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Keith Prowse
More than ever before, this is a global sport with Since achieving the feat, Nadal has of course added
players jetting around the world. It might be Melbourne an Olympic gold medal and another Grand Slam title
one day, Marseille the next and acclimatisation is an art at the Australian Open as well as taking over the world
that top players have to master if they are to succeed. No.1 spot from Roger Federer but he still regards the
But it’s not so much the jet lag that is the problem; the exploits of last June and July as his greatest feat.
vast majority of the men you see performing in front of
you will be able to afford more comfortable seats in the Even back when he was winning French Open titles as a
aeroplane. The challenge that presents itself is more matter of habit, he always insisted the most cherished
the ability to immediately switch from one surface to crown, in his opinion, was Wimbledon. So to achieve
another in ever-changing environments. what he did last year was the ultimate dream come true
but it was tough and changes had to made in his game.
Seeking sympathy is not normally something in which
the world’s leading tennis stars indulge and for good “It’s difficult to play here the same,” claimed the 23
reason. They get extremely well paid for their labours year old from Majorca. “We have to change and I have
but the following words are worth a little reflection to change a lot of things. One of the things is to try to
in between games. “You see those guys out there play the ball without that topspin but I always try to
in the first weeks of the grass and they are hurting. improve. I always try to be a better player, more
Their butts ache, their backs are killing them. Same complete player.”
with the knees, same with the ankles. It’s painful.”
“For me it is difficult because I have to
So says Paul Annacone, nowadays change the mentality as well as the
employed in the struggle to find potential
“Queen’s &
style of my game. I need to play more
new British champions as the Lawn
Wimbledon are both
aggressive all the time and serve so
Tennis Association’s Men’s Head Coach.
very traditional
much better. I need adapt a lot of things
However not too long ago, he worked on the court and it’s not easy.”
alongside two of the finest modern day
tournaments and I
grass court experts; Pete Sampras,
love to play both”
Therefore, it is testament to both Nadal’s
holder of more Grand Slam singles titles skill and hunger for the game that he
than any man in history including seven
Rafael Nadal
once again has enlisted to play at Queen’s
Wimbledon’s, and the long-time British before Wimbledon this year. “It is nice
No.1, Tim Henman, who reached three finals at Queen’s. to come back to a place where you are the last
champion,” he claimed. “Now Queen’s is called the
“Good players can function on any surface and that’s AEGON Championships but it will be the same. There
even more the case now than it was ten or 15 years and Wimbledon are both very traditional tournaments
ago,” said Annacone. “But the very nature of the grass and I love to play both. To arrive as the last champion
court game and the way the ball behaves means is going to be a really nice experience.”
different muscles and body parts come into play. You
bend so much more because the ball is coming through “Wimbledon is of course the most special place in
lower. You stretch into shots in a different way because tennis but at Queen’s you feel like you are in a club,
on the clay you slide. In the space of just a few days a real tennis club, so that is always really nice. The
you have to adopt a completely different approach.” atmosphere is always really good and the crowd has
always been really nice with me.”
Yet last year, Rafael Nadal confounded even those
who follow the tennis circuit around the globe by Long may the mutual admiration last, because Rafael
becoming the first man to win the French Open, travel Nadal will go down in history as one of the world’s truly
immediately to The Queen’s Club and add that historic great players. Once he was the King of Clay, now he has
trophy, and then maintain the winning run all the way dispelled the old Spanish belief that grass was there
through to Wimbledon. Bjorn Borg had of course made simply for cows to graze and footballers to excel. Going
a habit of winning the two European Grand Slams back into the English grass court season as world No.1, he is
to back but nobody had ever won all three titles. the monarch of all he surveys. Will he remain that way?
The next few weeks will provide the answer and it
should be enthralling to watch.
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