Tug. Tuck. Wipe. Repeat: Nadal’s rituals help defy his breaking body

Rafael Nadal lays down his towel, spreads it across two parallel court-side advertising boards. He gently tugs at the near corners to ensure it is taut. Then looks at it again, pulls the far right-hand corner just a little. He squinches his face and surveys the symmetry, pats it with his hand. Content, he turns on his heels towards the baseline, ready for his serving ritual.

In the quarter-finals against Denis Shapovalov, Nadal completed his shirt-tug, hair-tuck, face-wipe routine 146 times. He won 100 of those points over the course of five sets, in four hours and eight minutes. He lost 4kg in sweat under the sun.

Two days later, against Matteo Berrettini, it was only 102 serves (71 of those won), over four sets, and two hours and 55 minutes. This time we do not know his post-match weight but we do know Nadal when we see him. Defying the physics of his breaking body and straightening his towel throughout all the suffering and fighting he has poured into his near-two-decade career.

“We need to suffer, we need to fight,” he said afterwards. “And that is the only way to be where I am today.”

With each passing match at the Australian Open, Nadal’s march towards that coveted 21st grand slam title becomes clearer. Maybe not easier, but at least more deliberate. The Spaniard cannot see the stars aligning – the roof is rolled out over Rod Laver Arena and above it a thick blanket of cloud throws thick droplets over Melbourne Park. A storm has been brewing here all week, and now everybody is finally acknowledging it – except for the man right in its eye.

It is unclear what the cogs inside Nadal’s brain are doing as he shrugs his shoulders post-match and reiterates that he is “still very far from the No 21, no?”. That he does not