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Nadal Shows Glimpse of Former Invincible Self

Rallies in second set to beat Spain's Fernando Verdasco at BNP Paribas Open

Bill Dwyre Tennis

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It seems like only yesterday that Rafael Nadal was unbeatable, close to invincible.

But there was always more than just the winning, his constant, take-it-to-Vegas, sure-thing winning.

He won the French Open nine times, including five in a row. He didn’t just win, he owned the tournament. Beating him at Roland Garros was harder than getting a Republican to agree with a Democrat, or visa versa.

Clay was his sandbox of choice, but he won at least once at the other majors on other surfaces and now sits in the record books with 14 major titles, sharing second place with Pete Sampras behind Roger Federer’s 17.

Once Nadal started grinding, you would watch with both a sense of delight and pity for the guy across the net. His game wasn’t pretty, just devastating to the opponent. Once he got everything in sync, his opponent knew that he could hit 27 perfect backhands and forehands and Nadal would hit 28.

He was this delightful kid from the beaches of Majorca. He spoke in a broken English that created cute little phrases and Rafa-isms. He could be very serious. He could be barrels of fun. He was a superstar who treated everybody else like they were, not him.

But he played a style that was not made for the long term. He torqued 90 percent of his body on every shot. He grunted and grinded and ran and romped and hit 25 grounds strokes to get it to 15-love. His rival and chief opponent, Federer, merely glided. Federer was no wasted motion, Nadal was never-ending motion.

Last year, at age 29, Nadal was no longer unbeatable. His last major was the 2014 French. He hasn’t been to a major semifinal since. That downturn has continued.

He entered this year’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells with a 9-4 season record. That’s ordinary, where, for years, nothing about Nadal was ordinary. He had won the title here three times, twice more in doubles, and had dined on the high-bounces of the dry-air, desert-locked Indian Wells Garden for years.

But in his second round this year, he had to save 11 break points and go three sets against unseeded and unsung Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. The tennis world that had celebrated and idolized him for so long just rolled its eyebrows and shrugged. There is sadness that it appears the big days and the big wins are over for one of the sport’s favorite sons.

Rafael Nadal opened with a 6-0 first set win.

But there are still some moments. And who knows?

Tuesday’s opponent was Fernando Verdasco, a Spaniard against whom Nadal has had great success. He was 14-3 in the head-to-heads coming in.

But one of the three losses was in the recent Australian Open. Verdasco won that one in a five-set death struggle that took 4 hours and 41 minutes. It marked just the second loss in the first round of a major tennis tournament for Nadal.So there was motivation here, although pro tennis players play each other so much that revenge is not an oft-used tool.

Maybe it helped Nadal to run off his shutout in the first set. A 6-0 bagel isn’t the norm at this level.

But then, it began to happen all over again, and Nadal found himself trailing in a second-set tiebreaker, 6-3. This time, it was Verdasco who crumbled, maybe out of muscle memory to those 14 previous defeats. Nadal won the second set on his second match point, 6-0, 7-6 (9). That was after fighting off five set points in the second set.

photo courtesy of BNP Paribas open

Rafael Nada understood the significance of Tuesday's win: “I lost matches like this in Australia, in Buenos Aires, in Rio de Janeiro.”

A glimmer of the old days was back.

The significance was not lost on Nadal.“I lost matches like this in Australia, in Buenos Aires, in Rio de Janeiro,” he said, “so it is important winning sets like this for me…

“You know, I have to go through these things, No?”

Was he thinking ahead to a third set when things were slipping in the second? Was he starting to feel the old “here-we-go-again” that his opponents always used to feel?

“I fighted (fought) for every point and finally I find success,” he said…“I feel I deserve something like this because I lost a few tough ones.”

Except for legs that have run too many miles, arms and shoulders that have hit too many serves and a soul and spirit that have fought too many battles, all is well with Nadal. Through it all, he has never lost his perspective on who he is and where he fits.

He was asked afterward if he felt he was a brand.

“I know that all these things are for a few years,” he said, “so I don’t consider myself that special.”

The rest of tennis still does.

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