Hell's Angel

With the 2023 French Open looming large, all eyes are on the undisputed king of tennis, Rafael Nadal. But have we entered the dusk of his career?

- Ravi Raj

The church has lost its monopoly on hell. But the decline of religious fervour hasn't dimmed our fascination with it. For the existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, "hell is other people". Being a lifelong tennis fan, I've always imagined that the closest thing to hell is watching Rafael Nadal performing on clay. In my quest to understand what exactly makes Nadal such a tormentor on court a corporeal hell I've spent countless hours reliving his moments on YouTube, spoken to his ardent fans, and scrolled through obscure forums on the Internet. And what I found is not ground-breaking, but a very vanilla conclusion.

It's hell because Nadal's game is built on the edifice of eternal suffering. The path to salvation, for him, goes through the highway of self-flagellation. And he is always more ready to subject himself to such infernal undertakings than his peers. His pain barrier is unparalleled. His loud but strange groans after every stroke are reminders of what he is subjecting himself to, and his occasional groaning after winning a point feels a lot like the scream of an anguished man, tormented by his own desire. But his suffering is not his alone; there are collaterals, too - his opponents, family, and the viewers, of course.