"Let's hope these days don't repeat themselves very often." That was Rafael Nadal's take on his shock straight sets loss to Andy Murray in the final of the Madrid Open on Sunday. It was the first time in 7 attempts that Murray had beaten Rafa on clay. Shock losses are not uncommon for any athlete, but what Nadal fans are really scared about is his form on clay going into the one Grand Slam that the Mallorcan has made his own, the French Open. Can he win his 10th title at Roland Garros or is Nadal no longer the gladiator that he once was on his favourite surface?
Consider this, his loss to Murray in the Madrid final makes it the first time since 2003 that Nadal has lost 4 or more matches on clay in one season. For the first time since 2005, Nadal finds himself out of the Top 5 in the world. 2015 hasn't really been a great year so far for the Spaniard. In his first tournament in Doha, Nadal was the defending champion, but lost in the first round. That was followed by a straight sets loss to Tomas Berdych in the Australian Open quarter finals. In February he lost to Fabio Fognini in the semi finals in Rio de Janeiro - his first semi final loss on clay in 12 years. In March, Nadal won in Buenos Aires to clinch his 65th career title. After that, there were losses in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona. However, it's the losses on clay that stick out like sore thumbs.
Nadal though has always had tremendous self belief and a seemingly unending supply of will-power and determination. In 2014, he was not the favourite to win the French Open. In fact, he went into the tournament having lost in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, followed by a morale shattering loss to Novak Djokovic in the Rome final. Yet, from the time he stepped onto the clay of Roland Garros, Nadal looked like a different player. His home away from home welcomed him with arms wide open. The Spaniard dropped just 40 games en route to the final. In the semi finals, he destroyed Murray, losing just 6 games in the match. This Nadal was not the one who had lost meekly on clay earlier. This Nadal looked fitter and faster and extremely determined. He was there to win and no one would be allowed to stand in his way, not even the pre-tournament favourite Djokovic, who went down in 4 sets to the King of Clay in the final.
After his historic win in Paris, that tied him on 14 Slam titles with Pete Sampras, Nadal summed up his achievement saying, "I suffered quite a lot, but I found solutions. When there were problems cropping up, I managed to find solutions, when moments were very difficult. I succeeded." That's what Nadal does, that's what he is best at, finding solutions.
With less than two weeks to go for the 2015 French Open, the man who has an incredible 66-1 win-loss record at the tournament, finds himself in a similar situation - not being counted as the outright favourite. This year, along with Djokovic, Murray too has staked claim to the title. Rafa won't mind that though. The 14-time Grand Slam champion in fact said after his loss to Djokovic in Madrid, "The feelings that I have had this week have been great. The attitude has been very good. My game has also been very good."
You can take that as a trademark honest response from one of the most loved players on the tour or a veiled threat for his opponents. The bottom line is, there is no injury holding Nadal back right now and he is happy with the way he is playing. The gladiator still has a lot of fight left in him. Win or lose, Rafael Nadal won't give up. He simply doesn't know what that means.