Jun 5, 2022·edited Jun 5, 2022Liked by Matthew Willis
I was thinking as I watched this that there are gonna be kids in 20+ years time looking Nadal up on Youtube to get a sense of what a guy who wins RG 14 times actually plays like. The record was already absurd at 10 FOs - at 14 it's a mad outlier that could last several lifetimes. And you wouldn't put #15 past him if he can manage his foot.
That said, the very comfortable win in the final shouldn't overshadow how difficult and close run the FAA, Djokovic and Zverev matches were. He was much closer to losing here than in any of the 2017-2020 RGs.
And agree with the above - thanks for all the excellent analysis you produce so quickly!
Matt - What do you know about the legality of treatments such as Nadal's? On the one hand, it can be interpreted as treatment of an injury and just a more extreme version of cortisone shots; on the other hand, one could interpret it as tending in the performance enhancing direction. Athletes have to endure stress on the body and this takes away all sensation, which is certainly going beyond injury treatment as restoration to the theoretical baseline. [sports are quite inconsistent; for instance, lasix, clearly improves vision beyond the norm so every golfer has it but isn't considered performance enhancing intervention; with biotech advances, we're going to get into more and more gray areas). Personally I don't have any trouble with Nadal's treatment but I'm wondering how one decides. Did Nadal, for instance, have to have the treatment vetted by itf/atp medical people ahead of time?
I was thinking as I watched this that there are gonna be kids in 20+ years time looking Nadal up on Youtube to get a sense of what a guy who wins RG 14 times actually plays like. The record was already absurd at 10 FOs - at 14 it's a mad outlier that could last several lifetimes. And you wouldn't put #15 past him if he can manage his foot.
That said, the very comfortable win in the final shouldn't overshadow how difficult and close run the FAA, Djokovic and Zverev matches were. He was much closer to losing here than in any of the 2017-2020 RGs.
And agree with the above - thanks for all the excellent analysis you produce so quickly!
Thanks for the fantastic analysis throughout the French Open. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Bring on Wimbledon!
Matt - What do you know about the legality of treatments such as Nadal's? On the one hand, it can be interpreted as treatment of an injury and just a more extreme version of cortisone shots; on the other hand, one could interpret it as tending in the performance enhancing direction. Athletes have to endure stress on the body and this takes away all sensation, which is certainly going beyond injury treatment as restoration to the theoretical baseline. [sports are quite inconsistent; for instance, lasix, clearly improves vision beyond the norm so every golfer has it but isn't considered performance enhancing intervention; with biotech advances, we're going to get into more and more gray areas). Personally I don't have any trouble with Nadal's treatment but I'm wondering how one decides. Did Nadal, for instance, have to have the treatment vetted by itf/atp medical people ahead of time?