There was a mix of irony and heartbreak that hovered over Nadal’s five-set defeat to Fabio Fognini in the US Open third round, in which the Spaniard squandered a two-sets-to-love lead for the first time at a major.
Tiger Woods sat in Nadal’s box, witnessing a shocking finale to his friend’s 2015 grand slam season and one would find it hard not to draw parallels between the two sporting greats’ struggles in recent months.
Nadal says he has no idols, but that the closest he has to one is Woods.
Unlike Woods, the Mallorcan remains a top-eight player, even after suffering his earliest US Open exit in a decade, but he is going through the kind of decline that many perceive as the beginning of the end.
Should he want to bounce back, he might have to look to someone other than the unravelling Woods for inspiration.
While this is hardly the first shocker Nadal has endured this season, his five-set loss to Fognini was symbolic.
The US Open was his last attempt at salvaging a forgettable year – at least slam-wise – and he was taking on a man who had beaten him twice already in 2015 (both on clay).
If Nadal wanted to take steps towards vindication, that was the match he needed to win. And when he went up two sets and a break against Fognini, it’s safe to say nobody expected him to lose from that position.
In the 151 grand slam matches in which Nadal had gone up two-sets-to-love, he had astonishingly won all 151.
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That was always his greatest strength – pouncing to those big leads and holding onto them for dear life. That was until Fognini unleashed 70 winners to complete the unlikeliest of comebacks.
Nadal was fighting so hard during some of those epic rallies with Fognini that one Twitter user said it felt like he was battling for his entire career, not just a match win.
Temperamental Italian Fognini pointed to his brain à la Stan Wawrinka, signifying the mental strength he exhibited to grind out that victory.
The irony was not lost on anyone that the talented Fognini, who switches off during matches, terrorises umpires, and even provides a good old fashioned tank every once in a while, had actually outsmarted Nadal at his very own game.
A camera awaited Nadal as he walked off the court, through the tunnel. Seldom have a few seconds of footage managed to capture such pure agony on a loser’s face the way that cameraman did.
Nadal was walking almost with his eyes closed, like he was refusing to believe that he had every single chance to win the match yet somehow lost.
#Nadal “I have to accept it was not my year & keep fighting til the end of the season to finish in a positive way.” pic.twitter.com/T5mZdoE0Nl
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2015
He played well, was aggressive, didn’t hit too many errors, but the mental edge he’s always had over his opponents is no longer there.
“With Rafa leading two-sets-to-love you have to go to Lourdes. I went there,” joked Fognini after the match.
Madison Keys says Serena Williams’ greatest quality is that even if she is down 0-6, 0-6 0/40, “you still don’t think she’s going to lose”.
That used to ring true for Nadal.
For now, that unbreakable quality looks to have disappeared and recovering it must be the Spaniard’s top priority.
Nadal’s grand slam season may be over but he has a chance to do what Andy Murray did at the end of last season – that is to rack up as many wins as possible to qualify for the ATP Finals in London and move his ranking up.
How Nadal ends 2015 will have a huge impact on 2016 and considering he only has 190 points to defend until the end of the year, there is a big opportunity to gain ground and position himself for a good seeding at the Australian Open next year.
