“You have to fight for every ball,” Rafael Nadal told TENNIS in its November 2007 cover story, and he meant it. Of all his distinctive traits—that one-of-a-kind forehand, the sock-fixing, shorts-tugging ticks, the raised eyebrow, the scraggly hair—none says more about Nadal than his love of (or perhaps addiction to) pursuit. First round or final, small tournament or big, large lead or seemingly insurmountable deficit, Nadal has gleefully chased down every ball sent his way and in the process hit some of the finest shots the game has ever seen (here is but one example).
Nadal’s almost reckless style has endeared him to fans all over the world, and rightfully so. Who could find fault with a player who will do just as much to win a meaningless point as match point? As Nadal returns from his two-and-a-half-month injury layoff, though, I’m hoping we see less abandon and more discretion. The (very) early signs are good: In his convincing victory over Philip Petzschner on Thursday, Nadal did something one rarely sees: He let two drop shots fall without so much as a half-hearted attempt to track them down. Don’t fret: Nadal wasn’t slow afoot (in fact, I was impressed by how well he moved). Rather, he was ahead in the match, returning serve, and out of position. Nothing good was going to come of the chase, so he backed off.