Rafael Nadal's journey in Paris: from being booed at French Open in 2005 to raising the Olympic Flame in 2024
Rafael Nadal, the 38-year-old tennis great from Spain, will probably get on to the red clay of Roland Garros for the last time in his illustrious career, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He has won a mind-boggling 14 French Open titles at that venue, registering an incredible 112-4 win-loss record in the process. Both of those records are unprecedented in the history of the game.
Nadal will play both singles and doubles at the Olympics, pairing up with Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz for the latter. Life has thus come full circle for the Spaniard, as the world waits for his last hurrah on the famous clay of Roland Garros. During the Opening Ceremony, he received the torch from French football great Zinedine Zidane and was in a select group of athletes carrying the torch down the River Seine toward the Olympic cauldron.
It did not begin very easily for Nadal in Paris
Nadal won his first French Open title back in 2005, beating Mariano Puerta in the final. However, prior to that, he had to play France's Sebastian Grosjean and had to endure hostile crowd behavior in that match.
Sporting white capris and a green sleeveless shirt, Nadal looked quite anti-establishment and a potential threat to the classy Roger Federer, who was ruling the roost then.
The partisan crowd at Roland Garros rooted for Grosjean and, even worse for Nadal, booed the latter at times. However, the quintessential professional that the Spaniard is, he only responded with a smile and let his game do the talking instead.
Nadal's conquests at Roland Garros continued after 2005
He kept coming back year after year and made it a habit to win at Roland Garros consistently. The world, as well as the Paris crowd, got used to Nadal being crowned as the champion there. It gradually became such a norm that any loss he suffered at the French Open caused the biggest flutter in the tennis world.
Nadal’s dominance at the French Open perhaps is the most emphatic one enjoyed by any sportsperson at a particular venue. The Court Philippe-Chatrier has, through Nadal's performances, been witness to some of the greatest clay-court tennis anywhere in the history of the game. His performance in the 2008 final against Roger Federer probably remains the pinnacle of clay-court tennis.
As his stature grew as a player, the crowd started loving him and bowing down before his obvious greatness. He won a multitude of fans worldwide, which included ones from Paris, too.
The crowd at Roland Garros vociferously supported him during his victories over arch-rival Novak Djokovic in the final in 2020 and the quarterfinal in 2022. The love that he has been getting from the crowd is as much a part of his legacy as his trophies. Aside from Federer, none of Nadal’s contemporaries can be said to be as popular around the world. He is a fighter to the core, as far as his game is concerned, but a genial and amiable man off the court in contrast, which has certainly helped his cause with the fans.