Calendar Slam ‘realistic goal’ says Carlos Moya, coach of Rafael Nadal

For the second consecutive year – and just the third time since 1992 – a men’s singles player has completed the first two legs of the coveted calendar Slam.

That man is 36-year-old Rafael Nadal, and though he has been under the gun from an injury perspective since March, his coach Carlos Moya believes that winning all four majors in 2022 is a possibility.

“It is a realistic goal, right now he is the only one that can achieve it this year,” Moya told Eurosport. “It is the first time in his career that he is in a position to achieve it, but we see it as something far away, it is only halfway.”

Nadal’s chances seemed grim when he confessed to needing injections to numb the nerves in his left foot before every match he played at Roland-Garros. Even so, the 22-time Grand Slam champion insisted that he would do everything in his power to make it to Wimbledon, where he is a two-time champion (2008, 2010).

Nadal: determined to play at SW19 as soon as he triumphed in Paris

“I’m going to be in Wimbledon if my body is ready to be in Wimbledon. That’s it. Wimbledon is not a Tournament that I want to miss,” Nadal said in Paris after claiming his 14th Roland-Garros title on Sunday June 5. “I think nobody wants to miss Wimbledon. I love Wimbledon.

Two weeks later, with radiofrequency ablation treatment on the nagging foot completed, Nadal appears to be picking up momentum on the grass. He plowed past Stan Wawrinka in an exhibition on Wednesday, looking fit, moving well, and timing the ball with precision.

Perhaps that explains Moya’s confidence in his charge. Like most who have watched Nadal’s assault on tennis’ record books over the years, he recognises that Nadal is the master of proving doubters wrong.

Still, Moya says the key is not to think about the lofty goal that has proven out of reach for any men’s singles player since Rod Laver in 1968.

One match at a time, and then we will see…

“At the moment he doesn’t lose sleep, as a team few things keep us up at night and this is not one of them,” Moya said. “We have to go little by little, it is not something that we talk about, it is not a primary objective, although we are not going to give up on it.”

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