The story couldn’t end without a goodbye, a last lap, a final salvo of “vamos” and, who knows, one last thrill. The shadow of the giant grows smaller every day on the court as his battered body continues to wither away, at almost 38 years old. But Roland-Garros is his citadel, the kingdom where he built his legend. Impossible to imagine bowing out without saluting one last time this land which made him king fourteen times.
After nineteen years of an (almost) absolute monarchy, Rafael Nadal is preparing to – probably – bid farewell to the Porte d’Auteuil tournament. “My last Roland-Garros? There’s a good chance it will be, but I don’t want to close the door 100%.”, he insisted, Saturday May 25, in front of one hundred and fifty journalists who came to listen.
Monday, when it comes time to enter the fray against the German Alexander Zverev (seeded No. 4), the 276th player in the world will not advance with the long tail of favorite at his back, for the first time in his career. Whatever, it’s anecdotal. Because the short Philippe-Chatrier thought he would never see his lord again, racket in hand.
Twelve months earlier, the Majorcan gave up with heartbreak to defend his fourteenth title, won with an anesthetized left foot. The announcement, in front of journalists summoned to his home in Manacor, on the island of Majorca, on the eve of the tournament, had solemn overtones. “It’s not my decision, but that of my body. I don’t think I deserve to end up like this. That’s why I’m making one last effort, so that my end doesn’t come there, at a press conference. »
The following June 3, he celebrated his 37th birthday in a hospital room in Barcelona. He has just had surgery on his left hip, injured five months earlier during the Australian Open. “The cup is starting to be full and at some point it will overflow”says the former world number 1 as he leaves Melbourne Park, “mentally destroyed”.
The “extraterrestrial” has become a simple mortal again
The months pass. Three hundred and forty-nine days of forced abstinence, wavering hopes and doubts, before finally returning to the circuit, in January 2024… in the antipodes. And then patatras. His body immediately relapsed in Brisbane, this time, in the abs. Impossible for him to serve.
Since then, the legend with twenty-two Grand Slam tournament titles has been trying to dignify his twilight years. Two small matches in mid-April in front of his home crowd in Barcelona, two more for his farewell to Madrid the following week, before biting the ocher dust in Rome at the beginning of May. The prize of tribute goes – so far – to the Italian spectators, clustered together by the thousands in the aisles of the Foro Italico to sing to him “arrivalerci Rafa”.
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