Yesterday at Roland Garros, Rafa Nadal was honored for his 14 victories over 20 years in this tournament. It was an unimaginable journey, and even less a planned one. To acknowledge this achievement, 14,000 spectators gathered, along with the other three players who have dominated tennis alongside him for the past 25 years: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. Like them, Nadal has been a serial winner, claiming 22 Grand Slam titles and winning 96% of his matches at Roland Garros.
An incredible string of victories—probably unrepeatable in terms of numbers—as are the records of the other three members of the group nicknamed “The Fabulous Four.” But let’s not call them legends of the sport. Once, the word “legend” was used to describe saints, whose lives were narrated and embellished by popular imagination. Today, we don’t need to romanticize Nadal’s or his rivals’ stories of success through the eyes of admiring fans. They should be seen, clearly and realistically, as athletes who achieved what no one else had before.
If we want young tennis players to look up to them as role models, we must follow their journeys closely in order to truly understand what it takes to become serial winners.
Many young talents in sports lose their way partly because they view their heroes’ success with blind faith. They fail to grasp what lies behind those victories and only see that, in tough moments, these champions stay composed and manage to come through. Rarely do they ask how they learned to handle such situations, because their belief is that champions simply solve problems better than others because they are champions. It’s the same attitude people once had toward the lives of saints—enriching their stories with personal interpretations detached from reality.
That’s why we shouldn’t call them legends: this kind of narrative doesn’t help us understand the deeper reasons behind their repeated success.
Those who choose to believe Nadal is a legend will never truly grasp a fundamental lesson taught to him by his uncle and coach, Toni Nadal. As a young player, Rafa fully understood and embraced the importance of daily commitment—every single day, without exception, throughout all the years they trained together.
He showed up with the right attitude, never giving in to frustration or smashing a racket in despair, always ready to train longer than expected, never complaining, and striking the ball with the best effort he could manage each time.
But above all, he accepted—maturely and consciously—that even if he did all of this consistently, it didn’t necessarily mean things would go well.
We must never lose sight of the human and personal side of the most successful champions in sports history, or we risk missing the chance to truly learn from them.
