THE WARRIOR

A Spaniard takes Paris.

After Björn Borg won his unprecedented sixth French Open in 1981, some observers considered it an unbreakable record. Not quite. In 2022, Rafael Nadal won his 14th French title. The Spanish lefty’s “deep and singular connection” to the red clay courts at Roland-Garros provides Clarey, who has covered the tournament for 30 years, with a foundation for this shrewdly constructed biography. In Spain, where most courts are clay, 6-year-old Nadal rallied with adults. His facility for hitting topspin forehands with “next-level racket-head speed” would set him apart, Clarey writes. High-speed cameras show that his rival Roger Federer’s forehand generated about 2,500 revolutions per minute. Nadal’s ball did 3,200 rpm, forcing opponents to contend with higher bounces on “slippery clay.” At various points, Clarey steps back from Nadal to focus on lesser-known aspects of the tournament. These include the material composition and maintenance of the playing surface, the resentment some French fans felt when Nadal was winning nearly every year, and the fascinating history of the tournament venue, in which wartime France interned foreign nationals. The hallmark of Nadal’s career was competitiveness, “playing every point like it was match point,” said a fellow player. His doggedness was fueled by his uncle and coach Toni Nadal’s training program, which prized “volume and intensity,” Clarey writes. But the regimen might also have damaged his body. Injuries forced Nadal out of 15 major tournaments, nine more than Federer, whose supposed lack of grit was once derided by Nadal’s team. Clarey occasionally clogs up the narrative with uninformative quotes, but he convincingly depicts Nadal as largely unchanged by success, the rare player who personally thanks tournament staffers and media-room stenographers. This insightful, wide-ranging book could serve as a model for other sports biographers.

An inspired portrait of an unusually dominant athlete.