 80s when Björn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors reigned supreme. When Nadal lost last year, after the departure of Federer in 2022, during which the two men cried, it left a gaping hole in the game.
Christopher Clarey seeks to fill this gap with The warriorAn affectionate and insightful biography of muscle major. He is well placed to do so, after having covered tennis for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune for more than 30 years and having interviewed Nadal and members of his interior circle several times since her professional beginnings in 2001. As a former resident of Paris and Seville, Clarey also brings local ideas to vocabulary, mentality and shift).
The choice of title is revealing, emphasizing an approach without sweat of Nadal and never to make Die and an unshakable concentration: each point has been played with an equal conviction, no racket never broken. “Perhaps I like more fights to win than winning,” he said, marrying the pugilist spirit that is pierced by his uncle without compromise and the longtime coach Toni, which Clarey often turns for pitiful and pragmatic contributions. The warrior also contrasts with The masterThe portrait of Clarey de FederateWho made the game so effortlessly, at least externally.
Nadal's training years are briefly covered. But then they were short: at 12, he signed with Nike as a sponsor; At 14, he beat the former Wimbledon champion, Pat Cash; At 19 (and two days), he won his first Open in France.
Having chosen these 14 Roland-Garros titles as its staging posts, one of the challenges that Clarey is confronted is the regularity of Nadal's triumphs: simply telling them would all be repetitive. Instead, he also highlights the hardest victories and the narrowest defeats elsewhere: the 2008 Wimbledon final, in which Nadal surpassed Federer in the engulfing twilight; The final of the Austral Open of almost six hours 2012, after which neither he or the victorious Djokovic could stand; The so-called “Miracourne miracle», 10 years later, in which Nadal overcome an injury, a deficit in two sets and a danted Daniil Medvedev.
Clarey completes this two decades of highlighting with rich digressions in the history of tennis. The warrior Double as a story of clay tennis (invented by British on the French Riviera), Roland-Garros (named in an incongruous manner according to an aviator) and the dead (a Gallic trio after which the trophy is named). Particularly illuminating is a chapter on the composition of the clay of Paris itself while Clarey goes to a factory near Lille and meets the technicians covered with dust which creak bricks in the canvas of the art of Nadal.
It is only towards the end that these detours begin to feel like a filling: an entire section on the tennis terminology pushes it; Another, on the habits developed in the field of Nadal, ironically resembles the waste of time. But elsewhere, the details prove to be revealing: its long pre-service rituals have been designed to give your brain time to prepare for a unnatural movement. After all, it is a natural right -hander that won 22 majors playing on the left.
Eventually, The warriorLike his subject, begins to lose steam while Clarey arrives on the two unstoppable forces which exceeded Nadal: the physical diseases which had tormented him since his youth (the rare degenerative syndrome of the Mueller-Weiss feet almost ended his career at 19) and finally exceeded the breed of Grand-Slame.
The warrioris surely the central part of a trilogy in the making, the last episode being always scripted – notably by Djokovic itself. But the greatness of its three large rivals emphasizes only the enormity of Nadal's own achievements. The clay grounds are propagated after each set but, as Clarey says: “Nadal is the man who left the indelible brand.”
The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and his Kingdom of clay By Christopher Clarey John Murray £ 22 / Large Central $ 32.50, 368 pages
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