Tennis: Bored Nadal is winning at a tournament he’s never won

Rafael Nadal has never won the ATP Finals. He’s normally injured or exhausted or both and desperate for the off-season to start. This year’s different. His biggest obstacle is boredom.

Rafael Nadal adjusts his headband during his match against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the ATP World Tour Finals in London

Stefano Tsitsipas has won as many majors as you and I. Not as many as we thought when we slipped into our Dunlop Volleys as a kid and carried our gear around in a bag with I Love Tennis written on it.

Not everything in the lifelong plan goes to plan, eh? Although, it has to be said, press boxes compare favourably to practice courts in one regard. Everybody wins.

Securing zero majors means every other tournament becomes larger than life for Tsitsipas. While a trophy hog like 20-time major champion Rafael Nadal gets the ferry along the Thames to his ATP Finals matches with an air of take it or leave it, having won as many slams as anyone other Margaret Court and her mate Serena Williams, Tsitsipas plays the season-ending event in London as though his next meal depends on it.

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Obsessed by Instagram to a degree otherwise seen in 16-year-old girls and Nick Kyrgios, he posts things like “action first then prayers” while Nadal is yawning and wondering if it’s worth his time to get out of bed.

On Friday they faced off in a winner-stays, loser-goes-home group match in the dungeon of the O2 Arena in London. Actually, it’s wrong to suggest Nadal didn’t particularly give a stuff. No player in history has given more of a stuff than Nadal. He’s cared deeply and obsessively about every point of every game of every set of every one of the 1207 matches he’s played. The only thing growing larger than his legend is his bald spot. Apparently he’s had some yeah-yeah treatment to his hair. I don’t think it’s worked. They’ve missed a few bits.

He’s such a competitive so-and-so that he celebrates like he’s win another French Open when he beats his mates at golf in Spain. His desire to do everything right extended to him wearing a face mask that matched his tracksuit top after he beat Tsitsipas 6-4 4-6 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of a tournament he’s never won.

He normally crawls to London on hands and knees, his body in disrepair, his motivation more tuned towards an off-season break. This year the plague has made the off-season extend from March until September, so he’s positively skipping into his clash against Daniil Medvedev on Sunday. He’s a fascinating soul when he’s talking about life and suffering and the pain of defeat and the joy of hard work but he ain’t so flash when it comes to match analysis.

“I think I played quite well,” he said after sending Tsitsipas back to Instagram.

The ATP Finals is usually a joy ride for players and those headed for the press box. You stay in a plush hotel on the West End. Nadal is staying at the Savoy, where he could normally stumble out of bed and catch a matinee theatre session of 9 to 5 The Musical. What a way to make a living. But this week Nadal is restricted to the O2, the ferry and the hotel.

No spectators at matches. Life could be worse than being told you must stay in this lavish five-storey accommodation with a million heated swimming pools and beds as big as the pitch at Lord’s or there will be trouble but still, the ever-active Nadal is getting twitchy.

“To be in the semi-finals here is an important thing,” he said. “Is always difficult to play here, against the best players of the world, every single day. End of the season, most of the time you get here a little bit tired. This year is a little bit different from what the world is facing now. I am sad for the situation. Normally the atmosphere her would be fantastic it’s a different story now.”

The other semi-final will be between Dominic Them and the winner of Saturday’s group match between Novak Djokovic and Alex Zverev. They haven’t crossed paths since Djokovic’s ill-fated Adria Tour that provided as many COVID-19 tests as examinations of form and fitness during lockdown.

Nadal said of being trapped in his spectacularly lavish hotel room: “It is true that we cannot complain at all. We are lucky to be practising out sport under very difficult world conditions. We cannot complain but at the same time we have to say it is a little bit more boring than usual, without a doubt. No chance to go out for dinner. Days in the middle are a bit longer. I’m just trying to stay relaxed and be patient and keep going.”

The only bloke Nadal can’t beat is Daniel Andrews. If the Victoria Premier doesn’t cut some slack with quarantine requirements in Melbourne in January, there goes the Australian Open.

Meantime, there’s some testy byplay going on between Nadal and Djokovic. When Djokovic called for a new player council, Nadal said he was “completely against it.” When Djokovic called for technology instead of linespeople, Nadal said this week he was completely against it. If Djokovic said the sky was blue, Nadal might say he’s completely against it.

He said of Djokovic‘s proposal for exclusively electronic line calls: “I don’t want to create controversy, but I think the traditional court with line judges looks much nicer. Novak said line judges were not needed. All opinions are respected. There are different visions of the sport, but for me I like it less without line judges. It’s welcome here (because of Covid) so we can adapt to the circumstances but if you ask me towards the future, I prefer line judges.

“It’s true the sport has not changed many things in the last 50 years, compared with the majority of sports, but I don’t think this is a way to improve the spectacle of our sport. The technology is there. It could be just the two of us on the court if we want. But I think the human side gives more value to the sport.”