The 31-year-old Spanish professional tennis player is known as ”The King of Clay”. This has been his title since taking it from Guillermo Coria at just 19 years old who originally took it from Thomas Muster. Players and fans regard Rafael as the greatest clay-court player in history. Becoming such an all-court threat has established him as one of the greatest tennis players we’ve seen in history.
His uncle, former professional tennis player Toni Nadal, recognised his talent and introduced him to tennis at three years old. He won an under-12 regional tennis championship at eight years old whilst impressing in football at the same time. Following this, his uncle intensified his training. He also gave Rafael a natural advantage encouraging him to play left-handed after noticing he was launching forehand shots with two hands.
On the 28th of May Rafael beat Italy’s Simone Bolelli in the first round of the French Open. Nadal was 3-0 down to Bolelli who was pushing strong in the third set but he quickly recovered. In the end, he saved three set points after being 6-3 down in the tie-break. Now he goes on to play Argentina’s Guido Pella for the second round. If Nadal wins the title again he will match Margeret Court’s all-time record for the most single titles at the same Grand Slam event.
Throughout the match against Bolelli, he appeared constantly unsettled by her hits and claimed the surface was unfamiliar and slippy in response.
“The court is slippier than usual. I slid a lot when I started off or moved to another side, it was quite complicated. You can see that there are more whiter zones than other years. Because there are little pebbles underneath, and that’s why you don’t have the proper grip on the court.”
