Why does Nadal annoy me so much? And can I learn to love him?

I’ve just heard that Rafael Nadal today crushed Robin Soderling to win the French Open title for the fifth time in his career.  Which I find very irritating.

Nadal seems a nice young man: he has good manners, is respectful towards other players, and doesn’t whine. He is immensely professional and dedicated. He is a superb tennis player: on clay he is simply the best there has ever been. He is immensely, overpoweringly strong, unbelievably consistent, and gutsy. Most of his fellow professionals, and millions of tennis fans, would rather watch him in action than any other player: they thrill to his every shot.

And yet he annoys the hell out of me. I feel disappointed every time he hits a winner (which adds up to a lot of disappointment), and I’m irritated every time he wins (whoever he’s playing). In fact, it’s got so bad, I can only watch Nadal matches after the event on a PVR, so I can fast-forward whenever he’s doing well – which means an awful lot of fast-forwarding.

I’d prefer to watch pretty much any other top 100 player – even the somewhat creepy Radek Stepanek and the immensely dull 6’10” serving machine, Ivo Karlovic.

And I have no idea why!

It’s not racism – I’m not aware of feeling any antipathy towards Spaniards, and I enjoyed their football team winning the 2008 European Championships.

Could it be because his reputation mesmerizes opponents into losing to him? I didn’t mind that in the least when Laver or Borg or Federer did it. 

It’s not the first time I’ve disliked watching a world-beating tennis player – whoever came up against Connors, MacEnroe or Nastase, I’d be rooting for them. When any of these three played each other, it always seemed a pity – to echo Henry Kissinger’s remark about the Iran/Iraq war – that they both couldn’t lose. But then, just as Iran and Iraq were ruled by repellent fascist regimes, the three players I’ve mentioned were all – in their own unique way – creeps. I instinctively didn’t like them as people: I don’t feel like that about Rafa. As I said, he seems a nice chap.

It could have something to do with the great rivalry between him and my all-time favourite sportsman, Roger Federer. But The Great Man has now ascended to the sporting version of Olympus, his reputation as the best there has ever been secure for all time.

Besides, the only other apparently nice bloke I couldn’t stand watching was Pete Sampras, and he wasn’t one half of a great rivalry. He just bored me as a person and as a tennis player: no matter how well he played, there was just something massively uncompelling about him. 

Could it be because it all looks like such a massive effort for Nadal – all that sweating and grunting, all those bulging muscles, all that grimacing? Maybe I have a suspicion pure dedication and willpower are allowing him to punch above the weight of his natural talent. But then, I didn’t mind the obsessively dedicated Ivan Lendl winning, and he wasn’t anywhere near as talented as Nadal. Besides, what I said about Nadal was also true of Bjorn Borg, and I thrilled to the Swedish Cyclops’ every passing shot, and I didn’t object to his almost total lack of touch on volleys. In fact, I almost expired with delight when he defeated MacEnroe to win his fifth successive Wimbledon title in 1980, and MacEnroe was more naturally gifted.

The only thing I can think of to account for my bizarre antipathy towards the Spaniard is the amount of time he takes between shots – all that toweling and ball-choosing  and ball-doinking and hitching his hair behind his ears (despite a headband) and picking his shorts out of his bum-crack every time he gets ready to serve. I started watching tennis in an era when players didn’t even get to sit down when changing ends. Deliberately extending the time your opponent has to wait between points strikes me as so much gamesmanship. My three all-time tennis heroes – Borg, Laver and Federer – were so quick between points, they gave the impression of having a train to catch.

Could it be as simple and trivial as that? Is my lack of enthusiasm simply the result of impatience?

Whatever the cause of my seemingly inexplicable reaction, I’d like to overcome it, because, unless his knees give way again, it looks like Nadal could be around for quite a while, and tennis is the only sport I genuinely enjoy.

The other problem is that, whereas the crowds warm to Nadal just about wherever he plays, they can’t stand him at Roland Garros - and I really don’t want to find myself agreeing with the French!