Grading Rafael Nadal’s 2016 Season and Looking Ahead to 2017

Three years ago, Rafael Nadal was the best tennis player in the world, but 2016 may as well be another career.

It’s too easy to say that the 30-year-old Nadal is only a shell of himself because of aging and injuries. The Spaniard has never been easy to solve, neither for his opponents nor for the millions who have watched his legendary career. There were many who backed him as the greatest player of all time, but these arguments have all but evaporated in the midst of swirling late-career adversity.

Which is why 2016 has revealed enigmatic highs and lows that cannot be easily written as either an obituary or an ensemble of hope for tennis’ Dark Knight.

It’s clear that Nadal cannot fight off his adversaries through relentless training and carefully plotted priorities. The forces that created him—relentless desire and nonpareil resilience—have left him mortally weakened. He once ruled the world on damaged knees, but in 2016, he was cruelly and ironically cut down by his own injured left wrist. His greatest weapon became his fatality.

Rising confidence and topspin briefly surfaced as echoes from the Dark Knight’s legacy. There were a few golden weeks, like winning Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

More often, he suffered brittle collapses, like the crushing at Cincinnati and fading at the U.S. Open. Eventually, he was forced back to his Batcave to reassess shattered ambition.

In the end, it was all too familiar, with the latest chapter in his decline listing him as more of a footnote as the No. 9 player in the world after missing the World Tour Finals.

Nadal’s 2016 tennis season is the second of our weekly offseason superstar profiles that count down six contenders in men’s tennis. For a look at last week’s profile on Roger Federer, you may review it here.

Grade: C+

The Dark Knight was knocked flat on his back by super-rival Novak Djokovic in a 6-1, 6-2 beatdown in the Doha final that began 2016. He couldn’t pick himself up for the Australian Open, where he was kicked aside in the first round by Fernando Verdasco, a player he had famously outlasted seven years earlier.

There were no moral victories with semifinal showings in South America and Indian Wells; a first-round loss and retirement in Miami had him on the fast track from nowhere to his red-clay European stomping grounds.

Monte Carlo would prove to be his crown jewel in …

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