Rafael Nadal overcomes chronic foot pain to win his 14th French Open

PARIS – It was 17 years to the day since Rafael Nadal won his first French Open championship as a long-haired teen in toreador pants.

Sunday at Roland Garros, the 36-year-old Nadal walked onto court with a grown man’s thinning hair, conventional shorts and hope that against a challenger 13 years younger, experience and a foot-numbing injection to quell chronic pain would compensate for what time had taken away.

It was more than enough, as Nadal steamrolled Casper Rudd 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 to win his 14th French Open championship and extend his men’s-record Grand Slam titles to 22, compared with the 20 of rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Nadal added the distinction of becoming the oldest man in history to win the French Open while embellishing another incomprehensible mark in lifting his record at Roland Garros to 112-3.

Nadal clasped both hands to his face after drilling the backhand winner down the line that clinched the victory. After embracing Ruud at the net and shaking the umpire’s hand, Nadal returned to Court Philippe-Chatrier, which he has transformed into his personal fiefdom, and raised both hands in triumph.

While he had twice in the past two weeks intimated that this French Open could be his last, alluding to the degenerative condition that causes acute pain in his left foot, Nadal downplayed the notion during his on-court ceremony as he cradled the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy yet again.

“I don’t know what can happen in the future,” Nadal told the capacity crowd of 15,000, which stood in his honor, “but I [am] going to keep fighting to try to keep going in the future.”

During the news conference that followed, Nadal, who has been accompanied at this year’s French Open by his doctor, explained that he has needed to take anesthetic injections in two nerves in his left foot before each of his matches to compete.

“I have been playing with an injections on the nerves to sleep the foot,” Nadal said, “and that’s why I was able to play during these two weeks, because I have no feelings on my foot.”

The primary risk, he said, wasn’t the injections themselves but the chance that he could suffer further while numbed. “It’s a big risk in terms of less feelings, a little bit bigger risk of turning your ankle” or some other injury, he said.

Yet it was a risk he deemed worth it – at least for this tournament.

“That was only way to give myself a chance here, no? So I did it,” Nadal said. “But it’s obvious that I can’t keep competing with the foot asleep.”

Instead, he will undergo what he described as a radio-wave “burn” or ablation of the nerves in hopes it will offer longer term or permanent relief.

“If that works, I going to keep going,” Nadal said. “If that not works, then going to be another story.”

Asked if he planned to compete at Wimbledon, which gets underway June 27, Nadal said: “Wimbledon is a priority, always have been a priority. If I am able to play with anti-inflammatories, yes. To play with anesthetic injections, no. I don’t want to put myself in that position again. Can happen once, but no, is not a philosophy of life that I want to follow.”

If forced to choose between extending his tennis career at the expense of his long-term health and well-being, Nadal said the decision will be clear.

“Of course my tennis career [has] been a priority during all my life,” he said, “but never have been a priority over my happiness of my life.”

On Sunday, however, all that mattered to Nadal when he stepped onto the tricky red clay was the moment.

The capacity crowd was sparkling with royals.

King Felipe VI of Spain sat beside the crown prince of Norway, there to support Ruud, the first Norwegian man to contest a Grand Slam final, in the French tennis federation’s presidential box. Sporting royalty was on hand, too, in NBA star Pau Gasol, a friend and compatriot of Nadal’s, and tennis champions Billie Jean King, Stefan Edberg, Stan Smith and Gustavo Kuerten.

Chants of “Rafa! Rafa!” built to crescendo as the announcer recited each of the 13 years in which Nadal had claimed the championship.

In the eighth-seeded Ruud, the French Open got a finalist few expected – but one Nadal knows well.

Since 2018, Ruud has trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, patterning his topspin-heavy game and on-court comportment after that of his childhood idol. Mentor and protege are frequent hitting partners, but they had never met in a pro-tour match.

And though there is tremendous promise in Ruud, who will rise to a career-high No. 6 as a result of reaching his first Grand Slam final, he simply couldn’t find solutions for Nadal.

The two traded service breaks early in the match, but Nadal overcame a wobbly patch that included successive double faults and a netted forehand to close the first set in 48 minutes.

On this day and at his age, efficiency mattered to Nadal.

Ruud came out the stronger player to start the second set and bolted to a 3-1 lead, capitalizing on a botched volley and an overhit forehand by Nadal, who was unhappy with his serve and hadn’t yet hit his stride.

For Ruud, the lead was short-lived, however.

Nadal regained the confidence that was lacking in his strokes, and the result was a barrage Ruud wasn’t equipped to handle: backhand cross court passing shots, down-the-line winners and all sorts of shots designed to make Ruud run and deny him the positioning to rip the forehands that are his strength.

“He stepped up, and he showed that when he needs to, he plays great,” Ruud said afterward.

In minutes, Nadal reeled off four consecutive games. Two points from a two-sets-to-none deficit, Ruud shot a worried glance at his box, as if out of options and ideas.

From that point on, it was immaterial. Nadal hardly put a foot wrong, claiming the final 11 games to seal the victory.

“I didn’t know exactly where to play there in the end, and he made me run around the court too much,” Ruud said. “When you are playing defensive against Rafa on clay, he will eat you alive.”

If this was Nadal’s last French Open, it is unclear what more tournament organizers can do in his honor, having unveiled a larger-than-life statute of the tournament’s all-time victor at the main entrance of Roland Garros last year.

But if he can find a medical remedy, Nadal said, he plans to continue – not in pursuit of a 15th French Open crown or more Grand Slam titles than whatever number Djokovic and Federer have.

“It’s not about being the best of the history. It’s not about the records,” Nadal said. “It’s about I like what I do, you know? … What drives me to keep going is the passion for the game, [to] live moments that stay inside me forever.”