Rafael Nadal's knees: Scripting their own (tragic) tale

If we looked in isolation at the seemingly endless bad news that tennis players seem to be saddled with, we might have been tempted to label their lives as nothing more than a series of mishaps; mishaps that occur with just enough regularity to render them irretrievably tragic. Happily, we know better; we know that the trophies, the prize money and the fame are usually more than enough to compensate for the bad times a tennis player faces. But if you’re Rafael Nadal, there must come a point where you start to wonder whether it’s just you who can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, or if the law of averages cruelly bypassed you altogether.

The bout of knee tendinitis that Nadal is currently battling, a condition so severe that it has forced him to withdraw from next week’s US Open, is just the latest in a series of misfortunes that have afflicted him for about a decade now. We learned long ago that this was a chronic condition, but we never really realized the full extent of the damage it could wreak on a career with seemingly limitless possibilities. Yes, Nadal did withdraw from the 2009 Wimbledon event, just a month after being at the receiving end of possibly the biggest upset in the Open Era. But when he returned to the tour, he was – almost inconceivably – quicker, stronger, and better. 2010 was a banner year for Nadal, as he became the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win three consecutive Slams in the same year. The record books looked in danger of being shattered under the force of those unrestrained fist-pumps and those rousing cries of ‘Vamos!’. It was natural for us to think, then, that if the Spaniard could bounce back so convincingly from a supposedly chronic ailment, his knee problems couldn’t be that serious.

As he kept winning, though, his diminishing love for the rigors of his trade became palpable. He seemed less happy on the court than he used to be in his carefree, pre-2009 days. The fist-pumps and the cries of ‘Vamos’ were still there, but he seemed more prone now to follow those with winces of pain and grimaces of frustration. And after a while, the wins dried up too: Novak Djokovic announced himself as an immovable object in 2011, and everyone else on the tour seemed to be scrambling for the consolation prizes. It was around that time that press conferences with Nadal stopped being fun; they were now filled with complaints about the grueling tennis schedule, the unfriendliness of hardcourt tennis, and even the unfairness of the ranking system.

At first we thought this may have been the effect of the seemingly unsolvable puzzle that was Novak Djokovic; we have seen far too many examples of champion players being rattled into unbecoming conduct because of a formidable on-court opponent. But we should have known better. We should have realized that when Nadal complained, even after his wins, about being less than 100% fit, he wasn’t just talking about the mundane niggles that every player faces on a daily basis. The grueling schedule and the unforgiving hardcourts were eating away at his mind as well as his body – you don’t overcome chronic knee tendinitis overnight.

The inflammation of the tendinitis has almost always come at a terrible time for Nadal. It’s been like clockwork, but in a twisted, sadistic way: every time he seems to be building up a head of steam by putting together a string of impressive wins, his knees force him to come back down to earth. The only time he managed to be relatively healthy for the full length of the year – 2010 – he turned in one of the finest seasons ever seen in tennis history. But when he had the chance to complete a non-calendar Grand Slam (which is almost as difficult as the calendar Grand Slam, as Federer and Djokovic will readily attest) at the 2011 Australian Open, an injury reared up again (this time it was the hamstring), causing him to put up a sub-par performance against David Ferrer in the quarterfinals. It’s often been said that Nadal battles his body as much as he does his opponents, and it would be hard to argue otherwise.

Nadal’s latest knee injury has meant that he has missed three big tournaments (the Olympics, Toronto and Cincinnati), and is set to miss a fourth, the biggest of them all. The man hasn’t announced a return date, and there is speculation that he might skip the rest of the year in its entirety. Now, the post-US Open period has never been a happy time for Nadal – he usually has little left in the tank to be at his best in the fall indoor tournaments – so this doesn’t seem like such a great misfortune at first glance. But here’s where the brutality of the tennis schedule truly comes to the fore: without the ranking points from the fall tournaments, Nadal’s seeding at the big events next year could take a beating, which would cause him to face strong opponents early on. And that, in turn, could potentially slow down his comeback attempts. Did I say tennis can be a cruel sport sometimes?

Maybe this is a false alarm, and maybe Nadal will make a spirited return in the tournament immediately following the US Open. But no matter when he makes his comeback, it is unlikely that his knee troubles will be brushed off as a minor blip this time. Missing a Grand Slam is big – the only other time Nadal missed one was in 2009, and I’m struggling to remember the last time Federer, Djokovic or Andy Murray pulled out of one. Grand Slams define the story of every player’s career, and unfortunately for Nadal, the story of his career is being written by his knees at the moment. Nadal had said a month ago that he would only return to competitive tennis when his knees told him it was okay to do so. He and his fans will be hoping that his knees do some serious talking soon.

It’s funny, but the two biggest upsets of the last decade – Nadal’s loss to Robin Soderling at the 2009 French Open and his loss to Lucas Rosol at this year’s Wimbledon – were immediately followed by extended periods of injury-related absence from Nadal. It begs the question: is a perfectly healthy Nadal capable of being defeated (or defeated early) at all? This is precisely why the ATP tour needs Rafael Nadal to be fit and firing, and fast. The sport is just not the same without its premier competitor.