Inequalities of Rafael Nadal - Case Study Example

 Rafael Nadal This paper aims at discussing inequalities faced by an athlete in his respective sport. As the title indicates, Rafael Nadal has been chosen as the subject; a brief introduction and the inequalities faced by him have been highlighted. Introduction Rafael Nadal Parera: this world renowned tennis player has been named using the Spanish naming traditions. Nadal is the paternal name whereas maternal name is Parera. Rafael Nadal was born on 3rd June 1986 in Manacor, Majorca to a businessman, Sebastian Nadal. Rafael played football and tennis in his early ages and was equally good at both them until his father made him decide between the two sports so as to maintain balance between his studies and sport activities. Since then, this man has been creating waves in the world of tennis and is currently ranked as the No. 1 tennis player by ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) also earning the moniker of ‘King of Clay’ due to his magnificent performance and triumphs on clay and has impelled the expertise to reward him as one of the greatest clay court sportsmen. Rafael is the winner of nine Grand Slam titles of singles; he became the Olympic gold medalist of singles in the year 2008, has maintained a record of 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series and was also included in the squad of Spain Davis Cup that conquered the finals in 2004, 2008 and 2009. He was the youngest player to win the 2010 US Open and was ranked as No. 7 in the history and is also the successor of Andre Agassi in completing the Career Golden Slam. 2008 proved to be exceptional for Nadal making him the winner of 32 matches starting at Masters Series Hamburg to the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters and finally making it to Women’s Open. His first title; Queen’s Club was awarded to him at Wimbledon also making him the proud owner of Rogers Cup. (Geoffrey, 2006) Nadal was ranked as the world’s second best tennis player after Roger Federer and held this position for a period of 160 successive weeks before achieving the top position which he boasted from August 18th to July 5th 2009. Nadal regained the top notch status i.e. world No. 1 position on June 7 2010 after his victory in 5th French Open. Playing Style Nadal usually prefers to plays staying the baseline; consistency, speed, ferocious ground strokes and persistent coverage of the court are some of his game features and characteristics which mark him as a magnificent player. He has always been able to defend his play in an excellent manner owing to the combination of dropshots and topspins which give the opponents a tough time to compete for. Nadal is stated to be an all rounder when it comes to changing positions on the court; he is constantly volleying between the baseline and positions close to the net. Initially Nadal’s serve was considered to be a weak point in his game; however he has improved a great deal since 2005 by improving on his break and first serve points which have earned him victories and titles on different surfaces. The trend that has been observed in his play is that he focuses on the uniformity of his game rather than aiming for points in his serve. Nadal has been innovating and improving his service style since 2010 by striking the trophy pose and aiming his racket lower during it. Later, the grip on his service was changed and modified to a continental approach. These two alterations in his style have speeded up his pace by an average of 10mph, the maximum being 135mph which enables him to score on his serve. Coming up with the appropriate strategies and maintaining a calm mind during a game is often the key to success; Nadal possesses both the qualities which makes his game even stronger. His optimistic attitude makes him play a consistent game constantly focusing on gaining steady points and is never affected even if the scoreboard displays points in his opponent’s favor. Nadal’s strategy is such that it enables him to access the varying factors such as weather, surface of the court and the tactics of his opponent; through this ability he adjusts his own strategies accordingly. (Tom, 2010) Rafael Nadal holds the title King of Clay but his continuous success on other courts has shed this title off him certifying him as an all rounder and an excellent player. Despite all the encouragement and admiration for Nadal’s game, some people have queried about his permanence in this sport, referring to his build and style of playing as a contributing factor to injury. Nadal himself agrees to this and lays stress that the schedule be organized in such a manner that ATP Tour players be less exposed to hard courts since they can be hazardous for the physical health if players. Inequalities in Tennis? Discrimination in sports has been observed for quite some time. Sports, in the earlier years were dominated by the males as it was the way man showed his strength. With time, increased women participation was observed; however, men were still superior to the women. Even when it came to prize money women face discrimination as they get lower price money in many of the sporting events. This is especially true for tennis, where rights of the women is now being advocated by experts and general public to increase or equalize the prize money for the winner for both the male and female legs. This discriminatory act does not contain itself in the female section; implicit discrimination is sometimes faced by the men playing in the field as well. This discrimination might not be monetary, but through various other channels through lobbying and groupings. Rafael Nadal came into the arena of tennis when Roger Federer was the reigning champion in the world of tennis. He is a class player, made tennis playing look rather vintage and crushed opponents with ease. Rafael’s game plan was different; he is more athletic and takes the sport like a sport; with adrenaline pumping passes and returns and enjoying his moment like a little teenager. When he came into the arena, nobody ever gave him a chance against Federer; they all thought that he would be unable to end the winning streak of Federer. People downplayed his talent to such an extent that they only considered him a master in Clay. For a long period of time, experts were proven right but Nadal has nothing to lose and everything to win from that point. He slammed Federer’s winning spree in Wimbledon and did not let him win the title for 6th time in a row in 2008. Federer and Nadal have been the only two men in the opens who have faced each other seven times in a final; even though Nadal has a record of winning 5 out of these finals, 3 are in his specialty court. Critics still believe that Federer is the champion on non-clay courts yet; as Nadal or for that matter many others have been unable to shake his majestic performances on these courts. Critics also believe that Nadal had allegedly taken steroids on that day as he played against Federer in the Australian Open, with a knee injury. In order to miss dope tests, he missed smaller events. Even though there is no credible source to back this information up, there has been widespread speculation about his ability to beat Federer at a non-clay court and is seen with suspicion. Being the person who has finished Federer’s winning streak has made him a source of negative speculation about his power in the court. Therefore, in this case, he faces discrimination to an extent, where his wins against the World’s greatest champion are suspected to be due to more than talent (Randall, 2009). His knee injuries have also being a case of interrogation; they surprisingly come and go within weeks. He has skipped a lot of smaller tournaments to make sure that he is fit for the big titles. Critics have also cited as saying these injuries are not as serious. Nadal has been a target of negative publicity by critics for his injuries every other year; as it allows doctors to inject steroids in their bodies as a treatment; Therefore, making it legal for them to be found with the substance in a dope test (The Telegraph, 2006). This speculation surely makes him a target of inequality in terms of power. As he is the only champion in the world to be able to challenge Federer in recent times, his ability to do so has been attributed to something more than class, technique and power. Lobbyist favoring Federer over Nadal make sure that they cite these quirks in his career to dampen his success in the past decade at such a young age. No matter what they speculate, it will be his sheer talent that will help him rise in tennis further and further ahead. References Geoffrey, Horn. (2006) Rafael Nadal. Gareth Stevens. Tom, Oldfield. (2010) Rafael Nadal: The Biography. John Blake. The Telegraph (2006) Nadal dismisses doping rumours. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2339857/Nadal-dismisses-doping-rumours.html Randall, S. (2009) The curious case of Nadal’s ailing knees. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2009-06-11/1566.php Read More