Rafael Nadal: The Ultimate Warrior
Paul Fein
Retrospective
Copyright 2024
“I play every shot like my life depends on it.” – Rafa, at age 17
“It is suffering, but at the same time it’s enjoying, because that’s what we do.” – Rafa, at age 32
Youthful exuberance fueled Rafael Nadal’s record-smashing career and captivated the sports world for 22 years. Bouncing up and down during the pre-match coin toss, he resembled a boxer primed for a title fight. His zig-zag sprint to the baseline for the warmup warned opponents of his boundless energy.
His bulging biceps delivered topspin forehands so ferocious and relentless that a rival likened the experience to “Chinese water torture.” His muscular legs propelled him so swiftly that he could turn defense into offense with a single spectacular shot, and his rugged torso perfectly complemented his die-hard competitiveness.
This good-looking Spanish lefthander made his foes look bad for as long as it took. If he suffered for hours, they would suffer even more. Those few who managed to upset him often had little left for their next match. Either way, he broke down their bodies, spirits, or games with repetitive brutality. At Roland Garros, the incessant body punches earned him an astounding, unbreakable record of 14 titles and the honorific title of King of Clay.
He celebrated winners with leaping uppercut fist pumps and cries of “Vamos!” His body language projected hyper-confidence that intimidated opponents as much as his dynamic athleticism and jaw-dropping shots. After the Spanish matador slew the bull for almost all of his 22 Grand Slam titles, he celebrated in ecstasy by collapsing on the court—either to his knees, pumping his arms with a last spasm of energy or on his back in exhaustion.
And yet Rafael Nadal Parera, nicknamed “Rafa,” was a bundle of contradictions that endeared him even more to his admirers worldwide. In Nadal’s 2011 memoir, RAFA, his mother Anna Maria Parera explained, “He’s on top in the tennis world but, deep down, he is a super-sensitive human being full of fears and insecurities that people who don’t know him would scarcely imagine.”
More than any champion in tennis history, Nadal exemplified the Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ aphorism, “Character is destiny.”
Let’s look back at highlights of the life and times of this sports immortal.
Uncle Toni
Toni Nadal coached his nephew from age 4 to 28 without payment. Toni is as proud of Rafael’s gracious “Thank you’s” after press conferences and his never broke his racket in anger as he is of his many Grand Slam titles and all-time records. Rafael remained humble and gracious, always praising his opponents both in victory and defeat—and sometimes even consoling them as he did a weeping Roger Federer after their riveting 2009 Australian Open final. Asked by Tennis Channel in 2011 when he realized he was special, Rafael’s answer was as simple as it was humble: “Never.”
“The most essential thing was to shape his character,” Toni told me in a 2013 interview. “With good character, success is much easier. I thought a strong-natured player, together with good behavior would make him good both for tennis and for life in general. It’s very important to be able to face adversity.”
Toni, a tennis coach who earned a trainer’s degree, modeled young Rafa’s game after lefthanders Jimmy Connors and Thomas Muster and righthanded Bjorn Borg. “Connors had the movement and intensity,” Toni said. “Muster had a great wrist [action on his powerful topspin forehand] and was an aggressive baseliner. Borg had a stoical demeanor and great defensive skills.”
At eight, little Rafa held the racket with two hands for both his forehand and backhand. In RAFA, Nadal recalled the fateful day when Toni said, “There are no professional players who play with two hands, and we’re not going to be the first ones, so you’ve got to change.” So, the ambidextrous prodigy changed his forehand “and what came naturally to me was to play left-handed.” This sinistral advantage combined with wicked Western forehand topspin to befuddle righties, especially Federer, and seemed almost sinister!
Uncle Toni honed Rafa’s mental strength as much as he did his unique 21st-century game. Toni, once a middling tournament player himself, proved a harsh taskmaster. In his 2011 memoir, RAFA, the future superstar recalled, “Often I’d struggle to contain my rage” at “the injustice and abuse he heaped on me.” But Rafa also said, “I had a fairy tale childhood.” Compassion, though, always tempered Toni’s strictness.
In his memoir, Rafael wrote, “There was fun and magic in my relationship with Toni, even if the prevailing mood when we trained was stony and severe. And we had plenty of success.” Toni whacked tennis balls near him to scare him when he wasn’t paying attention, made him (and not the other kids) sweep the courts, ridiculed him as “mummy’s boy,” and seldom celebrated his victories. Sometimes the little boy came home crying, which distressed his mother.
Seven-year-old Rafa loved and trusted his uncle. So much so, he believed him when Toni told the innocent Rafa he could make it rain when he was losing a match, then stop the rain when he started winning. This unusual combination of fun and tough love inculcated discipline and endurance, traits that gradually turned the ambitious, athletic prodigy into the ultimate competitor.
The women in his life
As a teenager, Rafael Nadal called his mother every night when he was on tour, and into his 20s he contacted his sister, Maribel, as many as ten times a day by phone and the internet. The third woman is Maria Francisca (Mery) Perelló, who became Rafa’s girlfriend in 2005 and his wife in 2019. Mery gave birth to his son, also named Rafael on Oct. 8, 2022.
“They all share what his mother, Ana Maria Parera, calls ‘a doctrine,’ for how to conduct themselves in the world,” Nadal wrote in his memoir. “The idea, as simple as it is unusual in the light of Rafa’s global celebrity, is best summed up for her by the most unexciting, unglamorous word in the dictionary: ‘normality.’”
This extremely low-profile, private trio, especially his mother, created a safe haven for one of the world’s most recognizable and admired athletes. In RAFA, Ana Maria said, “The most important thing, now that I see fame has not gone to his head, and never will, is to make him feel at peace when he is home. He needs peace because that is the last thing he has when he is away on tour...”
In 2022, Rafael told Essential Sport about his mother’s crucial role during his exhilarating but injury-plagued road to the top. “To underestimate the value of her role in everything that has come my way, to see her importance as less than Toni’s, for example, would be as blind as it would be unjust.”
Nadal enjoys an unusually close relationship with Maribel, who is five years younger. “Most boys growing up see their younger sisters as irritations, especially when they are teenagers,” she said in RAFA. “But that has never been the way Rafael has treated me. He always urged me to come along when he goes out with his friends. It is natural to us, even if others might sometimes find it strange, and it’s part of the secret of our special bond.”
Maria Francisca, the antithesis of Mirka Federer, for several years played no role in Nadal’s career and relished her anonymity and independence, while working full-time in an insurance company. She seldom traveled with him because “even if I could, [it] would not be good either for him or for me.” Maria Francisca never talks to the media and in the memoir said, “Even if my family asks me about Rafael, I prefer not to say much…. It’s what works for me, and what works for Rafael and me as a couple. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Currently, Mery, who earned a degree in business administration, is the Project Director of Strategy and Relations with Institutions for the Rafa Nadal Foundation.
Rafa’s Records
You can discount the hoary cliché that “records are made to be broken,” starting with Nadal’s most famous record. His 14 French Open titles, the most triumphs at the same Grand Slam tournament—for men or women—in tennis history will never be equaled, let alone eclipsed. Also astounding and unbreakable is the King of Clay’s capturing four different tournaments 10 or more times: at the French Open (14), the Barcelona Open (12), the Monte Carlo Masters (11), and the Italian Open (10). Less mentioned but just as jaw-dropping is that Nadal went a perfect 14-0 in French Open finals. Lastly, Nadal’s 112-4 match record at Roland Garros gave him the highest winning percentage, 96.5%, of any singles player at any major.
Entering into the “almost unbreakable” category, two more records are exceptional achievements. He boasts the record for the longest winning streak on a single surface among male players. This master of consistency won an amazing 81 straight matches on clay from the Monte Carlo Masters in April 2005 to the Hamburg Masters in May 2007, when Roger Federer ended the streak in the final. Nadal also holds the men’s mark for the most clay-court titles with 63, far ahead of Guillermo Vilas at 49.
The Spanish superstar owns several other noteworthy records. They include becoming the only player to win all three clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments—Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome—and the French Open in the 2010 season, thus sweeping the four most prestigious annual clay events. When the Mallorcan marvel seized his first US Open crown in 2010, he made history as the youngest man at 24 to complete both a career Grand Slam and a career Golden Slam.
And let’s not forget the patriotic Spaniard helped his country win five Davis Cups (in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2019), which tied John McEnroe of the U.S. for the Open Era record. Rafael Nadal put an exclamation point on his long and brilliant career when he became the first player in tennis history to win multiple majors in three different decades with six in the 2000s, 13 in the 2010s, and three in the 2020s.
Deep Practice Makes Perfect
A chapter titled “The Deep Practice Cell” in Daniel Coyle’s 2009 bestseller The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How., starts with Charles Darwin’s maxim, “I have always maintained that excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.”
Darwin didn’t know about a microscopic substance called myelin and the critical role it plays in getting good at piano, chess, or sports, of course, but he observed its effects. In The Talent Code, Coyle asks and answers this question about the power of deep practice.
Q: Why are passion and persistence key ingredients of talent?
A: Because wrapping myelin around a big circuit requires immense energy and time. If you don’t love it, you’ll never work hard enough to be great.
Coyle further writes: “The simplest skill—say, a tennis backhand—involves a circuit made up of hundreds of thousands of fibers and synapses…. The input is all the stuff that happens before we perform an action: seeing the ball, feeling the racquet’s position in our hand, deciding to swing. The output is the performance itself: the signals that move the muscles with the right timing and force to take a step, turn the hips, the shoulders, the arm…. When a coach uses the phrase ‘muscle memory,’ he is actually talking about circuits.”
Nadal was renowned for his grueling, focused practice sessions that reinforced and eventually perfected his muscle memory. “His intensity in practice is more intense than anybody [else] is in a match,” praised Brad Gilbert, former world No. 4 and former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick.
Practice partners can attest to that. “I warmed up Nadal for an hour, and he drills every single ball and never takes a break. I felt like I was going to puke,” reported Eric Hechtman, a former University of Miami player who was a hitting partner for Nadal during the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open, in The Miami Herald.
Greatest Matches
Whenever the legendary Big Three clashed at a Grand Slam event, we were guaranteed a great performance by at least one of them. And when both played at their dazzling best, particularly in a final, they delighted us with a match for the ages. Here are the crème de la crème.
NADAL DEF. FEDERER 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 IN THE 2008 WIMBLEDON FINAL
So dominant were No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, they had combined to win 14 of the previous 16 major championships going into the 2008 Wimbledon. The Mighty Fed had seized five successive Big W titles and pronounced himself “the big favorite obviously.” The most devastating loss in Rafa’s career would inspire his most momentous triumph. After losing the 2007 Wimbledon final to archrival Federer, he sat on the shower floor and cried tears of despair and self-recrimination for 30 minutes.
This time, the two protagonists brought out the spectacular in each other again and again with “Anything you can do, I can do better” attacks and ripostes. Spectators chanted “Come on, Roger” and “Come on, Rafa” throughout changeovers during the dramatic denouement. Serving for the championship, the swashbuckling Spaniard struck three clever and bold winners, including his only serve and volley, followed by a Federer return error to consummate his life’s work, sacrifice, and dream.
For 28 years, cognoscenti ranked the unforgettable Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon final as the most brilliant and riveting match of all time. But, after watching the Federer-Nadal extravaganza of almost superhuman tennis, which set a record for being the longest, John McEnroe—the same McEnroe of the famed Borg-McEnroe match—couldn’t restrain his enthusiasm. “This was a magnificent, unbelievable, truly memorable match. This has to be the greatest match we’ve ever seen, ever.”
DJOKOVIC DEF. NADAL 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 IN THE 2012 AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINAL
For sustained brilliance and suspenseful twists and turns, the 2012 Australian Open final ranks as an all-time classic, second only to the Nadal-Federer 2008 Wimbledon final among the greatest matches in history. When Rafael Nadal, who led 4-2, 30-15 on his serve in the fifth set, missed an easy backhand passing shot by inches, defending champion and No. 1 Novak Djokovic came back to prevail 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 in the Grand Slam record 5-hour and 53-minute final.
“I think we played a great tennis match. It was a very good show,” said Nadal, who lost to the Serb for the seventh straight time. Djokovic called the epic “Definitely the greatest match I’ve ever played.”
NADAL DEF. DJOKOVIC 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7 IN THE 2013 FRENCH OPEN SEMIFINAL
The stakes could not have been higher: Rafael Nadal was aiming for a record eighth crown at Roland Garros; Novak Djokovic was seeking the only Grand Slam title that had eluded him and the second major in his bid for the first men’s Grand Slam since Rod Laver achieved the feat in 1969.
In what was the de facto final, Nadal fought back from a 4-2 deficit in the deciding set to pull out a superbly played 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7 semifinal victory that riveted fans for four hours and 37 minutes. “It’s nice when something lives up to what you built it up to, and this ‘match of the year’ was all you could ask for…. You can make an argument that match was the greatest we’ve ever witnessed on a clay court,” said NBC-TV analyst and 1980s superstar John McEnroe. A powerful argument!
Empathy For His Rivals
In the fiercely competitive individual sport of tennis, few champions, if any, empathized with their rivals as genuinely and often as Rafael Nadal.
At the 2009 Australian Open, an unforgettable trophy presentation for the men’s final at the riveted spectators. After Rafa had outlasted Roger Federer in five fluctuating sets to thwart the Swiss’s quest to tie Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, Roger sobbed uncontrollably and said “God, it’s killing me,” in a trembling voice. Choking with emotion, Roger had to stop talking.
With empathy and grace, the victor put his arm around the vanquished to console him. Nadal told Federer and the rapt crowd, “Roger, sorry for today. I really know how you feel right now. Remember, you’re a great champion,” Nadal told Federer and the rapt crowd. Afterward, the compassionate Spaniard told reporters, “I can’t enjoy 100 percent the victory because I saw him cry.”
After composing himself, Federer explained, “In the first moment you’re disappointed, you’re shocked, you’re sad, then all of a sudden, it overwhelms you. It’s the worst feeling.”
Nadal, after annihilating close friend Juan Monaco 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 in the 2012 French Open fourth round, told the media: “I feel very, very sorry for him. I saw him suffering a little bit on court at the end…. What can I say? Well, I would tell him, ‘Don’t you worry. It’s going to be better afterward. You’ll feel better afterward.’”
In their unforgettable 2018 US Open quarterfinal, Nadal and Austrian star Dominic Thiem slugged it out for four hours and 49 minutes as spectators often rose to their feet to applaud the most exciting points. The enthralling duel lasted until 2:04 a.m. when Nadal finally prevailed 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5). Afterward, the empathetic winner said, “I’m sad for him. It’s cruel sometimes, tennis, because I think this match didn’t really deserve a loser. But there has to be one.”
When Alexander Zverev severely injured his ankle and screamed in agony near the end of the second set of their close 2022 French Open semifinal, Nadal quickly moved across the court to try to comfort him. “We are colleagues, we have been practicing together a lot of times,” Rafa said. “And to see a colleague on the tour like this, even if for me it’s a dream be in the final of Roland Garros, of course, that way is not the way that we want it to be. Feels very sorry for, if you are human, you should feel very sorry for a colleague.”
The Evolution of Nadal
I watched this whiz kid for the first time around 2003 on my old-fashioned 28” TV. His performance left me gobsmacked as Rafa sprinted so far to retrieve shots that he briefly disappeared from the screen only to reappear and hang in the point after three, four, or even five seemingly impossible defensive gets. After he won the clay-court match, I predicted, “Nadal will win four to eight French Opens,” even though the long-haired, extremely determined Spaniard would have to greatly improve the rest of his incomplete game to succeed on other surfaces.
Over the years, Toni Nadal and Carlos Moya, Rafa’s longtime friend and advisor from Mallorca—who replaced Toni as head coach in 2018—honed Nadal’s technique and tactics. Rafa added power to his groundstrokes and improved his volley and serve. No longer a one-trick pony, he reached the Wimbledon finals in 2006–7 and won the coveted title in 2008.
Before the 2008 US Open where Rafa had never advanced past the quarterfinals in five appearances, Toni said, “Rafael needs to play like he is on grass all the time. He is young still. He has learned how to play on the grass and make three finals. He will learn this on hard courts.”
Following a similar progression, Nadal made the semifinals at Flushing Meadows in 2008-9 and won the only major to have eluded him in 2010. His first serve, which averaged a mediocre 107 mph in 2009, shot up to an impressive 118 mph in 2010.
His volleying also went to a new level. “His net play is way, way better than your average clay court player. You can make a solid argument that he’s a better volleyer than Federer,” said CBS analyst John McEnroe, during Rafa’s sensational 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Novak Djokovic in the 2010 US Open final.
Whether he blasted astonishing forehand winners on the dead run from outside the alley or belting backhand passing shots, the new Nadal was an offensive juggernaut as well as a baseline grinder. “To be in such defensive positions and hit outright winners is something I had never seen in this sport before Nadal arrived,” raved McEnroe.
When Rafa captured his second US Open in 2013, all-time great Billie Jean King told Inside Tennis, “Nadal is the most adaptable player I’ve seen in years. Every year he is better on hard courts. Same thing with the first time I saw him play on grass and now. He is so adaptable, and that is very hard to find in people. He’s amazing.”
After taking his record 11th title at the Barcelona Open at age 32, Rafa noted, “Now I look for more angles trying to open the court” to set up forehand winners. That tactic applied in spades to his serve where his odds of winning the point increased dramatically, particularly when serving wide in the ad court, when his second shot was hit with a forehand more than 80 percent of the time.
What former No. 1 Jim Courier rated “the best forehand I’ve ever seen” was produced with a Western grip and a pronounced low-to-high, lasso-like swing with several different follow-throughs. These diabolically spinning “heavy” balls averaged 3,300 rpms—much faster than the ATP top 50 average of 2,800 rpms. These fearsome forehands bounded higher and wider (on crosscourt forehands) to force errors and eventually wear out opponents.
In Nadal’s never-ending quest for perfection, court positioning became the last frontier. A 2020 piece in the New York Times wrote about the findings of Sam Maclean, a data analyst with Hawkeye. With Nadal in his 30s, long, grueling rallies gave way to aggressive, first-strike tennis. “From 2012 to 2016, Nadal hit 30 percent of his first shots after his serves from inside the baseline. But each year he has worked with Moya, that number has risen, first to 36 percent, then to 39 percent, then to 41 percent, and last year to 42 percent. Why is that so important? Because when Nadal hits that first shot from inside the baseline, he wins 74 percent of the points. When he hits the first shot from behind the baseline, he wins just 59 percent of the points.”
Despite debilitating injuries, the marvel from Mallorca managed to win eight more Grand Slam singles titles from 2017 to his last dominating year in 2022, when he seemed almost super-human at the Australian and French Opens. Neither chronic foot pain nor the effects of COVID in the previous six months stopped Rafa at Melbourne where he fought back from a two-set deficit to outlast Daniil Medvedev for the title. His legend grew still more at his favorite major in Paris. He needed injections to numb foot pain for the entire fortnight to conquer four top-10 foes, including Djokovic, Zverev, and Casper Ruud.
Missteps And Misdemeanors
Before on-court and then in-match coaching was legalized in men’s tennis, Rafa and Uncle Toni flagrantly violated the rule. When Nadal was fined $2,000 for receiving illegal coaching during a third-round match at the 2012 Wimbledon, he protested, “The rules are the rules. Sometimes in the past, maybe Toni talks too much, but not this time, in my opinion.”
In a 2012 article titled “It’s Time to Stop Rafael Nadal’s Cheating,” AOL tennis writer Greg Couch rightly denounced Nadal’s flouting the no-coaching rule. “It might not seem like a big deal, but it is. You see players doing it all the time in tennis, as this is its open secret. But it’s still wrong. I don’t accept it, and neither should tennis’ governing bodies. It is time to suspend Uncle Toni, boot him from a major tournament. And hit Nadal with a big fine. Plenty of people, even within the game, think the better plan is to simply dump the rule. They are wrong. This is not the jaywalking of tennis rules. It is a basic tenet of the game, the guts of what tennis is about.”
The weak enforcement of the rule infuriated some opponents. When Nadal edged Stan Wawrinka 7-6, 7-6 at the 2013 ATP Finals and received only a warning, Wawrinka justifiably complained, “I didn’t agree with the umpire that he didn’t tell him something or he didn’t give him second warning, just because it was Rafa. Before every point, he [Toni Nadal] was trying to coach him.”
Stalling was another unethical breach of the rules that Nadal committed to gain an unfair advantage when he was tired. Even Federer, his good friend, complained about the excessive time Nadal took between points “I don’t know how you can go through a four-hour match with Rafa, and he never gets a time violation,” said Federer, at the 2012 Indian Wells, when he objected to the amount of time Nadal takes between points. Exhausted opponents often welcomed the extra rest rather than complain.
In his 2015 French Open fourth-round victory over Jack Sock, the stalling Spaniard violated the 20-second time limit 100 percent of the time. Before the 2015 ATP Finals, Tennis Abstract found that Nadal took an average of 47 seconds between points—the most time among top-50 players, with Andy Murray (45) and Gilles Simon (43) following Nadal.
Uncontrite and even defiant, Nadal even tried to get umpires Carlos Bernardes and Carlos Ramos banned from officiating when they applied the time rule fairly and penalized him.
Nadal fans overlooked those sins, but not all women forgave his abandonment of sleeveless shirts. In 2009, they set up a special discussion—titled “Official Mourning Thread”— devoted to his new short-sleeved shirts and more conventional shorts on the Vamos Brigade, an international Nadal-watching website and to lament the visible loss of his bulging biceps.
Rafa’s Wit and Wisdom
Although not a quotes machine like Serena, Roger, and Novak, Rafa came up with plenty of playful and perceptive quotes such as these.
After Nadal edged 48th-ranked Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 in windy conditions to advance to the 2011 French Open third round, he offered this bon mot: “If you play good, seems like much less wind. If you are playing bad, seems like a hurricane.”
On how he and the other top three players—Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray—remain friendly despite the pressure of competing for big titles, Nadal said, “We have a good relationship. That’s important because at the end tennis is only a game. The relationships are in my opinion more important than a game.”
Nadal, who in 2012 had some doubts he could catch Roger Federer’s record of 17 singles Grand Slam titles, told TIME magazine, “I doubt about myself. I think doubts are good in life. The people who don’t have doubts I think only two things—arrogance or not intelligence.”
After Nadal 6-3, 6-3 to Novak Djokovic in the 2014 Sony Open final, a reporter asked him if, as a man who loves a challenge, he’s glad that Djokovic “exists.” Rafa replied, “No. I like challenges. . . but I am not stupid.”
When on-court interviewer Jim Courier asked him after a 2015 Australian Open match how he felt physically on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, Nadal drew laughs from the crowd when he quipped, “I was never very good at mathematics.”
“If you don’t feel the pressure, it’s because you don’t love the sport. And if you don’t love the sport, it’s better to go back home and do another thing.... Pressure is good. You are able to control that. That pressure, that adrenaline, can be in a positive way.”
In a 2015 interview with La Nacion, Rafa said, “Being famous for being famous doesn’t give anything. [It] is nice and satisfying if you earned it for doing well, and not just on court. The real success is having friends, having a family, caring for them and feel loved by the people—the public is very important, but what is more [important is to] feel loved by those who are around you.”
When asked if his comeback victory in the 2022 Australian Open final against Daniil Medvedev serves as an example for other players, Nadal replied, “No, examples are not for one day. Examples are for every day.”
Nadal cracked up the media after an Italian journalist fell asleep during his press conference when he quipped, “It’s not very interesting today. I know you were closing your eyes to be more focused on what I am saying!”
Superstitions and Rituals
Every player has routines, rituals, and perhaps even superstitions. But Nadal took it to a new level. Take it from Katy Shelow, a 16-year-old ball girl at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open during the 2011 Djokovic-Nadal final. “You have to know your players, so you don’t distract them or disrupt the flow of the match. Nadal wants his towel after every point and he wants two balls—exactly two. He fiddles with his drink bottles because he wants them in a specific position. He wants the empty ones thrown away. He doesn’t like trash.”
Obsessive about routine, Rafa took a freezing cold shower before every match, almost always bounced the ball 11 times before serving, avoided stepping on tennis court lines of a tennis court except during points, and sipped his energy drink before drinking water. He annoyed opponents when these and other pre-match rituals made him late for the coin toss.
When his detailed pre-serve tics—such as crudely pulling at the seat of his tight shorts and touching his hair—were pantomimed by Djokovic, Rafa didn’t find it amusing.
During a 2022 mental health conference at the Rafa Nadal Academy, Rafa admitted, “I believe that the fewer weird things to do to focus, the better. And I say that then when I have particularly marked rituals when I play. I’d much rather not do them. That doesn’t sound like an excuse, but tennis is a mentally aggressive sport, and it demands a lot of you at all times; the slightest mistake sends you home.
“You have to find a way to be 100% focused, without being distracted by outside things,” he explained. “Generally, I am a focused person. I don’t know if it’s positive or negative, but it works for me to have rituals. When I train, I don’t have rituals, but competition gives me this security and isolation.”
As Rafa’s family and friends well knew, away from tennis he was nothing if not complicated and quirky, too. In his memoir, Nadal revealed he dislikes thunderstorms, sleeping in the dark when he’s home alone (he copes with the TV and lights on), ham and cheese, and wet shirts. He also doesn’t like animals, especially dogs, because “I doubt their intentions.”
He explained the striking paradox in his life in a 2009 Vogue magazine article: “I’m not very brave about anything in life. In tennis, yes. In everything else, not very.”
Mr. Nice Guy
Sports mottos “Nice guys finish last” and “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” never applied to Rafael Nadal.
Before the sports world knew much about Rafa, they quickly took to the exuberant, yet mature teenager. As respected ESPN analyst Mary Carillo pithily observed, “He acts like a man out there. But he reacts like a boy. And that’s why people like him.”
His popularity soared as people learned more about the Spanish kid in untraditional attire—pirate pantaloons and colorful sleeveless shirts—and noticed his acts of kindness on and off the courts.
A tennis philanthropist, he launched the Rafa Nadal Foundation in 2010. It has improved the lives of thousands of children with a wide range of programs, such as the NETS project (Nadal Educational Tennis School) in India, the ‘More Than Tennis’ meetings (where athletes with intellectual disabilities get together from schools all across Spain), the opening of foundation centres in Palma, Valencia and Madrid, charity races, ‘Play All’ for socially vulnerable children, and ‘Study&Play.’
In October 2018, Nadal opened his tennis academy to victims of flash floods seeking shelter in Mallorca and donated $1.4 million to those affected. He partnered with Roger Federer to donate $250,000 toward Australian bushfire relief in January 2020. And the two superstars’ exhibition match—before the largest crowd in tennis history in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2020—attracted 51,954 fans and raised $3.5 million for the Roger Federer Foundation.
Rafa’s affection and compassion for his longtime rival and close friend were never more evident than during Roger’s poignant retirement ceremony at the 2022 Laver Cup. As both giants of the sport cried, they held hands to comfort each other. It marked the end of the iconic “Fedal” rivalry, but the memories will endure.
“I’m very proud to be part of his career in some way,” Nadal said. “But even for me happier to finish our career like friends after everything we shared on court like rivals.”
Two years later, Nadal retired during the Davis Cup in Malaga, Spain, and two legends of the fabulous Big Three are gone.
“There is so much to respect about Rafael Nadal, but what I respect most was the respect he had for the game, and for the athletes who played it,” Carillo said. “Rafael Nadal changed the sport for good and with manifest goodness, and that is a legacy in and of itself.”
Fascinating Facts about Rafael Nadal
In a royal snub, Rafael Nadal declined an invitation in 2010 to meet Queen Elizabeth II, who was making her first trip to Wimbledon since 1977, because he didn’t want to upset his Wimbledon practice routine.
J.K. Rowling, the British author of the famous Harry Potter books, cited 11-year-old Nadal as an inspiration after she saw him moon-balling during practice in Spain.
Rafael Nadal called choosing tennis over soccer, a sport he loved, at age 12, the most difficult decision he ever made.
Rafael Nadal signed an endorsement contract with Nike when he was 13.
When doctors diagnosed Rafael Nadal with a career-threatening injury in 2005—a rare, congenital and extremely painful foot condition—in addition to the chronic sore knees that plagued him, he called it “the deepest, black hole of my life.”
Rafael Nadal told Vanity Fair magazine that the talent he would most like to have is “Roger Federer’s ability to play tennis easily.”
Despite chronic sore knees and complaints that the tennis season is too long and grueling, Rafael Nadal played six different lucrative exhibitions in about 10 days in November 2013 against Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, David Nalbandian, and others.
Rafael Nadal’s wicked topspin forehand bounced an average height of 4’2” on clay, but a much lower 3’7” on grass.
Rafael Nadal eats, writes, throws, plays golf and basketball, and brushes his teeth righthanded.
Rafael Nadal’s grandfather is a musician who, at 19, helped produce the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Mallorca.
During the entire 2006 Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal surprisingly approached net nine more times than Roger Federer—164 to 155.
In 2011, Rafael Nadal revealed he doesn’t play as himself when he plays the electronic tennis game he features in. He plays as Federer, because his computerized self stays at the baseline too much.
Injury-plagued Rafael Nadal withdrew or retired from 16 of 17 hard-court tournaments in the 18 months prior to the 2019 Australian Open.
Nadal became the first and only active tennis player to have a center court named after him in 2017. The Barcelona Open, an ATP 500 event he had then won a record nine times, fittingly renamed its center court to “Pista Rafa Nadal.”
“I cried like a little boy,” Rafael Nadal told a Spanish soccer website, Marca, after Spain captured its first World Cup, and he is so devoted to Real Madrid, his favorite soccer team, that he gets up at 5 a.m. to watch Real, even if he has a match that day.
During Rafael Nadal’s seven-month period of tournament inactivity during 2012–13, he won his first poker tournament on the website of his sponsors, PokerStars, beating 46 rivals to claim the first prize of €152.40 ($230.43).
According to Haute Time, Nadal wore a custom-made Richard Mille watch called the RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal at the 2020 French Open. The watch, which weighs just over one ounce and has a face that looks like a tennis racquet, costs $1,000,500.
In 2022, TIME magazine cited Nadal among the 100 most influential people in the world.
“He’s bigger than the King [Juan Carlos I], everybody loves him … kids, old people,” said Spanish tennis pro Fernando Vicente in 2010, about superstar Rafael Nadal in The Globe and Mail (Canada).
The King of Clay became a Man of Steel when his most outstanding monument to greatness, a steel statue of him swinging his trademark forehand, was unveiled on the Roland-Garros grounds on May 27, 2021.
Rafael Nadal won the ATP Sportsmanship Award five times and is the only man to win every award in the player category.
Tributes to Rafael Nadal
The tennis world paid tribute to the Spanish legend after he announced on Oct. 10 he would retire after the Davis Cup final in Malaga.
Roger Federer: “One word to describe you, Rafa, would be kind. Your dominance and your records throughout on clay that might and I hope will be unmatched forever. Your resilience, your toughness, and everything has been incredible. The idol you were and are to so many people and children around the world. And then, maybe the most important for me, is your off-court activities through your [tennis] academy that is wonderful and also your charity, your foundation, you gave given back so much. And I’m sure you will do more of it in the future. Some of my best memories would have to be our foundation. It’s one of the highlights for me. Of course, the 2008 Wimbledon final where you got [beat] me—our favorite match probably. And then also playing doubles with you, retiring by your side [at the 2022 Laver Cup]. Those were some incredible moments. It was such a pleasure and a privilege to play with you, but especially against you. You’ve been incredible.”
Novak Djokovic: “Rafa, one post is not enough to express the respect I have for you and what you have done for our sport,” the GOAT wrote on his social media platforms. “You have inspired millions of children to start playing tennis, and I think that's probably the greatest achievement anyone can wish for. Your tenacity, dedication, fighting spirit are going to be taught for decades. Your legacy will live forever. Only you know what you had to endure to become an icon of tennis and sport in general. Thank you for pushing me to the very limit so many times in our rivalry, which has impacted me the most as a player. Your passion for representing Spain has always been remarkable.”
Iga Swiatek: “You were and still are the biggest inspiration that I ever had in tennis,” the five-time major champion posted on Instagram. “The reason why sometimes I got extra motivated and kept pushing myself. Thank you for that and thank you for being such an amazing person off the court as well. Your humility is something that is not so [common] when you see other athletes succeeding. You’re the one that always stayed honest with himself and true to himself.”
Coco Gauff: “It’s one thing to have the on-court achievements, but I think [about] how you treat people off the court, how you treat people, fans,” the world No. 2 told WTAtennis.com. “Obviously, I’m a fan of him. I know we’re technically like coworkers, but I’m a fan. How he treated me as a fan is something I remember more than his wins, more than the thing he did. I would like my legacy to look like that. You can win the amount of trophies and everything, but people remember who you are and how you made them feel. That’s how I try to remind myself when I’m doing fan interactions or with anybody, to leave a nice impression because I know how that goes a long way.”
Carlos Alcaraz: “It is a really difficult thing, really difficult news for everybody, and even tougher for me,” said the four-time Grand Slam champion. “He has been my idol since I start playing tennis. I look up to him. Proudly, thanks to him, I really wanted to become a professional tennis player. Losing him, in a certain way, is going to be difficult for us, so I will try to enjoy as much as I can when he’s going to play. But we are going to play in Saudi Arabia, and then Davis Cup, so I’m going to try to enjoy as much as I can the time with him. But, yeah, it is a shame for tennis and for me.”
Sebastian Korda: “He’s my biggest idol. He’s one of the reasons I play tennis. Just watching him play, unbelievable competitor. Just from him I have the never-give-up mentality. Whenever I’m on court, I try to be like him. Growing up, I named my cat ‘Rafa’ after him. That says a lot about how much I love the guy.”
Roland Garros: “14 thanks for the millions of memories,” posted the Grand Slam tournament Nadal loved and won the most on X, formerly Facebook.
Jannik Sinner: “Thank you for everything you’ve done for our sport. It’s been amazing for me to part of the last part of your journey. I wish you the best for the rest of your career and then to enjoy your life with your family and friends.”
Andy Murray: “The passion and intensity that you’ve played with was something that all tennis players aspire to and all tennis fans will remember you for. I’ve always been a huge fan of yours, and it’s been incredible to watch you and practice with you and get the chance to compete against you throughout all these years since we first met as 14-year-old kids. We’ve also learned so much from you over the years about humility, hard work, and most importantly, respect for everybody. Congratulations on an incredible career.”
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Paul Fein has received more than 40 writing awards and authored five tennis books, most recently Game Changers: How the Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies Transformed Tennis. The Fein Points of Tennis: Technique and Tactics to Unleash Your Talent, an instruction book, was named a Silver Winner in the Adventure, Sports, and Recreation category in the Foreword Reviews 2021 INDIES Book of the Year competition. His three previous books, which covered pro tennis, are Tennis Confidential: Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies; You Can Quote Me on That: Greatest Tennis Quips, Insights, and Zingers; and Tennis Confidential II: More of Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies.