Rafael Nadal cracks under pressure questions as he falls short again in Grand Slams

Even in the uncomfortable confines of a post-loss press conference, where his job requires him to respond to awkward and annoying questions after the most awkward and annoying nights of his career, Rafael Nadal rarely loses his cool.

Instead, the Spaniard deals in the language of passive aggression - you know a journalist has pissed off Nadal when the mere tone of the questioner’s voice reflexively causes his face to darken and his voice to lower as he pointedly spends the duration of his response staring in the distance instead of holding eye contact. In all facets of life and not just tennis, Rafael Nadal is a man of actions, not words.

But on Sunday, after his frustrating 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 fourth-round defeat to Lucas Pouille, only words would do. In the wake of his loss, noting the disparity between the run of suboptimal slam results Nadal has acquired over the past two years despite more hopeful results on the main tour, a journalist entertained the suggestion that pressure had played a role in Nadal’s underperformance. The Spaniard shot his retort back immediately.

“After winning 14 and being in semi-finals a lot of times, you feel that's pressure?” Nadal scoffed in response. When the journalist pointed out he was asking a question, Nadal followed up with even more urgency. “I answered you. I’m 30 years old; after having the career that I have, is not a question of pressure.”

The match between Pouille and Nadal was a thrilling yet flawed affair. There were errors and patches which were almost unwatchable if not for the significance of the moment. But for the most part, it was a pantomime of two rivals seemingly attached together by string, matching each other shot for shot.

When Pouille stepped into the baseline, controlling points with clean, fearless ball striking off both sides, he would eventually implore Nadal to join his aggression on the early points. When the nerves came, both players suffered their consequences simultaneously, the level of play falling during three error-strewn games in the third set as both failed to rid themselves of their crippling insecurities.

Rarely do two baseliners conspire to cover every inch, but this was also an all-court match and it was even more special because both men recognised the necessity to become increasingly productive at the net. Both men recorded their highest number of net rushes for the match in the fifth set, and it was Pouille’s quest to find the net at every opportunity that helped him to his career-best victory.

Nadal’s issue with the journalist seemed to stem from the notion that a fourth-round match versus a talented but overall mostly irrelevant player was enough to suffocate him with pressure. However, his nerves clearly affected him in these important moments.

For periods, the match seemed destined to edge the way it always did when Nadal was the king of surviving the smallest margins. After falling down two sets to one, Nadal roared back to lead *4-3 with a break and 30-0 up in the fifth set, before mixing in a series of errors and poor decisions. A few games later, he did it again. After falling down 3-6 in the final set tiebreak, the Spaniard roared back to 6-6. At 6-6 he set up the perfect point, pulling Pouille on the run and creating a short ball. Nadal moved forward and dumped the easiest forehand of the set into the net.

However, Nadal’s nerves were nothing other than what should have been expected. For all intents and purposes, the Spaniard has only had one proper tournament since withdrawing from the French Open in June - a miraculous Olympic run with his still-dud wrist. He lacks proper matchplay, and that usually means those tight moments feel even tighter. The Spaniard insists that the wrist has improved greatly, and the confidence he carried with him beforehand as he whipped forehands down the lines throughout the week demonstrated how it was progressing.

“In terms of energy, in terms of motivation, I was great,” was Nadal’s description of his own game. “In terms of tennis, I need more. I needed to serve better in some moments. I needed to create more pain on the opponent with my shots, no? That was something that I didn't make it today.”

With Nadal’s defeat, he has not reached the semi-final of a slam since winning Roland Garros in 2014, with only two quarter-finals and a bunch of early losses since. In this time, the overall issues have become clear. Although opponents like Pouille, and Fernando Verdasco at this year’s Australian Open, have competed brilliantly, many of Nadal’s poor results in recent years have been down to the quality of his shot.

At his best, Nadal’s trademark, unique heavy spin game is famous for its ability to push opponents and put the ball in tough positions like no other, and his aura and the fear of his spinning strokes have often helped him out the few times he fell into the trend of hitting without the requisite length. However, after years of immaculate length on his stroke, the likes of Pouille show what happens when he leaves the ball short against an army of players no longer afraid of combating his high spin on his backhand. They simply allow opponents the opportunity to take the ball early and put the hurt on.

The only real conclusion to take from Nadal’s rocky defeat is clear: simply that there cannot be one. The biggest problem with assessing where exactly Nadal is in his 30th year, after so many struggles, is the fact that it’s difficult to know with all his physical problems. Had the Spaniard been fit at Roland Garros this year after a productive clay season, his final finish would have revealed enough. Instead, as Nadal goes back to the drawing board, the wait continues for him to regain his wrist strength, to get fit and, above all, to avoid injury for a prolonged period. That’s a lot of pressure.