Rafael Nadal cemented himself as a multi-surface player over the course of his illustrious 23-year career.
Nadal’s best surface was undoubtedly on clay, having won the French Open a record 14 times, but the Spaniard was dominant wherever he played, winning multiple slams on both hard court and grass.
Nadal had a blip on grass, however, in the mid-2010s. After reaching the final of Wimbledon in 2011, the 22-time Grand Slam champion failed to make it past the fourth round at the Championships for six years.
From 2012 to 2017 he suffered shocking upsets early in the tournament to non-seeded players such as Lukas Rosol, Dustin Brown, and Steve Darcis.
Looking back at the tournament he enjoyed plenty of success at in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Nadal highlighted why his performances on grass were so poor in the years following.
Nadal explains his knees struggled to cope on grass after 2011
After winning two Wimbledon titles, and reaching the final of the tournament three times between 2006 and 2011, Nadal explained there came a time that his knees weren’t holding on the fast surface anymore.
Speaking to former US Open champion Andy Roddick on the ‘Served’ Podcast, he said: “There arrived a point that I was not able to play anymore on grass for a lot of years”
“It’s not like I forgot to play on grass, it’s simply that my knees were not holding; I was not able to slow down.”
“During this period of time that were very important years of my tennis career, my knees didn’t allow me to play on grass.”
“For me, it was painful because I felt that my chances were bigger, if I was healthy enough, on grass than hard. Honestly, I prefer to play Novak on grass than hard.”
Nadal’s six-year Wimbledon slump in the mid-2010s
Nadal came into Wimbledon 2012 as a heavy favourite, having made the final against Novak Djokovic the previous year, but bowed out to World No. 100 Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic. It was the first time in seven years Nadal had been knocked out of a slam before the third round.
A year after, the king of clay had his worst-ever outing at the championships, losing in the first round in straight sets to Belgian Steve Darcis, who was ranked 130 places below him at the time.
At Wimbledon in 2014 Nadal had a slightly better performance but still ended up losing to a young and hungry Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round, in what was a star-making match for the Australian.
In 2015 the Spaniard made it four upsets in a row when he lost to qualifier Dustin Brown, ranked World No 102. Nadal did not play in 2016 due to a wrist injury.
2017 marked the last time Nadal failed to make it to the semi-final at Wimbledon, losing a brutal fourth-round five-setter to Gilles Muller.
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