I have known this day was close for about 2 years now, and even though the last 2 years haven't been great on the court for him, I still managed to watch most of his matches knowing this could be the last time I see him.
Back in 2017 I was having a rough go of things, my Grandma passed away the day before Nadal lost to Federer in the AO final and a couple months later my Dad passed away really unexpectedly. I went into a deep depression, and aside from family, part of what brought me back was Nadal's 2017 season. 2015 and 2016 were not great seasons for Nadal and I kinda given up hope on him ever winning a grand slam again. Then 2017 he turned the clock back and won 2 slams that year and would end up winning a further 8 (5 french, 2 US and 1 AO).
Out of all his Grand Slam wins, his 2022 AO title will go down as my favorite. He had to face a gauntlet of tough young players and was down 2 sets to 0 in the final looking exhausted and he found a way to win. Never complained, never smashed a racket just kept thinking of ways to win.
When he won his last Grand Slam he was up in the slam race 22-20-20....he would never play a healthy grand slam again.
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