Tim Henman explains why he felt Rafael Nadal would not make it after playing Spaniard early in his career
While 22-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal became the latest one among the ‘Big three’ in tennis to retire with his retirement from tennis last year, it was the Spaniard who had impressed former British player Tim Henman the least in his early playing days. Henman, who retired in 2007, played against Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in his career, shared how Nadal would make mistakes early in his career and he did not see him going far.
“I practised with Nadal, and I’d never seen anyone hit the ball that hard. But every third shot was in the back fence, and I just didn’t honestly believe that you could play like that because you’d make mistakes. He didn’t hit the ball quite as hard in matches, but after I’d lost the practice set 6-1, I thought maybe it would work,” former world nu...