Wisdom from a Whiz

by Pete Bodo

NEW YORK**—******Q: The atmosphere out there was quite electric today. I mean, you know, it's the final weekend of the U.S. Open; it generally is. . .  but particularly when you broke back at 4-4 in the third, you really seemed able to pump yourself up, and the crowd was clearly with you at that point.

Mikhail Youzhny replied: "Yeah."

End of conversation.

It's a safe bet that Youzhny will not be invited onto a prime NPR radio show (what's that morning one called, Hot Air?) any time soon. Rafael Nadal, on the other hand, could snatch Larry King's job right out from under the nose of Piers Morgan if the latter isn't careful. For a youth who struggles with English, a language not his own, Nadal is a superb communicator, for reasons including his charm, his patience (he may get irritated at times, but he respects everyone enough to take even the dumbest of questions seriously) and his now intentionally and somewhat self-consciously uncomplicated sensibility.

This is a young man who clings to his determination to keep things simple and fact-based as if clarity of thought and feeling were the twin bladders of a life preserver with which he rides out the stormy seas of his profession. Nadal is never coy, nor does he duck an issue. Ask the man a simple question and you get a simple answer. Ask him a silly one and you get a simple answer. Ask him a complicated or convoluted one and you get Nadal casting quizzical glances toward the first friendly face he recognizes among the Spanish speakers in the room. He's the only guy with a player guest box in the media room, and he's not afraid to turn to it for a little off-court coaching. It's not a code violation, as far as I know.

Today, for example, we learned after his straight-sets deconstruction of Youzhny that he doesn't consider head-to-head records an important element in the ongoing GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) debate (sorry, Rafa fans but remember that he said it, not I).

"Head to head is not an element for me," he said today. "Is a part of the statistics, but is not the decisive element. Even a Grand Slam is important element, but is not all on the tennis. . . In my opinion, Roger won 16 Grand Slams already. But what he did, 23, 24 semifinals in a row, that's something amazing. It is impossible to repeat, in my opinion."

He soon added the caveat, "In the conversation, everybody is free to have an opinion. .. I am not the one to say the steps, 'For that, you are the best in history.' In my opinion, Roger is the best in history, the best of the history that I ever see. I don't know Rod Laver, how it was in the past, because I wasn't in this world."

That last remark, delivered with the trace of a smile, made everyone laugh. As well as he played, his press conference was even better. He also spoke about the on-court interview after the match, in which he expressed sympathy for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their families.

"Well, I think first thing, 9/11 was a big shock for everybody in the world. I remember—everybody remember where they were at that moment and I remember what happened that day and where I was. Yeah, it was a terrible shock for me, especially because I was in the top of the twin towers a few months before.

"So, yeah, that's just the minimum thing that I can say, all the support for the victims and for the families for sure is on my mind. When I came back after the disaster, in the first six years I was there at Ground Zero, every time watching that. So, yes, that's probably the most impact-view I had in all my life."

Six years at Ground Zero. It was a private vigil, as far as I know, but it would have been interesting to see how this emotional man-child comported himself there, or to get into his head to learn what he was thinking. I wonder, how many other players made the trek—not that it's mandatory, mind you, but on this day of remembrance it strikes me as an interesting thing to know, a reason to overcome whatever prejudice you may have for or against a certain personality.

Rafa also spoke about his tweaked serve, and the open-minded willingness he's shown toward toying with his technique and strategy. "The serve at the point of today is good, but not enough [that comes as a surprise]. I don't have the control of the situation with my serve because every day is new for me, and I served already very good for the last six matches. We will see what happens tomorrow, but I don't feel I have completely defined the serve."

And those other things? "I think I changed the strings in the end of the season. So yeah, you are in the top, and the things work very well, but can always work better—and worse. But always you have to have a risk, and you have to—" Rafa faltered, searching for words. "I don't know. In English is not—I am not inspired today. Only inspiration was on court. Forget [it]."

Again, the assembled cast laughed, yet USTA moderator Tim Curry allowed one more question, following up on Nadal's ongoing quest to get better. He said, "Well, because I always thought I always can keep improving. That's why I am playing, to keep improving and to feel myself a better player than before. I go to practice every day not to practice; I go to practice every day to try to learn something and to keep improving my level."

There's your quote of the tournament, and I can visualize it written in flowerly cursive on countless posters hanging in the bedrooms of a legion of young athletes:

I go to practice every day not to practice, I go to practice every day to learn something.

P.S.—I'll be back with a similar post on the presser of the winner of the second semi, and I'll have a reaction piece after the women's final tonight. I suggest you move the match-calling to this post, but figure it out amongst yourselves. And many thanks to ever-diligent Andrew Burton for providing this morning's Crisis Center.