From the locker room to Marc Maury, how Rafa got into the heads of his opponents

Nadal and tennis are definitely history after Spain's defeat on Tuesday in the Davis Cup quarter-finals. On this occasion, 20 Minutes publishes a series of articles on the tennis legend with 22 Grand Slam titles. Today, a look back at the Spaniard's pre-match ceremony in the locker room, between warming up and intimidating the opponent.

At the beginning of June 2022, Casper Ruud missed out on the chance of a lifetime in the Roland-Garros final. In front of him, a Rafael Nadal in agony, not amputated by a foot but almost. “I faced him when he could no longer walk because his foot was sore,” emphasized the Norwegian, still in shock a year later. That day, Ruud did more than lose this match: Rafa crushed him, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. Nothing shameful in itself, even at the highest stage of the competition. Federer and Djokovic were able to taste the Roland-Garros limited edition clay flavored bagel well before him. But these two had the excuse of an opponent at the top of their game.

How do you lose, then, against an injured beast in the twilight of your sporting life? The answer lies as much in experience – Nadal was playing his 14th final at Roland, Ruud was a rookie – as in the mind. After the meeting, the images of the Spaniard leaping and sprinting in all directions under the amazed eyes of his future victim in the corridors of Chatrier went around the networks and were designated by observers as the tipping point of a match that hadn't even started.

Nadal intimidates me Djokovic

A sensation that Nicolás Almagro knows well having experienced it in the same place, even if earlier in the tournament. “In Paris, he had the advantage of almost always leaving with a set to zero,” the Spaniard confided to 20 Minutes before the Parisian fortnight. If you add in the intensity with which he was warming up in the hallway waiting to enter the court, how much the fans were waiting for him to come out, that pressure only increased a little more. » “You say to yourself: ''wow if he's like that in the warm-up, what's he going to be like on the pitch?'', Paul-Henri Mathieu told Eurosport. Knowing that he starts the match with his foot on the floor and that he only releases the accelerator pedal when he has shaken the opponent's hand. He puts you in a washing machine and he doesn't stop. » The same Polo had one day tried to turn the weapon against his instigator before a round of 16 at the Australian Open. Good idea in theory, less so in practice: the Frenchman was injured on the first point of the match.

More broadly, the entire circuit has one day or another suffered Nadal's aura. Even Novak Djokovic. “The way he jumps before the match in the locker room, he sprints next to you, I could even hear the music he was listening to in his headphones,” the Serbian confided to CBS. Early in my career, it intimidated me. » “Rafa was right to do it because he had to win a few matches like that, before returning to the court,” maintains Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, now a Prime Video consultant. This way of warming up, entering the field, his jump at the time of the toss, the sprint, it's part of the character. The first few times I was there in 'dude, you don't know who you're talking to' mode (laughs). I really liked that. Body language was important to me, and when he was jumping in Australia in 2008 I was in my seat tapping him as if to say 'you'll see' (laughs). »Spoiler: he saw.

Very stickler for morality, the Iberian nevertheless refutes any voluntary maneuver in an interview with The Country. “I never intended to do it [intimider]. I warm up like that, trying to get ready and ready to play. I'm training, nothing more. »

Marc Maury, the other psychological puzzle

Before being a burden for Rafa, the weight of the years ended up being an ally in the psychological war with his adversaries, mainly at Roland-Garros, where Marc Maury one day had the good idea of ​​making his Parisian CV a gimmick to heat the central office (to the point of trying to offer it to others in a rather caricatured manner). “2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010…” until the crowd burst into ecstasy. You had to see how the public was just waiting for that, at the end of last May, during the first round lost against Alexander Zverev. “When we get to '2008', I'm already drowning, it's electric, the tickle behind the ear,” Maury confided last year to the Paris tournament site. I remember that in 2020, Sebastian Korda was playing against him in the fourth round and he said to me: ''I don't know French, but I understood that you were talking about years very quickly. I was so nervous, I knew I was under pressure right away. »

A great admirer of the former world number 1, Corentin Moutet experienced the moment with more detachment in the 3rd round of Roland-Garros 2022. “I wasn't impressed, but it's true that I had chills when [Marc Maury] announced it. I've seen this scene so many times, without it being me on the ground, that I had the impression that it was VR where we put you in something where you want to be. » Even if it means taking 6-3, 6-1, 6-4, you might as well enjoy the moment.