Still no one to touch Rafa
Two-time French Open champ Bruguera feels everyone plays in the same way against Nadal on clay.
Let’s rewind to the 90s or the early 2000s, the age of quite a few clay specialists. You could be indomitable on Roland Garros but not more than two or three years. From Jim Courier to Sergi Bruguera to Gustavo Kuerten, the badge of French Open supremacy would be passed. Bjorn Borg remained the gold-standard on clay until a freak from Mallorca arrived to make the brown dust his own.
So was Bruguera plain lucky to have played in the saner 90s without having to engage himself in a war of attrition against Rafael Nadal or even Novak Djokovic for that matter? How would he have fared against their athleticism and supreme retrieving skills? Or is it an outrageous question to a two-time French Open champion and one of the finest clay court players ever? “Probably they would have defeated us more. I would have competed for sure and prevailed at times,” he says.
In his prime, Bruguera would more than hold his own against wizards of slow surfaces, the likes of Albert Costa, Alex Corretja and Andres Gomez. He had a better headto-head record against Pete Sampras (3-2), with two of those wins coming on hard court and carpet. Ask Sampras’s contemporaries what that means. Bruguera shares a secret. “I would play close to the line against Pete, so that he had less time to come to the net. And I would put a lot of his serves back,” he reveals.
Interestingly, Bruguera says his most testing opponent was Thomas Muster, that tungsten steel Austrian who would make him earn every point on clay. “He (Muster) was unbelievable from the baseline. He was a very good fighter who never gave up. He would win more than me and could somehow sustain his competitive levels longer,” Bruguera says.
And what about his other contemporaries - Carlos Moya, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Kuerten - no less in skill and cunning? Agassi and Chang’s levels on clay, Bruguera points, would drop off if they played more. “At his best, Agassi could beat anyone. But when Chang and Agassi played a long season in Barcelona or Rome, they weren’t that consistent.”
Here for the Champions Tennis League, Bruguera is amazed by the seismic shift in men’s tennis: “Never did I think that someone will win the French Open nine times.”
So is there any young talent on the horizon capable of dethroning Nadal? “On clay, no,” he maintains. “He’s just a complete player. Only Djokovic can push him in a five-setter. Against Nadal, you have to bring your A game from the first point to the last. The problem is that everybody plays in the same way against him. Rafa is able to dominate because of his withering, topspin forehand (a stroke that Bruguera owned too) that no one can match. And he hits it harder than the rest.”
You couldn’t let Bruguera go without asking him to rate his five all-time greatest clay court players. For him, it is Nadal, Borg, Muster and Kuerten in that order.
And the fifth? A long pause follows…he reflects quite deeply before answering, “Maybe, myself.”
THE BRUGUERA FILE
♦ Current age 43
♦ Represents Mumbai Tennis Masters in the Champions Tennis League
♦ Won two consecutive French Open titles in 1993 and 1994. He beat Jim Courier in the ’93 French final and collapsed in the dressing room owing to exhaustion
♦ Won 22 doubles titles
♦ Reached a career-high singles ranking of three in 1994
Let’s rewind to the 90s or the early 2000s, the age of quite a few clay specialists. You could be indomitable on Roland Garros but not more than two or three years. From Jim Courier to Sergi Bruguera to Gustavo Kuerten, the badge of French Open supremacy would be passed. Bjorn Borg remained the gold-standard on clay until a freak from Mallorca arrived to make the brown dust his own.
So was Bruguera plain lucky to have played in the saner 90s without having to engage himself in a war of attrition against Rafael Nadal or even Novak Djokovic for that matter? How would he have fared against their athleticism and supreme retrieving skills? Or is it an outrageous question to a two-time French Open champion and one of the finest clay court players ever? “Probably they would have defeated us more. I would have competed for sure and prevailed at times,” he says.
Then with a wicked glint in his eye he assures, “They wouldn’t have beaten me all the time…that I guarantee.”
In his prime, Bruguera would more than hold his own against wizards of slow surfaces, the likes of Albert Costa, Alex Corretja and Andres Gomez. He had a better headto-head record against Pete Sampras (3-2), with two of those wins coming on hard court and carpet. Ask Sampras’s contemporaries what that means. Bruguera shares a secret. “I would play close to the line against Pete, so that he had less time to come to the net. And I would put a lot of his serves back,” he reveals.
Interestingly, Bruguera says his most testing opponent was Thomas Muster, that tungsten steel Austrian who would make him earn every point on clay. “He (Muster) was unbelievable from the baseline. He was a very good fighter who never gave up. He would win more than me and could somehow sustain his competitive levels longer,” Bruguera says.
And what about his other contemporaries - Carlos Moya, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Kuerten - no less in skill and cunning? Agassi and Chang’s levels on clay, Bruguera points, would drop off if they played more. “At his best, Agassi could beat anyone. But when Chang and Agassi played a long season in Barcelona or Rome, they weren’t that consistent.”
Here for the Champions Tennis League, Bruguera is amazed by the seismic shift in men’s tennis: “Never did I think that someone will win the French Open nine times.”
So is there any young talent on the horizon capable of dethroning Nadal? “On clay, no,” he maintains. “He’s just a complete player. Only Djokovic can push him in a five-setter. Against Nadal, you have to bring your A game from the first point to the last. The problem is that everybody plays in the same way against him. Rafa is able to dominate because of his withering, topspin forehand (a stroke that Bruguera owned too) that no one can match. And he hits it harder than the rest.”
You couldn’t let Bruguera go without asking him to rate his five all-time greatest clay court players. For him, it is Nadal, Borg, Muster and Kuerten in that order.
And the fifth? A long pause follows…he reflects quite deeply before answering, “Maybe, myself.”
THE BRUGUERA FILE
♦ Current age 43
♦ Represents Mumbai Tennis Masters in the Champions Tennis League
♦ Won two consecutive French Open titles in 1993 and 1994. He beat Jim Courier in the ’93 French final and collapsed in the dressing room owing to exhaustion
♦ Won 22 doubles titles
♦ Reached a career-high singles ranking of three in 1994
