'Superhuman': Behind the scenes of Rafa Nadal's 14th Roland Garros triumph

'INCREDIBLE', 'outstanding', 'historic', and a host of other superlatives have flooded Twitter over Spain's all-time greatest tennis star Rafa Nadal following his epic 14th French Open title – in fact, at least one request has been made to rename the clay court at Paris' Roland Garros stadium after the Mallorca-born ace.

Now-retired Croatian tennis pro, Ivan Ljubicic, wrote: “Not many PLAYED 14 Roland Garros tournaments. He won it 14 times. There is no word to describe this feat. Don't think good old Philippe would mind if his court changes the name to Rafael Nadal – statue is not enough.”

Ljubicic is referring to a statue of Nadal next to the Philippe Chatrier court, which has been in place for years.

Rafa's Records: Joint-highest number of Roland Garros wins in all history, along with Max Decugis

Rafa, 36, has long left behind him the record of the most wins at Roland Garros in the Open era, and the most in singles – before Nadal, the highest number of singles titles in the Open era was seven, in the women's category, held by the USA's Chris Evert, and in all history, by France's Max Decugis, who won the men's singles eight times between 1903 and 1914.

Although nobody in the Open era, men or women, in doubles or singles, has ever taken home as many Roland Garros titles as Rafael Nadal, the legend from Manacor will still have to net one more to be the most prolific winner in all time.

Pre-Open, Max Decugis won the title 14 times, in a mixture of singles and doubles, and Rafa Nadal has now matched his total, but nobody has yet surpassed either.

Neither has anyone yet matched Rafa's record of five titles on the trot – from 2010 to 2014 inclusive – with only a handful boasting four consecutive wins, being French players Jeanne Matthey, Suzanne Lenglen and Paul Aymé, and Sweden's Björn Borg.

In fact, having played the French Open every year since 2005, when he first won the tournament, Nadal has only failed to win it on four occasions.

He lost out on the trophy in 2009, 2015 and 2016, and again shocked fans by losing out to lifelong arch-rival – albeit close friend – Novak Djoković last year.

After falling in the final in 2021, speculation was rife – and not considered outrageous, either – that Nadal could finally be past his best and would never surpass his 'lucky 13'.

Said speculators are now eating their words, and have probably never been happier to be proven wrong.

“We'll never see anyone do this again”: Rafa was expected to burn out 'very young'

According to the BBC, ex-UK number one Greg Rusedksi, who was analysing the final live on the broadcaster's Radio 5, was stunned at how Rafa and his contemporaries are still netting trophies at the sharp end at their age.

Rusedski said on air: “In my generation, anything over 30 was bonus time and if you won a [Grand] Slam over 30, it was a heck of an accomplishment. Now it seems the norm because of Nadal, [Roger] Federer, and Djoković.”

In fact, the latter two have 20 Grand Slams to their name, with Rafa edging ahead of them in January this year with 21 after his historic Australian Open win, only his second – since clinching it in 2009 – and in the second-longest final in history, at five hours and 24 minutes, against the upwardly-mobile Daniil Medvedev, who is 10 years his junior.

And even though it is often said that every generation is 10 years younger than the one before – meaning Rafa is the equivalent of a 26-year-old in Greg Rusadski's day – the sheer force and energy coming out of Nadal during his earliest, equally-epic tournaments led many to believe he would burn out very quickly.

“Most of us thought he would be retired by the age of 27 or 28, with the physicality he plays with,” admitted Rusedski. 

“We didn't think he would be capable [of achieving] what he has achieved. What he has achieved is super-human.

“We will never see anybody in our lifetime achieve what he has achieved on a clay court. It is not possible.”

But could the end by nigh...?

Others have levelled with or exceeded Rafael Nadal on Grand Slam wins, though, all of them female: Steffi Graf netted 22, which Rafa has now matched; Serena Williams has 23 and Margaret Court holds 24.

Whether Nadal will go on to beat the totals by any of these three women is very much up in the air – especially as he has already said he will probably not be at Wimbledon this year.

“Wimbledon is not a tournament that I want to miss. I think nobody wants to miss Wimbledon. I love Wimbledon,” Nadal told reporters in Paris.

Despite this, the All-England Club event is not one of Rafa's luckiest – he has only won it twice, in 2008 and 2010, and since then has only made it to the final once, in 2011.

And he may opt not to enter this summer, depending upon how treatment with a chronic foot condition pans out.

He initially feared the ongoing nerve pain in his left foot would put paid to the entire 2022 season for him – and ahead of the Australian Open, it was not looking good, given that he had also only recovered from a bout of Covid five weeks earlier, which had left him feverish and feeling ill.

Soon after this victory, a stress-fracture in one of his ribs pushed Rafa off the circuit for another two months.

The BBC says Nadal's foot is affected by a rare degenerative condition called Müller-Weiss Syndrome, which attacks the bones, and that he had been seen limping just 10 days before the first round in Paris, whilst at the Italian Open.

Rafa is reported to be due for radiofrequency ablation, involving applying heat to the nerves to dull the pain long-term, and that if it did not work or did not generate sufficiently satisfying results to allow him to continue in his career, the only option would be an operation.

And even that might not cure it.

How, then, was he able to knock out Norway's Casper Ruud in the Roland Garros final, ending on 6-3 6-3 6-0?

“I have no feeling in my foot, because my doctor was able to put anaesthetic injections on the nerves,” Nadal explained to the media after the tournament.

This was an emergency measure to ensure he did not have to miss out on a tournament whose trophy has spent more time in his display cabinet in Manacor than it has in the French capital.

“As everyone knows in the world of tennis, my preparation was not ideal, but Roland Garros is Roland Garros. Everyone knows how much this tournament means to me, so I wanted to keep trying and give myself a chance here,” Rafa admitted.

He says he will only play at Wimbledon if he can reduce his foot pain by taking anti-inflammatories, as he does not want to 'put himself in the position' of having it anaesthetised again.

Surgery would take months to recover from, and there would be no guarantee it would work, meaning that if the radiofrequency ablation does not have the desired results, Nadal will have to make a major decision about his immediate future.

But this unstarry, timid, unnecessarily modest and self-critical sporting legend has no plans to retire otherwise – if whatever treatment he undergoes enables him to continue at ATP level and to play at a similar standard to now, he will 'keep going', he says.

Nadal reveals he had never expected to still be competing at the top, let alone winning a major tournament, two days after his 36th birthday, but depending upon 'what happens in the future', he plans to 'keep fighting to try to keep going', he told the BBC.

Twitter aflame with fan messages – including Tsitsipas, Tendulkar and Real Madrid 

Fellow ATP ace Stefanos Tsitsipas says Rafa's 'hard work', 'passion', his 'never give up attitude', 'perseverance' and putting his 'time, heart and soul' into his career are what led to his 'outstanding' achievement – in fact, the Mallorca whizz-kid is renowned for his extreme conscientious approach, being the first to blame himself and give himself a hard time if he makes mistakes.

He even once confessed that, during a practice match early in his career, he had beaten himself up for his poor technique – only for his uncle and then coach, Toni Nadal, to point out he had literally been playing on broken strings, with a smashed-up racquet.

Rafa Nadal fans who support FC Barcelona should brace themselves; your idol is about to fall off his pedestal – the 'King of Clay' is a lifelong supporter of Real Madrid CF and an honorary club member.

His favourite football team has also tweeted its congratulations on Nadal's 'historic feat' of his 22nd Grand Slam and 14th Roland Garros.

But just to redeem Rafa's name with football fans who are firmly in the 'Barça camp', one of the star's uncles, Miguel Ángel Nadal, used to play professionally for FC Barcelona and won 62 caps for Spain.

Sachin Tendulkar also took to Twitter to comment on Nadal's 'incredible achievement' of 'going out there and winning a record 14th Roland Garros and 22nd Grand Slam' at age 36.