Even years later, Federer still sounded relieved looking back
‘Master’, Christopher Clarey
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It was 2006, Rafael Nadal (36) was still making his way into the popular imagination and his team had prepared a meeting with the press at his home in Oakfield, a minute's walk from gate 13 of the All England Club, the home of Wimbledon.
"It's not Buckingham Palace, but it's good here," Nadal told us, sitting on the white carpet in the living room, his back against the wall, his legs stretched out.
Back then, Nadal was learning from his predecessors. Of Agassi, Hewitt and Roddick, already autumnal, and of the magician Federer, the man of the moment (he would win that edition, after knocking Nadal down in the final): they all rented houses in luxurious nearby developments, none of them was willing to lock themselves in a car for two hours a day to reach the club (one hour there, another hour back...).
"From here we get to the site in a moment and we don't spend the whole day there, getting bored," said the man from Manacorí, then still a teenager, while the curious gazed around the place.
A large screen hung on the living room wall. In the Tour, Óscar Freire won the stage. Out of the corner of his eye, Nadal contemplated the scene. His father and his coach-uncle were chatting on a sunny ground-floor patio. Sting and Rosana albums were stacked at the foot of a loudspeaker.
Sometimes, in his spare time, when they weren't playing Parcheesi, Nadal cooked. He told us that he had specialized in pasta with prawns, salmon and crabs.
He was twenty years old and had two big titles, both in Paris.
-I feel at home here. Although we will return to Manacor when this is over, eh...? – She told us.
And he also talked about his left foot, already then a problem that would become chronic until it definitively conditioned his present.
-Who was going to tell me seven months ago, when I was injured and depressed, that I could live through all this? –He said.
Today, the foot no longer speaks.
The pain is controlled, the anesthesia treatment is giving results.
Point and end.
Tomorrow, Nadal will debut against Francisco Cerúndolo.
(...)
So many years later, he is the master, Nadal, and Carlos Alcaraz (19), who today debuts against a dangerous rival, the server Jan-Lennard Struff, confesses:
–I try to copy myself from the best, from Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray... –he said yesterday.
And he was not only referring to his mobility on the grass and his ability to adapt to all surfaces, but also his approach to a tournament. Like those legends, Alcaraz has rented a house a step away from Wimbledon.
-Last year we were in a hotel and with the traffic we lost a lot of time. Now we come walking -he counted
(Alcaraz was not speaking from home, but from the club's press room)
He also said that he is learning to cook (he is adding qualities: last year he had gotten his driver's license) and that his hobbies are chess, a discipline that his grandfather had instilled in him.
I think chess and tennis are similar. They are very keen on sensing what the other is going to do, making moves ahead.
Novak Djokovic, a six-time champion at Wimbledon (he has won the last three editions), is also trying to be several moves ahead.
And so, when asked if he sees himself playing at the US Open in September, he says:
–No.
–Will you not play in New York because you do not plan to get vaccinated?
-It's true. I would love to play in that country, but for now it is not possible. And there's not much else I can do. Only the US government can do it, it is the only one capable of relaxing access to its territory for unvaccinated people. And that is a special motivation to do better here (at Wimbledon).
Djokovic, undefeated in the Wimbledon garden since 2017, the tennis player who eats the club's grass to please the parish, will open Center Court today. Starting at 2:30 p.m. (Spanish time), the Korean Soonwoo Kwon will be measured.
In his sports career, Kwon has only won one match in London. No one has bothered to find out where he is staying these days.
