Tennis world en n 49 Tennis World issue 49 | Page 8

stopped. The victory in Monte
Carlo was quickly followed by wins
Barcelona and Madrid, and he
went into the French Open as the
hot favorite. At Roland Garros he
won his tenth title without losing a
set. It was his first Slam victory
since 2014, a very long drought
indeed. Nadal’s woes at
Wimbledon continued, however, as
he lost to Gilles Muller in five sets
early on. He carried this slight
slump into the American summer,
but he managed to rediscover his
best tennis when it mattered most,
winning the US Open for the third
time. Another win in Beijing, after
saving two match points in the first
round, meant that Nadal’s lead at
number one was all but
unassailable.
But which of these years was
Nadal’s best? From a pure tennis
perspective, it would be either
2008 or 2010, when Nadal was
physically still at his peak. Though
he was no lo