Rafael Nadal makes candid admission about his first Grand Slam title as he gives mindset insight
Rafael Nadal has admitted he thought his first Grand Slam title would be the only one he would win and that he was “amazed” after all 22 of his Major triumphs.
The Spanish great explained he never expressed goals of winning Grand Slams or becoming the best to himself when he was younger as he was “thinking about the tournament of the next week.”
A 19-year-old Nadal claimed his maiden Major at the 2005 French Open, where he defeated Mariano Puerta in a four-set final to become the youngest champion at Roland Garros since Michael Chang in 1989.
The Mallorcan, who was seeded fourth at the tournament, overcame world No 1 Roger Federer, who had won four of the previous seven Grand Slams, in four sets in the semi-finals.
Nadal has gone on to win an astonishing record of 14 French Open titles and has a staggering 112-3 (97%) record at Roland Garros. The 37-year-old’s most recent title came at the clay-court Major in 2022, when he downed Casper Ruud in a straight-set championship match.
The former world No 1 has won 22 Grand Slam titles overall, with only his great rival Novak Djokovic having secured more in the men’s game with 24.
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In a conversation with Eurosport’s Alize Lim, Nadal reaffirmed his renowned mentality of focusing on what is in front of him, rather than setting larger goals or looking further ahead.
“When I was a kid, I never said to myself, ‘I want to win a Grand Slam, I want to win Grand Slams, I want to be the best’. I was thinking about the tournament of the next week,” the Spaniard divulged.
“And when I won my first Grand Slam, I thought it was going to be the only one I’d win. And then, every time I won a Grand Slam, I was amazed, I thought, now I can really relax. It’ll probably be my last one. Now I’ve achieved something and that’s already huge.”
Lim, a tennis presenter and and former world No 135, gave her impression of Nadal’s mentality and suggested she feels the tennis icon will have expectations for his comeback.
“He’s someone who lives in the moment, in the here and now, and that’s his strength. I think he must have ambitions deep down on his return,” said the Frenchwoman.
“I get the impression that it’s not him now who’s talking like that…he’s shown me in the discussion, and that’s what I deeply felt, that in fact that’s what the Rafa mentality was all along, that’s how Rafa worked,” the 33-year-old said.
Lim has won three titles at ITF level and appeared four times in the main draw of the French Open. She played her only match since 2020 at an ITF event in France in April 2022.
Nadal announced recently that he would be making his long-awaited return to action at the Brisbane International tournament in January in preparation for the 2024 Australian Open.
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