Rafael Nadal

Net Worth

$200,000,000

Born in (City)

Manacor

Born in (Country)

SPAIN

Date of Birth

03rd December, 1986

Date of Death

Mother

Ana María Parera Femenías

Father

Sebastián Nadal Homar

About

Nadal born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most in history for a male player, as well as a record 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 21 ATP Tour 500 titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. In addition, Nadal has held the world No. 1 ranking for a total of 209 weeks, including being the year-end No. 1 five times. In majors, Nadal has won a record twelve French Open titles, four US Open titles, two Wimbledon titles and one Australian Open title, and won at least one Grand Slam every year for a record ten consecutive years (2005–2014). Nadal has won 85 career titles overall, including the most outdoor titles in the Open Era (83) and a record 59 titles on clay. With 81 consecutive wins on clay, Nadal holds the record for the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era. Nadal has been involved in five Davis Cup titles with Spain, and currently has a 29-win streak and 29–1 record in singles matches at the event. In 2010, at the age of 24, he became the seventh male player and the youngest of five in the Open Era to achieve the singles Career Grand Slam. Nadal is the second male player after Andre Agassi to complete the singles Career Golden Slam, as well as the second male player after Mats Wilander to have won at least two Grand Slams on all three surfaces (grass, hard court and clay). He has received the tour Sportsmanship Award three times and has been named the ATP Player of the Year five times and the ITF World Champion four times. In 2011, Nadal was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. Nadal generally plays an aggressive, behind-the-baseline game founded on heavy topspin groundstrokes, consistency, speedy footwork and tenacious court coverage, thus making him an aggressive counterpuncher. Known for his athleticism and speed around the court, Nadal is an excellent defender , who hits well on the run, constructing winning plays from seemingly defensive positions. He also plays very fine dropshots, which work especially well because his heavy topspin often forces opponents to the back of the court. Nadal employs a semi-western grip forehand, often with a "lasso-whip" follow-through, where his left arm hits through the ball and finishes above his left shoulder – as opposed to a more traditional finish across the body or around his opposite shoulder. Nadal’s forehand groundstroke form allows him to hit shots with heavy topspin – more so than many of his contemporaries. Nadal has had several coaches throughout his career. Toni Nadal coached him from 1990–2017.He is currently being coached by Francisco Roig (2005–) , and Carlos Moyá (2016–).

Early Life

Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, a town on the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, Spain, to parents Ana María Parera Femenías and Sebastián Nadal Homar. His father is a businessman, owner of an insurance company, glass and window company Vidres Mallorca, and the restaurant, Sa Punta. Rafael has a younger sister, María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional footballer, who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team. He idolized Barcelona striker Ronaldo as a child, and via his uncle got access to the Barcelona dressing room to have a photo with the Brazilian Recognizing in Rafael a natural talent, another uncle, Toni Nadal, a tennis coach, introduced him to the game when he was three years old. At age 8, Nadal won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player.[8] This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and it was at that time that his uncle encouraged Nadal to play left-handed for a natural advantage on the tennis court, after studying Nadal’s then two-handed forehand stroke. At age 12, Nadal won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group, while also playing football. Nadal’s father made him choose between football and tennis so that his school, work would not deteriorate entirely. Nadal said: "I chose tennis. Football had to stop straight away.” When he was 14, the Spanish tennis federation requested that Nadal leave Mallorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis training. His family turned down this request, partly because they feared his education would suffer , but also because Toni said that "I don’t want to believe that you have to go to America, or other places to be a good athlete. You can do it from your home. "The decision to stay home meant less financial support from the federation; instead, Nadal’s father covered the costs. In May 2001, he defeated former Grand Slam tournament champion Pat Cash in a clay-court exhibition match.

Road to Success

Nadal, who officially turned professional in 2001, had appeared in only one Grand Slam tournament as a junior competitor when he reached the semifinals at the 2002 Wimbledon championships. He began his professional career in earnest the next year, breaking into the top 50 in the world. Driving his forehand with a devastatingly potent heavy topspin and covering the court with alacrity, Nadal quickly became one of the top players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. He also developed a rivalry with world number one Roger Federer. In 2005 Nadal set a record for a teenage male player by registering 11 tournament victories, including a triumph at his French Open (Roland Garros) debut, when he upset Federer in the semifinals. The next year, Nadal secured five more titles on the ATP tour, including his second straight French Open win—this time besting Federer in the final. He also reached his first final on the grass at Wimbledon before falling to Federer. In 2007 Nadal extended his victories on clay surfaces to a record 81 consecutive matches before losing to Federer on May 20 in the final of the ATP Masters Series Hamburg (Germany). After bouncing back to win his third title at Roland Garros, Nadal lost to Federer in a grueling five-set Wimbledon final lasting 3 hours 45 minutes. The two met once again in the 2008 French Open final, where Nadal overpowered Federer to win his fourth straight tournament title, tying Björn Borg’s record for consecutive French Open wins. Nadal and Federer met in a third consecutive Wimbledon final in 2008. This time Nadal won his fifth career Grand Slam title—in a five-set match lasting 4 hours 48 minutes, then the longest men’s singles final in Wimbledon history—and thus became the first man since Borg (1980) to collect both the French Open and the Wimbledon title in the same year. In August 2008 Nadal won the men’s singles gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing, and he took over the number one world ranking from Federer in the same month. In 2009 Nadal won his first Australian Open championship after he again bested Federer in a dramatic five-set final match. He set a record for consecutive wins at the French Open the following May, which was then broken at 31 when Nadal was upset in the fourth round of the tournament. At the end of the 2009 tennis season, Nadal helped Spain sweep the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup final. His dominance of the French Open returned in 2010 when he easily won the event for the fifth time in his career, which he followed by winning his second Wimbledon title in July of that year. In September he won his first U.S open and thus completed a career Grand Slam by having won all four of the slam’s component tournaments. In 2011 Nadal captured his sixth career French Open title, besting Federer in the final. After losing the next three consecutive Grand Slam finals to Novak Djokovic, Nadal reversed course and defeated Djokovic in the 2012 French Open final to break Borg’s record for the men’s French Open singles championships. He added another French title in 2013, becoming the first man to win the same Grand Slam singles event eight times. Later that year he captured a second career U.S. Open singles championship. In 2014 he won a ninth French Open championship. After losing the Australian Open final in 2019, Nadal continued his dominance at Roland Garros that year by capturing his 12th career French Open singles championship. He later won the 2019 U.S. Open singles title, which was his 19th career Grand Slam championship, the second most in tennis history behind Federer’s 20 titles.

Challenges

Despite praise for Nadal’s talent and skill, in the past, some had questioned his longevity in the sport, citing his build and playing style as conducive to injury. Nadal himself has admitted to the physical toll hard courts place on ATP Tour players, calling for a revaluated tour schedule featuring fewer hard court tournaments. This "longevity" narrative has proved to be inaccurate and pundits today admire his resilience. Nadal’s serve was initially considered a weak point in his game, although his improvements in both first-serve points won and break points saved since 2005 have allowed him to consistently compete for and win major titles on faster surfaces. Nadal relies on the consistency of his serve to gain a strategic advantage in points, rather than going for service winners. However, before the 2010 US Open, he altered his service motion, arriving in the trophy pose earlier and pulling the racket lower during the trophy pose. Before the 2010 U.S. Open, Nadal modified his service grip to a more continental one. These two changes in his serve increased his average speed by around 10 mph during the 2010 US Open, maxing out at 135 mph (217 km), allowing him to win more free points on his serve. Since the 2010 US Open, Nadal’s serve speed dropped to previous levels and was again been cited as a need for improvement. From 2019 onwards, several analysts praised Nadal’s improvement on the serve, and noticed the speed of his serve had notably increased.

Failures

Nadal was plagued by injuries throughout the remainder of the 2014 season, and he struggled to recover his form in 2015. During that year he failed to win a Grand Slam title, ending his record streak of having captured at least one major tournament in 10 straight years. His best performance at a Grand Slam in 2016 was just a fourth-round elimination at the U.S. Open. Three months later he won his third U.S. Open singles title. At the 2018 Australian Open, Nadal was forced to withdraw in the quarterfinals because of an injury. 2014: he got injuries 2015: Continued struggles and rankings drop

Achievements

Nadal became the youngest player (at 18 years 6 months) in the history of the international team competition to win a singles match for a victorious country by winning Davis Cup|2005: First Grand Slam title|2006: Second French Open title|2007: Third French Open title|2008: Two majors, Olympic gold, second Davis Cup, No. 1 ranking|2009: Australian Open and Davis Cup titles|2010: Grand Slam titles on three surfaces and Career Golden Slam|2011: Sixth French Open title and Davis Cup crown|2012: Seventh French Open title|2013: Two major titles, back to No. 1|2014: Ninth French Open title|2016: Second Olympic gold medal 2017: Two major titles and year-end No. 1, 2018: 11th French Open title ,2019: Two major titles, year-end No. 1 and Davis Cup crown ,2020: ATP Cup final

Quotes

I learned during my career to enjoy suffering
To be a friend means that they are always there, for the good or the bad
You fight, you try your best, but if you lose, you don't have to break five racquets and smash up the locker room.