Top 5 ATP Players of 2022, No. 2: Rafael Nadal

Most Memorable Moment: Can anyone doubt that it was the sight of Nadal, biting his lip, unsuccessfully fighting back tears, as he watched his lifelong rival and friend Roger Federer during the latter’s retirement speech at Laver Cup?

Missed Opportunity: His walkover defeat in the Wimbledon semifinals was just another mid-Slam blow to a career in which injury is writ large.

2023 Projection: It’s impossible to forecast Nadal’s fitness, but he certainly has the right attitude and ambitions.

Selecting the high point for Nadal’s 2022 season is a far more challenging task than picking the low point of his troubled 2021—a loss at the French Open to his nemesis, Novak Djokovic.

Nadal, who finished No. 2 in TENNIS.com’s ATP Player-of-the-Year survey, won two Grand Slam titles this season, the Australian Open (unexpected) and the French Open (expected, but only because he is Nadal). Unsure in January if he would even be able to compete due a severe foot injury, Nadal reeled off 20 wins to start the year. He also brought his Grand Slam singles winning streak to 22 matches before he was beaten in the fourth round of the US Open.

Nadal was in contention right into the final week of ATP play to earn the coveted year-end No. 1 ranking. He had to settle for becoming, at age 36, the oldest year-end No. 2 in the history of the tour rankings. On balance, Nadal’s performance in 2022 likely will be looked upon as an epic of the Open era due to inhibiting factors in play all year. To appreciate those, we have to return for a moment to 2021.

If don’t surprise you [to] win 14 Roland Garros or 22 Grand Slam, is because you are super arrogant. Honestly, no, I am not this kind of guy. I never even dream about achieving the things that I achieved.

If don’t surprise you [to] win 14 Roland Garros or 22 Grand Slam, is because you are super arrogant. Honestly, no, I am not this kind of guy. I never even dream about achieving the things that I achieved.

Nadal was ranked No. 3 at the time he lost to Djokovic in Paris, suffering just the third loss of his credulity-straining 17-year career at Roland Garros. The four-set defeat left Stade Roland Garros shrouded in a pall of doubt about the future of the “King of Clay.”

Those fears were compounded when a severe left foot injury with no clear path to resolution sidelined Nadal for the rest of the year after he played just two more matches. Nobody, including Nadal himself, knew what 2022 might bring. Following a procedure on his troublesome foot, Nadal was on crutches until just seven weeks before the start of the Australian Open.

Nadal was as stunned as any jaded tennis fan when he edged out Daniil Medvedev in the final at Melbourne Park. He trailed by two sets and multiple break points in the third before he was able to turn the tables and power to the win. Nadal embraced his historic 21st singles triumph with as much satisfaction and joy as he experienced during his breakthrough Grand Slam triumph back in 2005.

“Is a big significance this title, no?,” Nadal said. “I believe today is an unforgettable day. I never will say I deserve [this win], because I think a lot of people fight and a lot of people deserve. But I really believe that I hold a very positive spirit. For the last six months, I really [fought] a lot to try to be back on court.”

The juggernaut rolled on. Nadal broke off another 10 wins as the tour moved to North America. He was finally throttled in the final at Indian Wells, playing with a cracked rib, by No. 20-ranked Taylor Fritz.

Nadal was denied his familiar, signature level of success on European clay. He played fewer events than in the past and failed to reach even a semifinal due partly to the stress fracture suffered at Indian Wells.

“My body is like an old machine,” Nadal told reporters before the Italian Open, referring to a six-week layoff due to his damaged rib. “To put this machine on again it already again takes some time.”

The machine was fired up, as it always seems to be, when the tour hit Paris. Nadal won his 22nd Grand Slam title, the taste sweetened by a quarterfinal win over Djokovic. He revealed that he had played the entire tournament while getting daily injections that eliminated pain—along with feeling—in his damaged foot. Nadal professed surprise at the outcome.

“Well, for sure is a surprise,” he said. “If don’t surprise you [to] win 14 Roland Garros or 22 Grand Slam, is because you are super arrogant. Honestly, no, I am not this kind of guy. I never even dream about achieving the things that I achieved.”

By midway through the year it was abundantly clear that Nadal was engaged in a dangerous pas de deux with injuries that were not just career-threatening, but potentially life-altering. At Wimbledon, the wheel of fortune turned again and forced Nadal to issue a semifinal walkover to Nick Kyrgios due to a seven-millimeter abdominal tear.

Nadal forged on, undeterred, but with wear-and-tear showing. He would play only nine matches after pulling out of Wimbledon, including the fourth-round US Open loss to Frances Taifoe that halted his 22-match Grand Slam winning streak. Nadal took to the high road when he was asked after that loss how the fits and starts characterizing his year might have impacted his performances.

“Well, we can make lamentations or we can complain now about a lot of things,” he replied. “I don’t think that going to change any situation, no?”

Veteran Nadal watchers will recognize just how typical that comment is of Nadal’s mindset as well as his language. His lifelong trademark has been a clear-eyed realism that can stop conversations in their tracks and remains immune to rationalization. For that reason, let’s address the 800-pound caveat (a near relation to the elephant) in the room.

Novak Djokovic’s refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19 (a stance which kept him out of the Australian and US Opens), and the ATP’s decision to withhold rankings points at Wimbledon, substantially worked in Nadal’s favor. But job No. 1 for a player is showing up. You can’t hold it against Nadal that he did, while Djokovic did not.

Besides, history has a short memory for asterisks, but quite a long one for inspirational quotations like the one Nadal offered reporters after running out of steam at the ATP Finals:

“I don’t know if I going to reach that level again,” Nadal said, referring to his remarkable performance at the Australian Open, with the next edition of that Grand Slam on the docket. “But what I don’t have is any doubt that I’m going to die for it.”