The most unusual and familiar year for Rafa Nadal | ...

Those who follow him in tennis competitions around the world say that the kiss that Rafa Nadal gave to his wife, María Francisca Perelló, after winning his 13th Roland Garros tournament is a show of unusual public affection in the tennis player, little given to show aspects of your privacy. In the stands of the Philippe Chatrier, his mother, Ana María Parera, and her sister Maribel, who flew to Paris shortly before the final to be exceptional spectators of a historical feat, were also applauding excitedly. An achievement obtained a few days after completing a year of marriage with María Francisca, Mery, but that leaves a bitter aftertaste in the Mallorcan, who has confessed something off during the tournament because of the health situation and the ravages that the pandemic is causing all over the world.

He could not imagine on October 19 of last year, when he married his longtime girlfriend on his home island, that the twelve months ahead would give him the chance to spend more time with her than any other year. The couple had enjoyed their honeymoon in the Bahamas Islands weeks before their marriage in Sa Fortalesa de Pollença, an event that was attended by the Emeritus Kings, some of their fellow travelers and their closest friends. Although it was held under total secrecy – the place is practically inaccessible to photographers – the couple had the deference to offer a couple of pictures of the link to the media. His acquaintances say that marriage did not change the routine of any of them, that they had already led married life for years.

After the wedding the tennis player resumed the competition, from London to Paris passing through Australia to Acapulco, the last tournament he played before the world stopped being as it was. The Mallorcan was then cloistered in his house in Porto Cristo, sharing confinement with his wife and also with his sister. Through Instagram, he showed his dubious culinary skills and the training routines he performed to keep up while awaiting the return of the competition. He picked up the game console again after six years and trained on the track that a friend has near his home when the state of alarm ended and the autonomous communities were lifting the restrictions.

In the middle of the sports break, he was surprised by the 34. He received them in Mallorca together with María Francisca, with whom he himself recognized that he had never spent as much time as this year. “I have been with my wife and it is a new situation because we have never been together for so long,” he explained. The trainings at the academy that bears his name in Manacor were held daily and were interspersed with the outings on his new boat, a catamaran of 24 meters in length and five million euros that the couple was in charge of cleaning with the help of some friends the day you received him at the Porto Cristo Yacht Club mooring.

The Masters 1000 in Rome in mid-September helped him warm up his engines and then he headed to Paris to participate in what is the most special competition for him and which this year has been limited to the hotel and his appearances on the track. No outings to dinner or distractions. The tournament has been made somewhat heavy by the bubble that the organization designed to avoid as much as possible the exposure of tennis players to covid-19. Roland Garros has taken Nadal to the top in the worst year for everyone, including him.