By Chris Oddo | Saturday June 30, 2018
Once again Rafael Nadal will enter Wimbledon without an official grass-court warmup match, and once again the Spaniard will try to fine-tune his game on his most challenging surface so that he may regain the form that saw him reach the final in five consecutive appearances at the All England Club from 2006 to 2011.
More Wimbledon 2018: Men's Singles Winners and Losers
Nadal was a younger man then, and perhaps that explains how he was able to somehow summon the prodigious energy to achieve so much on a surface that was never the perfect match for his game. He went 32-3 at SW19 from 2006 to 2011, not quite the 38-1 that he managed at Roland Garros during those years but impressive nonetheless.
But since 2011, when he last reached the final, Nadal has fizzled on grass—his last five Wimbledon losses on the surface have come to players with an average ranking of 103—and has not reached beyond the round of 16 once. On three occasions he hasn’t made it past the second round.
Clearly Nadal’s struggles on the grass have a lot to do with his success on clay. Even with the tour adding a third week to the grass-court season in 2015 Nadal has come to Wimbledon without having played a single match on grass twice in the last five seasons, and only once in the last five seasons did he come in with more than two matches on grass prior to Wimbledon.
That year was 2015, when Nadal took the title in Stuttgart but ended up fading out by losing a first-round match to Alexandr Dolgopolov at Queen’s Club and a second-round match to Dustin Brown at Wimbledon.
There seems to be no surefire gameplan for Nadal on grass anymore. He’s typically gassed from pouring his heart and soul into winning Roland Garros, and he’s the type of player that needs reps and confidence to play well, no matter what the surface. But how to get reps and confidence when you spend the first three weeks of grass season recovering from yet another two-month world domination tour on clay?
It's not easy, but he tries...
Nadal came into press today, looking fit and relaxed, much like a player that has recently claimed his 17th Grand Slam title should. He has spent the last two weeks practicing on grass in Mallorca and then this week at Wimbledon and Hurlingham, where he split two exhibitions, defeating Matthew Ebden and falling to Lucas Pouille.
The Spaniard says he doesn’t regret his decision to eschew vital match play at Queen's Club, because he knows what his body needs.
“I am not 20 anymore,” he said. “I had to take decisions on the schedule sometimes. I decided to not play Queen's because after a long clay court season, the body needed a rest, needed a slow adaptation to adapt to the grass. That's what I did.”
For those who are hoping that Nadal can suddenly unlock his potential on grass again, there is hope. Every time he has reached beyond the round of 16 in his career, Nadal has proceeded to reach the final. Today he told reporters that the conditions in the second week suit him better because he finds his footing better in the backcourt when the grass is worn down to dirt.
“Later on the tournament, it's true that the movements are a little bit easier because there is a lot of clay behind the court, so you can move a little bit more free,” he said, and added: “I know to be there I have to play very well on the conditions at the beginning of the tournament because here there is no one easy match. All the matches are difficult. I need to be ready from the beginning. I am looking forward to have the best preparation possible the next two days that I still have and just be ready.”
A good draw will certainly help Nadal at Wimbledon if he does play well. He could face Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round and potentially Mischa Zverev (who claimed his first career title at Eastbourne today) in the third round. Both players play well on grass but they don’t fit the profile of the hard-serving attack-at-all-costs players that have taken Nadal down in the past at Wimbledon, such as Nick Kyrgios, Lukas Rosol and Dustin Brown.
Even so, the always honest Nadal isn’t quite sure if he’ll be able to get deep into this draw this year. Unlike on clay where he builds his schedule carefully to keep hitting the high notes on the Road to Roland Garros, here at Wimbledon Nadal comes in with questions marks, more or less on a wing and a prayer.
“You arrive here and you really don't know very well [how you are playing],” he said. “Is an event that you need to find your confidence during the tournament and during the practice the week before.”
He added: “For example, when I arrived to Roland Garros, I know more or less if I am playing well or if I am not playing well. I know where my chances are, more or less. In the US Open, little bit less, but still knowing better than here.”