Rafeal Nadal
Date of birth: 3/8/86
Born: Manacor, Mallorca, Spain
Height: 6’1” (185cm)
Weight: 188lbs (85kgs)
Nickname: ‘Rafa’
Turned Pro: 2001
Started playing tennis at the age of 5 with
his uncle Toni, who is his coach (Jofre Porta, Moya’s coach
also helps). His other uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, was a professional
football star with Real Mallorca, Barcelona and the Spanish national
team; sport is definitely in his blood.
As a child his tennis hero was Carlos Moya, who is also from Mallorca.
The two practice together when they are both at home on the island.
Rafeal Nadal won his first ATP Tour match at Mallorca (15 years 10 months) defeating Ramon Delgado. He was the ninth player to win an ATP match before his sixteenth birthday.
2005, An Awesome Year!
What a great year for Nadal. He started the
year ranked No. 51 ATP and by May had reached the Top 5.
Nadal reached the 4th round of the Australian Open (L. to Hewitt).
Won back to back clay court titles in Costa do Saupie and Acapulco.
He then opened the worlds eyes when he almost defeated Federer in
the final of the Nasdeq-100 Open. Full of youthful confidence he
won his first ATP Masters Series title in Mote Carlo with wins over
Gaudio, Gasquet and Coria. The following week he defeated Ferrero
in the final of Barcelona, these wins took him into the top 5of
the Indesit ATP Rankings. Not content with this he showed amazing
stamina to win the Rome Masters title against Coria and then moved
on to Roland Garros as one of the favourites to win the title.
This was his debut at the French Grand Slam
and he became the first debutant since Wilander (1982) to win the
title. On his way to the title he defeated a number of seeded players
including Gasquet, Grosjean, Ferrer and Federer, before beating
Puerta in the final.
The Roland Garros final match was his 24th consecutive win, setting
an ATP record for a teenage winning streak, surpassing Agassi’s
1988 win streak of 23.
2005 was a great year for Nadal, with his desire to improve (he still plays doubles, perhaps this will help his returns and volleys for Wimbledon) perhaps 2006 could be the year he becomes the best player on the planet!!!
His ground strokes are extremely heavy, however, if you check out the tennis video clips of Nadal you can see that he drives through the ball as well as imparting immense topspin.
