great post general masterclass.
nadal could have been the greatest of all time in terms of slams won. he may have been sitting on 18 slams today with 1-2 more to go.
but he took too many wrong turns. add endless injuries to that equation and you have a guy who has spent a lot of mental and physical capital.
I said this here long ago. what held nadal back was that he failed to innovate and progress his game.
it was still more than good to net him 14 majors. he would also own winning records against all top 30 players.
quite an achievement with a limited game.
nobody to blame at this point. he and his team simply did not hire the best fitness experts in the field.
they also did not teach him the slice and the volley very early on.
it is the same in business and in life. sooner or later you will get run over if you don't progress and innovate.
or at the very least you have to keep up/maintain your competitive advantage.
rafa's style of play is the most demanding ever seen in our sport. you pretty much had to be a super human to play that style.
you will note that other heavy topspin players who made history in our sport were also super humans. borg, vilas, and muster.
they called muster the iron man of tennis.
rafa was the greatest physical specimen of them all in our sport. he just could not keep it going. it took too much mental, physical, and emotional capital.
injuries set him back time and again. and then he became a mega global superstar anyway.
and the world simply took over. he lost focus. the world just cant get enough of him.
more on this later.