Rafael Nadal overcomes chronic foot pain to win his 14th French Open

Updated June 5, 2022 at 4:31 p.m. EDT|Published June 5, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

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7 min

PARIS — It was 17 years to the day since Rafael Nadal won his first French Open championship as a long-haired teen in toreador pants.

On Sunday at Roland Garros, a 36-year-old Nadal walked onto the court with a grown man’s thinning hair, conventional shorts and hope that, against a challenger 13 years younger, experience and a foot-numbing injection to quell chronic pain would compensate for what time had taken away.

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