Summer Intrigue

Rafael Nadal won an ATP 500 event in Hamburg on Sunday, but he celebrated like it was a Grand Slam. After restraining himself through the handshake with the man he had just beaten, Fabio Fognini, Nadal dropped his racquet, skipped to the center of the court, fell to his knees, threw his head back, and held his arms high over his head triumphantly.

Rafa, by all appearances, wanted this win badly, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. He had already lost to the less-than-legendary Fognini twice this season. He needs ranking points if he’s going to reach the all-important Top 8 before the US Open. It was his most significant tournament win since the 2014 French Open. And after a couple of down moments at the French Open and Wimbledon, Rafa needed an up.

“This title helps [me] to be a bit more calm,” Nadal said. As every Rafa-watcher knows, “being with calm” is the key to the man’s success, if not his very existence.

“I lost the last two times against [Fognini], so I knew it was going to be a tough one,” Nadal said. “I had some tough moments on the court, but every time I came back and I kept fighting with the right mentality...It’s an important victory for me.”

Yet as Rafa admitted, it didn’t come without its share of struggles. His win leaves no doubt, if there ever was any, of his continued to desire for success. But it didn’t completely erase the doubts that have surrounded his game in 2015.

Nadal started slowly, losing the first set to Fernando Verdasco in his opener. And in the end he had to rely on some poor play at crucial times from Fognini to make it across the finish line. In between, Nadal continued to have trouble with his forehand, especially in pressure situations. His serve was pedestrian at best (though a shoulder issue might help explain that), and his drop shot, one of his most reliable plays, strayed wildly at times. Just when he was finally putting everything together, in his semifinal against Andreas Seppi, Rafa had to take an emergency timeout for an abdominal cramp. It was as if his body wasn’t used to things going quite so smoothly.

Rarely has a player been scrutinized as closely as Nadal has been this season. His forehand, backhand, serve, court positioning, confidence, movement: All of it was questioned by TV commentators throughout the week. And when the tournament was over and he had won, the compliments were often backhanded. This is how USA Today summed up his victory on Twitter on Monday:

IT TOOK EIGHT MONTHS AND 15 TOURNAMENTS, BUT RAFAEL NADAL FINALLY DID SOMETHING RIGHT IN 2015

After watching each of his Hamburg matches, I’d say the Rafa cup ended up exactly half-full. Every negative in his performance was balanced with a positive, and vice-versa. Yes, he missed forehands and blew leads; but he also played brilliant defense and recovered quickly from lapses. Yes, everything was an effort, and few things came easily, but he also appeared to be enjoying the effort and the process—the “suffering,” as he would say.

What seemed different from Nadal’s best years was how up and down he was from one match to the next. He was sluggish against Verdasco, nervous against Vesely, and then brilliant from start to finish against Seppi; his movement in the latter match was noticeably better than it had been all week. But he couldn’t sustain that level in the final.

Part of that was the matchup; obviously Fognini, a shotmaker who takes the ball early, can pin Nadal behind the baseline in a way that Seppi can’t. But it also may be a product of Nadal being 29, and in his 12th year on tour. He can still reach the peak levels of old, but these days it’s harder to say whether that level will carry over to his next match. More than once this year, he has seemed to fully “turn the corner,” only to falter soon after.

If this is how Nadal’s year continues, it will be something new for him. In the past, he has been the ultimate momentum player. Once he has it, he rides it all the way to No. 1 and multiple Grand Slam titles—that was true in 2008, 2010, and 2013. It’s possible that he could do it again, but as he moves into his 30s, the chances of him lording it over the tour for an extended period become slimmer.

This doesn’t mean Nadal is in decline, or won’t win more majors. It means that there’s a good chance we’ll see more weeks like Hamburg in his future. The world will wonder what’s wrong with Rafa, why he’s missing so many forehands, and why his levels go up and down—and he’ll find a way to win anyway.

The first question that crossed my mind concerning Dominic Thiem on Sunday was whether, deep down, he regrets going blonde at the moment he did. From now until eternity, when we look back at the Austrian’s early ATP titles, we’re going to see him with a shock of bright yellow hair flopping around on top of his head.

Of course, there are worse problems for a young tennis player to have. On Sunday, Thiem won his second straight tournament, in Gstaad, and bumped his ranking up to a career-high No. 21—the same as his age. I wrote earlier this year about how Thiem’s halting progress over the last year and a half is representative of his generation. These days, it’s hard to find any daylight when you’re working in the long shadows of the Big 4.

Thiem found some of it in Umag and Gstaad. No, none of the top players were in these tournaments, both of which were 250s. But this was still a big leap. His game, in the matches I watched, was more thorough and organized than it has been in the past. Serves, ground strokes, volleys: They were all equally sharp.

“I returned and served well,” Thiem said, “which is important against such a great return player [like Goffin].”

Thiem becomes the fourth player born in the 1990s to win three ATP events, after Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, and Bernard Tomic. But his win made me think of another young player: Nick Kyrgios. Thiem and the 20-year-old Kyrgios have pushed and pulled each other up the rankings—who knows, maybe Thiem's new hair was an answer to the outrageous stylings that Kyrgios likes to sport. For the moment, the Austrian has the advantage on the court: He's 17 places ahead of the Aussie in the rankings.

Who would you rather have going forward? Kyrgios, a big-stage player with a monster serve and wins over Federer and Nadal, but who has struggled when the spotlight isn’t on him? Or Thiem, the soft-spoken, well-rounded guy who hasn’t made as much noise at the majors, but who appears to be building his career on a solid foundation, from the ground up? It will probably be a little while before we make up our minds for good.

“I’ve got some matches under my belt and that should bode well for me going forward,” John Isner said after winning his third straight title in Atlanta on Sunday.

If anything represents the seemingly permanent holding pattern that tennis finds itself in, it’s John Isner in August. Once again he has begun the US Open Series with a title. Once again he’s back in his element, with a month on American soil ahead. Once again U.S. fans see few alternatives on the men’s side. Even as the nation’s No. 1 was winning the title in Atlanta, its No. 2 and current Next Great Hope, Jack Sock, was losing in the first round.

It’s safe to say that many fans, or at least many of the readers here, aren’t looking forward to another round of Isner Time. But like the screeching sound of the cicadas that arrive each August, there’s no getting away from it.