When Rafael Nadal doesn’t quite understand something, he has perfected a habit of contorting his left eyebrow to send a series of inquisitive ripples across his forehead while he scowls at his questioner before coming out with the short, sharp retort: "What?" There is no expression of bemusement or displeasure as the reigning Australian Open champion once again has to explain why he doesn’t figure among the favourites to win this year’s event or say why he has to look back all the way to May since he last got his hands on any winners’ silverware on the ATP World Tour.
Many of his rivals may have moved their games forward in the past 12 month s — Juan Martin Del Potro, Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco being the most notable. Roger Federer is back where he believes he belongs at world No 1 and top seed for the tournament that reduced him to a blubbing wreck a year ago. But Nadal, the man who provoked those tears, finds it hard to argue that he has not slipped back in the order of man’s tennis elite in the past year.
The Spaniard might be seeded second for the opening major of 2010 but he does not seem to figure in any predictions of who will hoist the Norman Brookes Trophy in a fortnight. With the exception of last month’s Davis Cup final, when he revelled in a team environment rather than playing the solitary game, Nadal has come up lamentably short in every big match he has played since winning the last of his 36 ATP World Tour titles in Rome on May 3.
"For sure, I’m not the favourite for this tournament," he admits, casting his mind back not only a matter of days to last weekend’s final in Doha when he allowed two match points to go to waste against Davydenko, but to other encounters such as his US Open demise to eventual champion Del Potro, a tame 6-1 6-3 demise to Marin Cilic in Beijing on the very court where he won his Olympic gold medal barely a year before, or that day when the tennis world seemed to turn itself upside down as his domination of Roland Garros and the French Open came to an end against Robin Soderling.
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"I didn’t have bad results last five months, no? But I didn’t win," said Nadal. "The confidence? The only way to have confidence is winning matches, winning important matches, no? Sure, is true, playing against the top players I didn’t have very good results. But I was playing not very well but not bad."
Nadal has always been a player who does what he is told to do and his support group remind him that pre-tournament speculation counts for nothing. Every top player is conditioned to ignore irrelevance, and simply concentrate on their game. So almost as a mantra, he says: "If I am not one of the favourites it’s okay for me, maybe better. I don’t have any problem with that, because the only favourite is who wins the title the second Sunday. Everybody can talk a lot before, but we will see what’s happening during the tournament."
The only way to have confidence is winning matches, winning important matches, no? Sure, is true, playing against the top players I didn’t have very good results. But I was playing not very well but not bad
For now, Nadal is focused on his first-round match against 78th-ranked Australian Peter Luczak. Many pundits claim that Nadal’s lack of self-belief means he is allowing opponents to force him on the defensive.
He is being pushed further behind the baseline and a subconscious decision to play the percentage game means he is dropping far too many balls short, allowing the man across the net to advance and attack.
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In his pomp he would let fly with those heavily top-spun bombs into the extreme corners of the court, but now his brittle confidence means he is content to just keep the ball in play.
Nadal has never been an expert indoor player but he was beaten in all three round-robin matches at the Barclays ATP World Tour Championships at London’s O2 Arena without winning a set.
It is something that came into focus during a brief off-season, when rest and recuperation were not on the agenda. After Spain won the Davis Cup against the Czech Republic in Barcelona, Nadal returned home to Mallacor in Majorca and after just one day was back on the court under the coaching tutelage of his uncle, Toni Nadal.
"Rafa’s game in the last months was not great and we had to work on some technical aspects," said Toni Nadal. "We had to get back the aggressive part of his game. After the knee injuries [which prevented the defence of the Wimbledon title and had been an issue for much of the year] he struggled with his confidence and this made his game less aggressive.
"Over the past five years we have not done too many things wrong so there is not much to change and Rafa has not changed as a person apart from the normal evolution from a junior into a man. A year ago he would have had more confidence and won that match in Doha but that is now in the past. The important thing is to do well in Australia and winning last year’s title, going from that great five-set win over Fernando Verdasco in the semi-final, then beating Federer in five, goes down as one of his great accomplishments."
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Being drawn in the same quarter of the draw as Murray and the same half as Del Potro could have a lasting effect on Nadal. Even if he retains the title, he cannot overtake Federer to reclaim the No 1 spot and given the closeness of the chasing pack, he could drop as low as No 4, his lowest ranking in almost five years. "Right now I am still No 2 and that is all that matter, no?" he counters. "Last year No 1 and No 2 at the end of the season are still Roger and me. For sure that can change. Del Potro, Djokovic, Murray are going to have good chance to be No 1 and for sure to win important titles. But for Roger it is the eighth or ninth year at the top and for me gonna be the sixth, so we have had a long time there."
Yesterday Nadal’s practice session was less than satisfactory but such is his dedication to perfection that after all his required duties in the media centre, he headed back out to the courts on his own volition. There was no questioning, there were no lines across the forehead or contortion of the eyebrow.
Rafa knows that extra work is needed.