In the box of honor, Felipe VI proclaims:
-Nadal is the king of Roland Garros, he is the king of the land. I have thanked him.
In the bowels of Philippe Chatrier, Casper Ruud barely resigns himself:
-Before the match I already thought that this one, facing Nadal in Paris, was one of the greatest challenges for an athlete. Now, I definitely know that it is. (…) I hope I can tell it to my grandchildren. I will be able to tell you that this game that I have been watching on television for 16 or 17 years I have finally been able to play. They’ll ask me, ‘Wow, did you do it?’ And I will tell them: ‘Yes’.
And Nadal?
Rafael Nadal barely talks about tennis.
Rafael Nadal shows off his 14th trophy, he places it on the table next to the bottles whose water he drinks in long gulps: one liter is lowered in three quarters, and he does so while he is speaking, while offering a range of confessions, words that shed light in the dark, because his sporting future in the medium term is gibberish.
Punished by the degenerative Müller-Weiss syndrome, the left foot is already an unbearable ballast, a torture in sport but also in his day to day life.
–How is it possible that you have been able to defeat four Top 10 players and take the title, considering your foot problems? – they ask him.
-It’s exciting to have the title after the last two months. But more, because life has been hitting me.
And from there, review the drift of recent times.
He remembers that everything had gone wrong in June, with his knee problems, six months out of the game with surgeries and pain. And that he had not played again until January.
–And when I did it again everything was going great, and in February I won the Australian Open (his 21st major) –he adds–, but then I broke my rib and lost preparation for the clay court season, and even so I managed to come back but already in Madrid and in Rome the (left) foot could not take it anymore. I was lame in Madrid, I knew I was taking risks. And I explained it in Rome, when the doctor (Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro) told me that the only option to be at Roland Garros was to put him to sleep.
And so, he reveals the mystery that he has been keeping to himself these days, the magical treatment that has allowed him to return to the scene when he seemed resigned, and that is not so much, it is not so magical.
-What has been done has been to block the pain with injections of anesthesia in the distant nerves that suffer due to the injury -he says-. And I’ve played without pain, but also with zero sensitivity. Considering that the injections have gone well, we will now go a little further.
He talks about pulsed radiofrequency injections, the treatment that will be applied now, and that could continue to annul the pain but without completely inhibiting the sensitivity of the foot.
– What if it doesn’t work?
-There are other options, such as surgery, but that is already my approach to life. Considering an operation that does not guarantee me to be able to continue playing…
And Wimbledon? (starts June 27).
-It’s a priority. If I can play with anti-inflammatories, yes. With anesthesia, no.
