Marc Pozzo
To death and taxes – being life’s only two certainties – can be added a third, Rafael Nadal winning the French Open. The Spaniard secured a 12th title at Roland Garros with victory over Dominic Thiem on Sunday and 18th major of his career.
He now has 93 match wins on Paris’ famous crushed red brick against just two defeats in 14 years. His idiosyncrasies are just as charming to his supporters. His picking at the rear of his shorts and mopping of his brow, aligned with his obsessive devotion to lining up his water bottles, labels facing out, are parts of the Nadal DNA.
Victory on Sunday moved Nadal to just two Slams behind Federer who, at 37, is more than four years older. His Grand Slam CV boasts 12 French Opens, three US Open titles, two at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open. His 2008 Wimbledon final triumph over Federer is widely regarded as the greatest ever final at the majors. He has 82 career titles in total of which 59 have been on clay. As well as his 18 majors, he possesses a record 34 Masters.
Along with Federer and Novak Djokovic, the other member of tennis’ ‘Big Three’, Nadal has comfortably passed the $100 million prize money barrier. Tennis has been good for Nadal but he has been just as influential as a key driver of the sport’s growth. He won an under-12 regional crown at age eight and by 12 had captured Spanish and European age-group junior titles. By 15, he had turned professional and, two years later, won his first match against Federer.
At 19, he won the 2005 French Open on his debut. Nadal has Wimbledon crowns in 2008 and 2010, an Australian Open title in 2009 and completed the career Grand Slam in 2010 by defeating Djokovic in the US Open final, becoming the youngest in the Open era to complete the four-event career sweep. Nadal added another US Open crown at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York in 2013 and a third in 2017.
Only Nadal and Andre Agassi can say they have a career Grand Slam and an Olympic men’s singles gold medal, Nadal having claimed his in 2008 at Beijing. He has also led Spain to four Davis Cups. Knee and wrist injuries have taken a toll throughout his career, however, costing him nine Slam appearances.
After he failed to even reach a Slam semi-final in 2015 and 2016 some figured his greatest moments were behind him. But Nadal roared into the 2017 Australian Open final, losing to Federer, then captured a record 10th French Open crown in June that year, setting the stage for another title run in the Flushing Meadows fortnight at the US Open in September.
Dunk a celebrity
This last Sunday Spar Zimbabwe put on the Rainbow run at the Borrowdale Park Racecourse. There was a great turnout of people which I estimated at 5000 about . One of the highlights of the day was the “DUNK A CELEBRITY”. I was one of those chosen to participate, as all proceeds on the day were going to a great cause in Childline. We had to raise funds from friends, family, business associates etc either to be dunked or saved. Either way you needed to collect as much as you could.
The kind people I know voted that I get dunked on the day. Water temperature in the minus degrees . It was not fun at the time but all for such a great cause and in the end the dunking raised over $28,000.00 and monies still coming in I am told. Well done to all concerned for putting the event together. It was so good to see families out, exercising and bonding with their friends all in aid of a great Childline.
To the Cricket World Cup in the UK where South Africa need other results to go their way if they are to make the semi-finals of the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Monday’s ‘no-result’ against the West Indies in Southampton means that the most the Proteas can finish on is 11 log points. While there are many avenues left that could still result in the Proteas progressing to the playoffs, there are at least four teams who can finish on at least 12 points and that would see the South Africans eliminated.
On a day where victory was vital to the South African cause, the players looked on as the rain fell on the Rose Bowl turf for most of the day. While South Africa have now earned their first log point of the competition, there is no room left for error and they must win their next five matches. They still have to play against Afghanistan (Cardiff, June 15), New Zealand (Edgbaston, June 19), Pakistan (Lord’s, June 23), Sri Lanka (Chester-Le-Street, June 28) and Australia (Manchester, July 6). The Afghanistan match is one that the Proteas will consider an absolute ‘banker,’ but a quick look at the weather forecast suggests that there will be drizzle throughout the morning there too. It’s not looking good for the “chokers.”
