Rafa in Breakpoint

Breakpoint is a docu-series on Netflix following a bunch of top tennis stars through their grand slam journey. Season 2 was released recently and though I wasn’t much enthused about watching it, I was intrigued by the title of one episode — King of Clay.

As a Rafael Nadal fan, I couldn’t look the other way with anything on Rafa. This particular episode is about two talented young players, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Casper Ruud, who were facing the reigning “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal at the 2022 French Open.

We know what happened. Especially with the talk of a newer generation of champions taking over from the Big Three, Rafa just erased any iota of doubt on anyone’s mind and won his 22nd Grandslam without breaking much sweat. (and he was playing with injections to numb his foot) While Felix could take two sets off Rafa in their fourth-round match, it was a rout in the final against Casper.

The episode gave us insight into what goes on in a player’s mind as he moves up the rounds of a grand slam and how they approach, mentally, a game against top players, in this case, one of the greatest players of all time.

But the highlight for me was when they showed the moments in the corridor before the players made their entry into the court. Rafa walks in from his locker room and starts bouncing around and shadow-practices his forehands, while his opponents are waiting to walk out. Accompanying that clip is this ‘ominous’ background score. Just so intimidating, even for us to watch it on screen!

I guess most matches are lost against Rafa, in the corridor of locker rooms, even before they step out onto the court.

Skill, talent, and hard work might make you a good player, but the mindset along with it, makes one a champion!