Rafael Nadal will learn from defeat

Rafael Nadal's defeat to Robin Soderling at the French Open on Monday was "an unprecedented, unexpected, utterly unforeseen accident of the kind that comes around once in a sporting lifetime", writes Matthew Syed in the Times.

Nadal had never lost before at Roland Garros, and seemed to be making serene progress towards his fifth consecutive Paris title when Soderling - seeded 23 at the tournament and "a man who had little reputation on clay and even less of a reputation in the minds of tennis fans around the world" - beat him in four sets.

"Some will take Nadal's defeat as eloquent testimony to sport's infinite capacity to spring surprises, to keep us guessing, to ravish us with its glorious capriciousness," writes Syed. "But Nadal took a different lesson, a subtler lesson, dare I say it, a more philosophical lesson. In his defeat, Nadal told us that he had glimpsed the meaning of victory."

The Spaniard seemed to grasp that there could be no context to his remarkable dominance of the sport without a reality check, as his quote in the post-match press conference confirmed - “You need a defeat to give the value to your victories". To Syed, Nadal almost made it sound like Soderling's triumph was in fact a blessing in disguise.

"Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Shakespeare certainly thought so. In the defining soliloquy of Henry IV Part 1, Prince Hal states: 'If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.' Rafael Nadal had a rare accident on Sunday." ·