Rafael Nadal faces an uphill task as he prepares to return in January 2024. Recently, his ex-coach and uncle, Toni Nadal revealed that he is well on track but could face difficulties in catching up with Novak Djokovic in the Grand Slams race. The 22-time champion’s Davis Cup captain, David Ferrer also recently stated that Rafael Nadal’s biggest motivation is being competitive enough to win more majors than his rivals.
However, Rafael Nadal faced another setback of sorts recently. The Spaniard dropped out of the top 200 of the ATP rankings for the first time since February 2023. Ranked 239 at the moment, Nadal could take inspiration from an American legend who was in a dire situation himself in the late 90s.
What happened to Andre Agassi in 1997?
Back in November 1997, Andre Agassi was going through the worst period of his otherwise colourful and storied career. Agassi won no ATP titles throughout the year, having played only 24 matches. Although it later came out that Agassi was suffering from a failed marriage as well as had taken banned drugs. It did not help that he was trying to recover from a recurring wrist injury. All this made him least interested in tennis.
As a result, Agassi’s ranking plummeted to a mouth-gasping 141 in the world. However, he regained his mojo at the start of 1998 courtesy his coach, Brad Gilbert’s extremely challenging conditioning program. Gilbert was also the coach of Andy Roddick when he won the US Open 2003 and recently, of Coco Gauff who won the US Open women’s singles title.
Andre Agassi decided to participate in a series of ATP Challenger and 250-point events, although it was believed to be much lesser of a player of his calibre. But the move worked as Agassi went on to win 5 titles in 1998, making it also to the finals of the Key Biscayne Masters. All these results took him from No.141 to No.6 by December 1998, which also got him the ATP’s Most Improved Player of the Season award. After that, Agassi never looked back until his retirement in mid-2006.
Can Rafael Nadal emulate Andre Agassi’s 25-year-old achievement?
Since 1998, no player apart from Andre Agassi has risen as quickly from outside the top 100 into the top 10 in such a short span of time. The remarkably similarity for Rafael Nadal too is that 2023 too has been the worst year of his career, suffering from a hip injury. So he has lost a year, ending up with no titles or Grand Slams to show.
The literally ‘million dollar’ question is – ‘Will Rafael Nadal play in Challengers series like Andre Agassi did as if to restart his career?’ Nadal is not a stranger to career-threatening injuries, having incredibly bounced back every time to stun tennis-loving audiences and pundits alike worldwide. However, the situation looks to be different this time.
Rafael Nadal has not only lost a big ranking but is also 37 at the moment. Seeing his intensely competitive nature, the Spanish legend might be tempted to go big immediately on his comeback since he may think he is racing against time too, not just his rivals. But playing lower-level tournaments to condition himself and rebuild his fitness and game at the start, might not be a bad idea, after all.
According to the likes of David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, Rafael Nadal is surely targeting his 15th title win in Paris at the French Open 2024. That might give him an idea of where he stands and what his future would look like. Perhaps, Nadal could think long-term if he wants to beat Novak Djokovic in numbers to be the greatest men’s tennis player in history.
For a player like Djokovic, fitness and rest are equally important due to an aging body. This is the reason he is able to win big titles even at the age of 36 and seems set to go for more for the next 2-3 years easily. The race is about longevity more than Grand Slam titles.
So if Rafael Nadal aims to go the Andre Agassi way for challenging Novak Djokovic and coming back successfully this time as well, he could too play till he is 40. That would give Nadal more chances to compete for the honours and achievements that he wishes to fulfill again or perhaps for the first time in his decorated career.
