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Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera (IPA: [rafa'el
na'đal]) (born June 3, 1986, in Manacor, Mallorca) is a Spanish tennis
player. As of January 2007, he is the World No. 2. Nadal's clay-court
winning streak stands at 62 matches, the longest among male players in
the open era. He has won two consecutive French Open singles titles.
****
Nickname Rafa
Country Spain
Residence Manacor, Mallorca
Date of birth June 3, 1986
Place of birth Manacor, Mallorca
Height 185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 85 kg (188 lb)
Turned Pro 2001
Retired Still Playing
Plays Left; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money $8,336,939
Singles
Career record: 181-49
Career titles: 17
Highest ranking: No. 2 (July 25, 2005)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 4th (2005)
French Open W (2005, 2006)
Wimbledon F (2006)
U.S. Open QF (2006)
Doubles
Career record: 48-30
Career titles: 3
Highest ranking: No. 26 (August 8, 2005)
****
Career
In 2002, the 15-year-old Nadal won his
first ATP match, defeating Ramon Delgado in Majorca to become the ninth
player in the open era to win an ATP match before his 16th birthday.
In 2003, Nadal became the second-youngest
player to be ranked among the world's top 100 singles players. He
finished the year in the top 50, winning two Challenger titles. At his
Wimbledon debut, Nadal, then 17, became the youngest male player to
reach the third round since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984.
2005 was Nadal's breakthrough year. At the
Australian Open, he reached the fourth round and pushed the eventual
runner-up, Lleyton Hewitt, to five sets. Two months later, he reached
the final of the Miami Masters tournament — indeed, was three points
away from victory in straight sets — but was defeated in five sets by
the world's #1 player, Roger Federer. Shifting to the clay court season,
Nadal won two ATP Masters Series events in Monte Carlo and Rome. At one
point in the year, Nadal won 24 consecutive matches, the longest winning
streak of any teenager in the open era, topping Andre Agassi's run of 23
matches in 1988. By May 2005, Nadal had reached the top 5 in the world
rankings, becoming the youngest player to break into the top 10 since
Andrei Medvedev in 1993.
Nadal entered his first French Open among
the favorites. He beat two of France's local hopes, Sebastien Grosjean
and Richard Gasquet, to reach the semifinals. On his 19th birthday, he
defeated Federer, preventing the Swiss from achieving a career Grand
Slam. Two days later, he became the fourth-youngest French Open champion
in the open era, defeating Argentina's Mariano Puerta in the final. He
became the seventh player to win a Grand Slam in his first appearance at
the event and the first since Agassi at the 1995 Australian Open. He
also became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since
Pete Sampras won the 1990 U.S. Open at age 19. Nadal is the first
teenager to win at least six titles in a year since Agassi in 1988 at
the age of 18.
Three days after his victory in Paris, his
winning streak was snapped on the grass courts of Halle, Germany, where
he was beaten by German Alexander Waske in the first round. He suffered
another disappointment at Wimbledon, where he was eliminated in the
second round by Gilles Müller of Luxembourg.
Nadal started his 2005 hardcourt season by
defeating Agassi in the final of the Canada Masters. Nadal was seeded
second at the U.S. Open but was eliminated in the third round by
American James Blake in four sets. Despite the loss, his second seeding
and third round performance were both career highs. After the U.S. Open,
Nadal won two more hard court tournaments. In September, he defeated
Guillermo Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing, and in
October, he won his fourth Masters Series event, defeating Ivan Ljubičić
in five sets in the final of the Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot
injury that kept him out of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005 and the start
of 2006, causing him to miss the Australian Open. Overall, Nadal matched
world No. 1 Roger Federer's standard in ATP titles won in a single
season, eleven, and Masters Series events won, four. He won 79 matches
in 2005, second only to Federer's 81.
2006
The fierce rivalry between Nadal and Roger
Federer has continued long into 2006. In March 2006, Nadal handed
Federer his first loss of the year at the final in Dubai, winning 2-6,
6-4, 6-4. Nadal defeated Federer again at the Monte Carlo Masters by a
score of 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6.
The two squared off again in the Rome
Masters final. There, it seemed as though Federer might finally defeat
his nemesis, thereby ending Nadal's streak of consecutive clay court
matches. However, Nadal fought off two match points and won 6-7, 7-6,
6-4, 2-6, 7-6.
Nadal broke Argentinian Guillermo Vilas's
29-year record of 53 consecutive clay court match victories after
defeating Robin Soderling in the first round of the 2006 French Open.
Following the victory, Nadal was presented with a trophy containing the
cross section of the construction of a clay court. Vilas was on hand for
the ceremony, although Vilas has refused to acknowledge Nadal's feat as
more impressive than his own.
The French Open final was hotly
anticipated, pitting No. 1 Federer against No. 2 Nadal. For Federer, the
French Open was the missing link in a career Grand Slam and in holding
all four majors simultaneously. For Nadal, the task of defending his
French Open title, as well as maintaining a dominant winning record
against Federer, was enormous, something that no other player has
accomplished thus far. Though Nadal was the favorite based on his clay
court ability, Federer was the overwhelming favorite with the raucous
French crowd. Everyone expected a highly competitive match, much like
the ones they had played in the last three Masters Series tournaments.
Yet, the first two sets were hardly competitive, as the rivals traded
6-1 sets. Nadal steamrolled over Federer through sets 3 and 4, when
Federer finally broke Nadal's serve deep in the fourth set as he was
serving for the match and forced a tiebreak, which Nadal won.
With an undefeated 2006 clay court season,
Nadal firmly stamped himself as the dominant clay court player in the
world and as the only player able to beat Federer consistently. Nadal
withdrew due to a shoulder injury against Lleyton Hewitt in the
quarterfinals of Queens Club, a Wimbledon tune-up tournament. Seeded No.
2 going into Wimbledon, Nadal reached the finals, securing a match
against Federer by beating Marcos Baghdatis in the semifinals. During
his run, Nadal was two points from defeat against American qualifier
Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five
sets. Nadal also defeated Andre Agassi in the third round, in Agassi's
final match at Wimbledon. All seven of the previous Nadal/Federer
encounters had been played on either clay or hard courts; however,
Wimbledon is played on grass, which is Federer's preferred surface,
having won the title for three consecutive years. Though Nadal played
well in the final after a sluggish start, he fell in four sets, 6-0,
7-6, 6-7, 6-3, cementing Federer's position at the top of the world
rankings. Despite the loss, Nadal well exceeded most expectations just
by reaching the finals, winning more matches at the tournament than he
had ever won on grass before (he had been just 3-3 on grass before the
tournament).
At the 2006 U.S. Open, Nadal achieved his
best result at the tournament so far by reaching the quarterfinals,
where he lost to Russian Mikhail Youzhny in four sets.
Nadal failed, however, to reach the third
round of his next tournament, the Stockholm Open, where he lost to
Joachim Johansson 6-4, 7-6. Nadal also lost in the quarterfinals of the
Madrid Masters, where he was defeated by Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-6 for the
third time. After the tournament, Nadal blamed mental and physical
exhaustion for his recent losses.
During the round robin stage of the Tennis
Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko
and Tommy Robredo. Nadal reached the semifinals as the second place
finisher in his group, where he lost to Federer in straight sets. This
was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer.
Trivia
"Nadal" is a Catalan word and means
"Christmas".
Nadal uses a Babolat racket known as Aero
Pro Drive and his string of choice is known as Babolat Pro Hurricane
Tour.
Although it is not known why, Rafael Nadal
has met considerable hostility from fans during his matches at the
French Open. He is often booed throughout and even after the match,
especially when playing against and beating French players such as
Mathieu or Gasquet. Commentators on French TV, such as Guy Forget on
France 2, openly say they want him to lose during matches, claiming that
"we don't need construction worker arms in tennis," referring to his
sleeveless shirts. After the 2006 French Open final against Federer,
Nadal started by praising Federer in his speech. The translator
mistranslated the speech, leading the public to think he was praising
himself. Nadal was thus booed and whistled at throughout the speech.
It is common for Nadal to spend as much as
38 seconds, 18 over the limit, between points on his service game. The
rules of tennis state that a maximum of 20 seconds is allowed between
the time at which the last point is finished to the time at which the
next serve is delivered. Nadal has picked up numerous time violations
for this breach of the rules and has received a number of warnings from
tennis authorities.
Nadal's record-setting 62-match clay court
win streak has been belittled by the man whose record he
broke--Guillermo Vilas. Vilas reasons that Nadal's streak is not as
impressive as his because "things were much more difficult in my day"
and because Vilas's 53-match win streak all occurred within the same
calendar year--not over two seasons as is the case with Nadal. Also,
Vilas has decried the publicity given to Nadal's streak, saying that
"they didn't give me a trophy in 1973."
Nadal is the nephew of former Spanish
footballer Miguel Ángel Nadal, one of Spain's most capped players.
Miguel's brother Toni is the coach of Rafael.
In preparation for an event, tennis great
Pat Cash played a clay-court match against the then fourteen year-old
Nadal. Cash was reluctant to play against Nadal and took this arranged
match as an offence. In the end, he was surprised to find himself losing
by a close margin.
In 2006, Nadal and Roger Federer became the
only two male players in the open era to reach the Wimbledon final after
having both played in the French Open final just a month prior. There
have been several men to reach the Wimbledon final after making the
French Open final, but never had the same two men accomplished such a
feat at the same time.
Nadal's nickname is "The King of Clay."
Nadal has "Vamos Rafa" ("Let's go Rafa")
written on his shoes, a common exhortation by his fans.
Although Nadal plays left-handed, he is
naturally right-handed. When he was younger, his uncle and coach, Toni
Nadal, decided that his two-handed backhand would benefit from a strong
right arm, so he taught Rafael to play with his left.
He can curl 30 kg with his left hand and 25
kg with his right.
The asteroid 128036 Rafaelnadal is named in
his honour.
Streaks and Records
Nadal currently has a 62 match clay court
winning streak— an open era record for a male player.
Nadal is one of only two people to win the
French Open on the first attempt, the first being Mats Wilander in 1982.
By successfully defending his title in 2006, he is a perfect 14-0 in the
tournament.
At 19 years 1 month and 22 days, Nadal
became the third teenager in history (since 1973) to reach World No. 2,
joining Boris Becker (18 years, 9 months and 17 days) and Björn Borg (18
years, 10 months and 2 days) as the only teenagers to be ranked No. 2.
Nadal has held two winning streaks of at
least 20 consecutive matches. The first was a 24-match winning streak in
mid 2005. The second was a streak of 26 matches dating from his loss to
Carlos Moya in March 2006 to his retirement due to injury in the
quarterfinals of the Queen's Club tournament against Lleyton Hewitt in
2006.
Nadal is one of the very few players who
have a positive head-to-head record against World No. 1 Roger Federer.
He currently enjoys a 6-3 advantage (4-0 on clay, 2-2 on hard courts,
and 0-1 on grass).
Grand Slam singles finals
Wins (2)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score
in Final
2005 French Open Mariano Puerta 6-7, 6-3,
6-1, 7-5
2006 French Open (2) Roger Federer 1-6,
6-1, 6-4, 7-6
Runner-ups (1)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score
in Final
2006 Wimbledon Roger Federer 6-0, 7-6(5),
6-7(2), 6-3
ATP Masters Series singles finals
Wins (6)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score
in Final
2005 Monte Carlo Guillermo Coria 6-3, 6-1,
0-6, 7-5
2005 Rome Guillermo Coria 6-4, 3-6, 6-3,
4-6, 7-6
2005 Montreal Andre Agassi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
2005 Madrid Ivan Ljubičić 3-6, 2-6, 6-3,
6-4, 7-6
2006 Monte Carlo (2) Roger Federer 6-2,
6-7, 6-3, 7-6
2006 Rome (2) Roger Federer 6-7, 7-6, 6-4,
2-6, 7-6
Runner-ups (1)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score
in Final
2005 Miami Roger Federer 2-6, 6-7(4),
7-6(5), 6-3, 6-1
Other ATP finals (20)
Singles wins (17)
Legend
Grand Slam (2)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (6)
ATP Tour (9)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the
final Score
1. 9 August 2004 Sopot, Poland Clay José
Acasuso 6-3, 6-4
2. 14 February 2005 Costa do Sauípe, Brazil
Clay Alberto Martín 6-0, 6-7, 6-1
3. 21 February 2005 Acapulco, Mexico Clay
Álbert Montańés 6-1, 6-0
4. 17 April 2005 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay
Guillermo Coria 6-3, 6-1, 0-6, 7-5
5. 24 April 2005 Barcelona, Spain Clay
Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 7-6, 6-3
6. 2 May 2005 Rome, Italy Clay Guillermo
Coria 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6
7. 5 June 2005 French Open, Paris, France
Clay Mariano Puerta 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
8. 4 July 2005 Bĺstad, Sweden Clay Tomáš
Berdych 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
9. 18 July 2005 Stuttgart, Germany Clay
Gastón Gaudio 6-3, 6-3, 6-4
10. 14 August 2005 Montréal, Canada Hard
Andre Agassi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
11. 18 September 2005 Beijing, China Hard
Guillermo Coria 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
12. 23 October 2005 Madrid, Spain Hard (I)
Ivan Ljubičić 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6
13. 4 March 2006 Dubai, UAE Hard Roger
Federer 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
14. 23 April 2006 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay
Roger Federer 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6
15. 30 April 2006 Barcelona, Spain Clay
Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-4, 6-0
16. 14 May 2006 Rome, Italy Clay Roger
Federer 6-7(0), 7-6(5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5)
17. 11 June 2006 French Open, Paris, France
Clay Roger Federer 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4)
Nadal also won 6 entry-level Spanish
Futures events in 2002 and 2 Challenger tournaments in 2003 before he
fully joined the professional ATP tour.
Singles runner-ups (3)
2004: Auckland (lost to Dominik Hrbaty)
2005: Miami AMS (lost to Roger Federer)
2006: Wimbledon (lost to Roger Federer)
Doubles wins (3)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partnering
Opponents in the final Score
1. August 21, 2003 Croatia Open Umag, Umag,
Croatia Clay Álex López Morón Todd Perry
Thomas Shimada 6-1, 6-3
2. January 5, 2004 Chennai Open, Chennai,
India Hard Tommy Robredo Jonathan Erlich
Andy Ram 7-6, 4-6, 6-3
3. January 3, 2005 Qatar ExxonMobil Open,
Doha, Qatar Hard Albert Costa Andrei Pavel
Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
Singles performance timeline
To prevent confusion and double counting,
information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the
player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is
current through the Tennis Masters Cup, which ended on November 19,
2006.
Tournament 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Career SR Career Win-Loss
Australian Open A A 3R 4R A 0 / 2 5-2
French Open A A A W W 2 / 2 14-0
Wimbledon A 3R A 2R F 0 / 3 9-3
U.S. Open A 2R 2R 3R QF 0 / 4 8-4
Grand Slam SR 0 / 0 0 / 2 0 / 2 1 / 4 1 / 3
0 / 0 2 / 11 N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss 0-0 3-2 3-2 13-3 17-2
0-0 N/A 36-9
Indian Wells Masters A A 3R A SF 0 / 2 6-2
Miami Masters A A 4R F 2R 0 / 3 7-3
Monte Carlo Masters A 3R A W W 2 / 3 14-1
Rome Masters A A A W W 2 / 2 12-0
Hamburg Masters A 3R A A A 0 / 1 2-1
Canada Masters A A 1R W 3R 1 / 3 8-2
Cincinnati Masters A A 1R 1R QF 0 / 3 3-3
Madrid Masters A 1R 2R W QF 1 / 4 8-3
Paris Masters A A A A A 0 / 0 0-0
Tennis Masters Cup A A A A SF 0 / 1 2-2
ATP Tournaments Played 1 11 18 21 16 0 N/A
67
ATP Finals Reached 0 0 2 12 6 0 N/A 20
ATP Tournaments Won 0 0 1 11 5 0 N/A 17
Hard Win-Loss 0-0 1-2 14-10 28-6 23-8 0-0
N/A 66-26
Clay Win-Loss 1-1 11-6 14-3 50-2 26-0 0-0
N/A 102-12
Grass Win-Loss 0-0 2-1 0-0 1-2 8-2 0-0 N/A
11-5
Carpet Win-Loss 0-0 0-2 2-4 0-0 2-2 0-0 N/A
4-8
Overall Win-Loss 1-1 14-11 30-17 79-10
59-12 0-0 N/A 183-51
Year End Ranking 200 49 51 2 2 N/A N/A
A = did not participate in the tournament
SR = the ratio of the number of singles
tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played
Davis Cup and World Team Cup matches are
included in the statistics.
Ranking
Highest Rankings:
INDESIT ATP Race: 2 (June 6-12, 2005)
Entry System: 2 (as of July 25, 2005)
ATP Tour career earnings
Year Majors ATP wins Total wins Earnings
($) Money list rank
2002 0 0 0 23,975 345
2003 0 0 0 243,238 87
2004 0 1 1 447,758 50
2005 1 10 11 3,874,751 2
2006* 1 4 5 3,746,360 2
2007
Career 2 15 17 8,336,939 35
* As of December 31, 2006.
Davis Cup
Nadal was on Spain's victorious 2004 Davis
Cup team.
First round versus the Czech Republic
Singles: Nadal lost to Jiří Novák 7-6, 6-3,
7-6.
Doubles: Nadal and Tommy Robredo lost to
Jiří Novák and Radek Štěpánek 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-3.
Singles: Nadal defeated Radek Štěpánek 7-6,
7-6, 6-3.
Quarterfinal versus the Netherlands
Doubles: Nadal and Robredo lost to John van
Lottum and Martin Verkerk 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Semifinal versus France
Singles: Nadal defeated Arnaud Clement 6-4,
6-1, 6-2.
Doubles: Nadal and Robredo defeated Arnaud
Clement and Michael Llodra 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Final versus the United States
Singles: Nadal defeated Andy Roddick 6-7,
6-2, 7-6, 6-2.
****
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