Rafa Nadal’s epic win at the Australian Open (AO) has sent seismic waves through the sporting world. The MARCA Sports News aptly captured the moment, “… when someone tells you something is impossible, think about Rafa.” Just 6 months earlier he was on crutches. He tested Covid positive in December 2021 and went into home quarantine. Beating the world no 2, Medvedev, 10 years younger and raring to go; 2 sets down and 3 match points down in the 3^rd set;  winning a gruelling 5 setter in 5 hours and 24 mins. Boris Becker had once said,’ the fifth set is not about tennis. It is about the head and the heart.’

His good friend, arch-rival and tennis legend Roger Federer paid this classy tribute, “Never underestimate a great champion. Your incredible work ethic, dedication and fighting spirit are an inspiration to me and countless others around the world. I am proud to share this era with you and honoured to play a role in pushing you to achieve more as you have done for me for the past 18 years. A few months ago we were joking about being on crutches.”

The first few years for the young Nadal on the professional circuit were brutal. Stress fracture to the left ankle in 2004, foot injury in 2005, knee injuries in 2007, 2008, 2009. In his book ‘Rafa’ published in 2011, he admitted to contemplating ditching the sport and play golf instead. The trauma continued. A lengthy lay-off after Wimbledon in 2012; missing the US Open in 2014 with a wrist injury; sitting out Wimbledon 2016 because of a torn tendon in the left wrist. The Spaniard wryly started talking about an expiration date. But he returned to sweep the French Open from 2017-2020 and win the US Open 2017&2019. Plagued by injuries!! In June 2021, he pulled out of the Wimbledon and the Olympics- ‘to listen to his body and recuperate.’

The tennis experts have marvelled about his game. The spin and bounce that he creates especially through his forehand, often causing the ball to bounce more than expected. His ability to return almost anything with incredible speed. But the Nadal Effect is far bigger than the sport he represents. The Croatian Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric had this to say after the famous AO win, “How well you represent the value of sports, Mr Rafael Nadal.” An emotion shared across the world of sports. A B De villiers, Mr 360, remarked, “Rafa always shows us what sport is all about. Respect for the opponent and the game. Incredible fight till the end. Humility, irrespective of his achievements.”

The way Rafa has conducted himself on and off the court has been remarkable. When repeatedly pressed on his 21^st Grand Slam win he shrugged it off with “I don’t care if I am the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). I am super satisfied and feel like a very lucky person in general for all the good things that happen to me in life. I am not going to be frustrated if Novak or Roger finish careers with more Grand Slams than me. Let’s enjoy the situation. We did very special things in our sport. The other things don’t matter.”

It’s not surprising that way back in 2008 the tennis champ and his mother founded the ‘Rafa Nadal foundation.’ ‘To try to help and give back to society all the luck we have and how well life has treated us. To bring into play the transformative power of education and sports. For the disadvantaged children.’ The Foundation has also embraced the care of the children with intellectual disabilities and the cause of social integration of vulnerable kids. A Nadal educational and tennis school was set up at Anantpur in India in 2010. The students from poor communities are assured of academic support, tennis coaching, nutritious meals and basic health care. Toni Nadal, his uncle and well known coach heads the Tennis Academy which opened in Mallorca, Spain and is now home to 130 youngsters. The Academy courts have since rolled out in Greece and Kuwait also.

The other much feted tennis star Roger Federer has transcended his sport to become a global cultural icon. His 20 Grand Slam triumphs and innumerable ATP tournament wins have just added to his aura- oozing cool, charm and charisma. But the young Roger was prone to outbursts and tantrums and bouts of laziness. At Roland Garros in 2000, his first year on tour, he created an unseemly racket by throwing his racquet 4 times in succession. In 2001, his loss at the Hamburg Open was exacerbated by his unsportsmanlike behaviour. The emotional turning point came with the death of his coach Peter Carter in a car accident in August 2002. The young Swiss tennis player was devastated and bawled his heart out. He made a decision to change his life amidst ferocious grief.  Now with an acute sense of mortality, he started seeing a sports psychologist (The Roger Federer Story- the Quest for Perfection by Rene Stauffer). “So… so his phenomenal mental strength was not a natural gift but a learned skill. He decided to combat Fire with Ice. Have fire and the burning desire to win but also the ice-coolness to absorb losses and bad matches.” Hardly  surprising that his peers voted him to receive the Sportsmanship Award 13 times.

When tennis was becoming boring with power dominated baseline games, Fed Ex with the sheer beauty of his game and the fluid movements took the game of tennis to another level. The touch and the finesse , the subtlety and the artistry took our breath away. Roger Federer was the master of reading his opponents  game and manipulating spaces on the courts through sublime movements. What has stayed with me is an article in a sports magazine describing him as, “a combination of Zorro with a flashing blade and a graceful ballet dancer.” The Swiss Master, 5 years Nadal’s senior, has gone through foot and back injuries in 2007 & 2008 and 3 knee procedures in 2020-2021.

It is not sufficiently well known that he  is the author and the driver behind the ‘Laver Cup’- pitting European tennis players against their counterparts from the rest of the world. Inspired by the ‘Ryder Cup’ in golf but graciously named after the Australian maestro.

The Roger Federer foundation has been working effectively for 18 years to help poor and handicapped children in Switzerland and across 6 southern African countries. It has delivered meaningful primary education to more than 2 million kids to give them a fair shot at life. More than $ 52 million have been invested over 7000 schools. For education and nutritious meals. More than 10000 teachers have gone through mentoring programs to make a real difference in the class rooms. During the Covid lockdown 64000 children in Africa were sustained through the injection of $1 million for their welfare. His Humanitarian stature is further enhanced by the fact that a world-wide poll listed him at no. 2 amongst the most respected and trusted people. No. 1 was Nelson Mandela.

The third member of the Holy Trinity is the Serb, Novak Djokovic. Despite his current travails the odds are that in a year or so he will be anointed as GOAT amongst mens’ tennis players.  At least another 2 or 3 Grand Slam majors silver ware will adorn his expanding trophy cabinet. He is regarded as the greatest counterpuncher and possibly the best returner of serve of all time. A lethal backhand and awesome all-court agility makes him the force that he is. The pinpoint accuracy and depth of his shots overwhelm even his ranked opponents. Another interesting aspect of his game, pointed out by pundits, is his uncanny ability to raise the level of his game. And when it’s about the ‘big points’ Novak sails through. Rafael Nadal has admitted that the difficulty in playing Djoko is that there is no clear game plan because there is no clear weakness. He is unique in the sense that he is an implacable defender at heart who mutates into a dominant attacker at will.

Djokovic, who is not held in the same esteem as Federer and Nadal, received the the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2012. He and his wife Jelena have been hugely supportive of good and inclusive early childhood education in Serbia. Some may be surprised to know that this anti-vaxxer  has donated 1 million pounds  for purchase of ventilators and other medical equipment to support hospitals in his country during the pandemic. An eye-brow raising nugget is that Novak is an 80% promoter in a Danish bio-tech firm which hopes to come up with a cure for the Covid virus.

Over the last few years the tennis ace has made some poor choices which have landed him into controversy. At the height of the pandemic he organised the Adria tennis tour in the Balkans. Thousands of tickets were sold and players like Cilic, Thiem and Dimitrov signed up. The tournament had to be cancelled after some of the players tested positive. In 2021 he made a list of demands to Tennis Australia before the AO. Like private houses for the players and private tennis courts and reduction in the quarantine periods. This attitude of self-entitlement continued at this year’s AO when a confused and incompetent Aussie establishment finally deported him on ‘Public Health and Good Order’ grounds. The bad times go back to the 4^th round of the 2021 US Open where Novak defaulted the match for hitting a line-umpire with the ball, albeit inadvertently, in frustration.

Sports has its great players and athletes who are not so great role models. And there are the hallowed few who embody the soul and spirit of Sports through their masterful skills and amazing grace.  Game, set and match.  Despite the number of tennis majors’ trophies on Novak’s shelves, Roger and Rafa will remain the most admired and respected tennis players.