Nadal's Autobiography

The Daily Telegraph has been serialising this.

Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/8703629/Rafael-Nadal-ends-Roger-Federers-SW19-reign.html
Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rafaelnadal/8703140/Rafael-Nadal-epic-Wimbledon-triumph-in-2008-against-Roger-Federer-freed-me-from-my-mental-prison.html
Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rafaelnadal/8704892/Rafael-Nadal-family-crisis-destroyed-my-body-and-soul.html
and Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rafaelnadal/8704998/Rafael-Nadal-why-acting-like-Tiger-Woods-is-the-only-way-I-can-play-a-round-of-golf.html
even Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rafaelnadal/8705125/Rafael-Nadal-the-three-key-women-his-mother-sister-and-girlfriend-in-his-life-talk-about-the-man-they-know.html

Quite interesting stuff.

He puts 2009 down to his family's problems and is convinced that the knee problems owed a lot to the inner turmoil he was suffering, about which he is fairly candid in a careful sort of way.

He talks a certain amount about his 'inner feelings' and comes across from these brief extracts as a highly driven bag of nerves who is extremely careful and meticulous about life and avoids over-confidence like the plague. Hardly a big surprise I guess.

What is a surprise to me is that he should choose to work on a book now - mid-season and at a time when he is (or should be) at or near his peak. He hardly needs the money and usually a player would wait for his career to be over so as to provide a wider perspective to such a book (his "Greatest Triumph" may well be ahead of him) and avoid giving away too much. Let's face it - an autobiography by Rafa is going to excite interest whenever he writes it provided it's decent enough quality (look at Agassi's sales well after he retired). I don't want to say Rafa has started sensing the beginning of the end - he's a current holder of two slams at No. 2 in the world, still young, and too much of a specialist in confounding gloomy predictions for that - but I really don't know why he'd want to let even the narrowest window into his thoughts out there right now. It just seems contrary to the person these brief extracts describe.

One cod theory might be that this shows quite how important to his career he sees Fed to be, and that he senses that Fed is in decline which brings down a very important curtain for him. For all it's very considerable merits, the Rafa-Djoko rivalry probably won't stir the blood in quite the same way as the Fedal one has.

Any more cod theories out there? Or even some sense?

I am also puzzled about the timing of this choice, and it unquestionably reaffirms my view that his best years are behind rather than ahead of him.

One interesting question is: does he talk about his rivalry with djokovic in the book? I think this fact may also explain something on why the book has come out early.

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:I am also puzzled about the timing of this choice, and it unquestionably reaffirms my view that his best years are behind rather than ahead of him.

One interesting question is: does he talk about his rivalry with djokovic in the book? I think this fact may also explain something on why the book has come out early.

He already said that tennis isn't everything to him anymore, so make of that what you will, once he employs that mindset into his tennis then it is very hard to ever get it back. Just like Federer when he lost the classic at wimby 08, his mentality was changing for the game. I don't think Nadal will ever be dominant again, Novak has knocked the stuffing out of him this season and you can tell that Nadal hates being unable to change the losses to Nole it's quite hard for him to handle mentally.

Before this season he completed the "Slam" and once you've won them all it's very hard to play with the same fire, Nadal played like a wall in that match against Nole seemingly unable to lose the rallies, he was everywhere at the same time.

Nadal 2011 is Federer's 2008, i doubt he has a chance to win the USO this time around!

I agree, the fact is: when you play like Nadal motivation is everithing, when this fade even impercetibly , it becomes taugh to carry on with such a rigour

Most famous peoples' autobiographies are commissioned by publishers and I would think it is a direct request from a publisher to Nadal's agent that started the project.

This is why so many autobiographies nowadays seem premature. To publish an autobiography of a famous sporting star while interest in them is still high because they are still at the top of their game will ensure good sales, particularly for books published in time for the Christmas market.

I doubt Rafa himself felt the burning need to go into print without the approach and an offer of a very generous advance.

With Nadal its been the begining of the end since the begining... or so some would like to believe. The timing of this book is just supply and demand. I think Murray already has produced 1 or is it 2? Something called "Hitting them back"?

Havn't read any extracts but I imagine the bulk will be about reflctions on matches, childhood memories and a few stories about training, travelling etc. Plus of course some glossy photographs. Nothing contraversial just stuff to keep average fan happy.

If Nadal has anything more interesting to say and wants to say it he has plenty of time to do so later. No need to give everything away now.

Why bring a book out now? it's not very professional and just seems like publicity seeking to me. Or maybe he's doing it now so he won't be asked again to do it.. either way i doubt he will include dodgy spanish physicians in his tales

yep gotta agree with TP,

I think this is just a financial move on the part of the publisher, strike while the iron is hot.

Didn't Murray put out his auto a couple of years ago?

Going back to Barry's point regarding how Rafa sees himself vis-a-vis Roger, Rafa gave a very candid interview, I think it was after W 2008 or perhaps AUS 2009, where he said something along the lines of how toppling and surpassing Roger left him feeling hollow and empty and that he couldn't imagine what tennis would be like when Roger retired. I may have tangled up the words completely but I remember reading it at the time and thinking 'wow, that's deep'.

In the same interview, if my memory serves me correct, he mentioned having a dream, where he was attempting to scale a mountain to reach Roger, but when he got there Roger was nolonger there.

The interview was conducted in Spanish and Rafa came across as very wistful. Perhaps he does see his ultimate accomplishment as having surpassed Roger and therefore the competitive fires are now starting to burn less brightly.

Maybe someone could dig up this interview. I tried but couldn't find it.

emancipator wrote:

Going back to Barry's point regarding how Rafa sees himself vis-a-vis Roger, Rafa gave a very candid interview, I think it was after W 2008 or perhaps AUS 2009, where he said something along the lines of how toppling and surpassing Roger left him feeling hollow and empty and that he couldn't imagine what tennis would be like when Roger retired. I may have tangled up the words completely but I remember reading it at the time and thinking 'wow, that's deep'.

In the same interview, if my memory serves me correct, he mentioned having a dream, where he was attempting to scale a mountain to reach Roger, but when he got there Roger was nolonger there.

The interview was conducted in Spanish and Rafa came across as very wistful. Perhaps he does see his ultimate accomplishment as having surpassed Roger and therefore the competitive fires are now starting to burn less brightly.

I don't remember this interview - think I was drowning my sorrows That is very wistful. Actually I think, after a great triumph, sometimes the elation that one expects to feel is not as intense as one might imagine once the adrenaline has stopped pumping around the body. Djokovic expressed that feeling of unreality after achieving the long cherished dream of winning Wimbledon. I am not expressing this very well, but what I mean to say is that playing such career defining matches produces so much adrenaline in the body, and such a natural 'high' that afterwards can only be a little bit of a letdown.

Hope Roger updates his 'Quest for Perfection' and adds to it. It would be wonderful to have both Roger's updated version and Rafa's autobiography on my bookshelf. Wonderful players, both.

I would also highly recommend 'Education of a Tennis Player' (Laver) and 'The Man with a Racquet' (Gonzalez).

time please wrote:I am not expressing this very well, but what I mean to say is that playing such career defining matches produces so much adrenaline in the body, and such a natural 'high' that afterwards can only be a little bit of a letdown.

McEnroe, and as Emancipator says regarding Rafa, alludes to the 'emptiness' after Borg left the scene.

In a primitive sense, the hunter, the hunted, the quest complete a sequence. Once it is accomplished, the purpose of a so-called existence is 'lost'.

I would assume that someone as methodical as Nadal under the methodical guidance of Uncle Toni would have been keeping a number of diaries - one concerning his training and one on his own thoughts of progress for the day/week and thoughts on life around him. The book would be just a question of organising and rewriting/editing what's in his diaries. It is not like he spends all his days accounting or studying medical journals and there is only so much physical training one can do in the day. I am sure there is plenty of time to be keeping a diary.

In a primitive sense, the hunter, the hunted, the quest complete a sequence. Once it is accomplished, the purpose of a so-called existence is 'lost'.

I wonder who will hunt Nole then? cmon Dolgopolov get your act together!!

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

In a primitive sense, the hunter, the hunted, the quest complete a sequence. Once it is accomplished, the purpose of a so-called existence is 'lost'.

I wonder who will hunt Nole then? cmon Dolgopolov get your act together!!

Perhaps Murray or Harrison or Dimitrov.

Nore Staat wrote:I would assume that someone as methodical as Nadal under the methodical guidance of Uncle Toni would have been keeping a number of diaries - one concerning his training and one on his own thoughts of progress for the day/week and thoughts on life around him. The book would be just a question of organising and rewriting/editing what's in his diaries. It is not like he spends all his days accounting or studying medical journals and there is only so much physical training one can do in the day. I am sure there is plenty of time to be keeping a diary.

I don't think even Uncle Toni is such a hard taskmaster that he would expect Rafa to pen an autobiography in his spare time on the gruelling tour - Rafa will have had, like every other celebrity/sporting star, a ghost writer who will have so many hours of 'interviews' with Rafa, his team, his family and friends and who will then piece this information, together with match statistics the ghost will have researched (the latter will also help them to ask pertinent questions about various emotions in certain matches) and conjure Rafa's story out of all this data.

I think you will find the name of the 'ghost' somewhere in a byline in the Telegraph articles, and trust me, this guy is doing more than checking spelling, grammar and punctuation - an editor would do that!

Dimitrov certainly has the skills to hunt Nole but the determination and endeavour?? must say though he did impress me quite a bit against Tsongaga Raonic will be a better prospect than Harrison imo..

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Dimitrov certainly has the skills to hunt Nole but the determination and endeavour?? must say though he did impress me quite a bit against Tsongaga Raonic will be a better prospect than Harrison imo..

Dimitrov just gone out to Ferrer 46 61 75. I was able to watch some of this match before family turned over to Real Madrid vs Barcelona - gosh he is a wonderful player Dimitrov, but then suddenly he seems to go walkabouts mentally. I was willing him to win, even though I love the terrier Ferrer (how come he is playing now with the hairline injury to wrist???) because it would be so good to see more of these young guys just step it up.

Petchey was saying that he thought he needed to get physically stronger and we would see best of him in couple of years, but, I think it was Fleming pointed out that at his age, Federer (who Dimitrov is always compared to, unsurprisingly) was No 13 with an ATP title. (Actually thought GD had one, or was that a Challenger?)

tired and rambling now - night, night all

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

In a primitive sense, the hunter, the hunted, the quest complete a sequence. Once it is accomplished, the purpose of a so-called existence is 'lost'.

I wonder who will hunt Nole then? cmon Dolgopolov get your act together!!

No worries, Fed's still in the draw ready for the dirty job!

time please wrote:(Actually thought GD had one, or was that a Challenger?)

No ATP titles. He beat Mahut in Cherbourg, France; 28.02.2011; CH; Indoor: Hard; Draw: 32.

laverfan wrote:

time please wrote:(Actually thought GD had one, or was that a Challenger?)

No ATP titles. He beat Mahut in Cherbourg, France; 28.02.2011; CH; Indoor: Hard; Draw: 32.

cheers laver

Any surprising comments in his autobiography?