Rafael Nadal: The ultimate tennis warrior

Youthful exuberance fuelled a record-smashing career that captivated the sporting world for 22 years. Bouncing up and down during the pre-match coin toss, Rafael Nadal resembled a boxer primed for a title fight.

His zig-zag sprint to the baseline for the warm-up 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 defence into offence with a single spectacular shot, and his rugged torso perfectly complemented his die-hard competitiveness.

This good-looking Spanish left-hander 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.

LISTEN | Tracing Rafael Nadal’s journey to the top of the tennis world

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 his 2011 memoir, RAFA, his mother, Ana 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’s aphorism — ‘Character is destiny’.

Let’s look back at highlights of the life and times of this sporting immortal.

Brain behind the brawn

Toni Nadal coached his nephew from the age of 4 to 28 without payment. Toni is as proud of Nadal’s gracious acknowledgements after press conferences and the fact that he never broke his racket in anger as he is of his many Grand Slam titles and all-time records.

Nadal remained humble and gracious, always praising his opponents both in victory and defeat — and sometimes even consoling them, as he did with a weeping Roger Federer after their riveting 2009 Australian Open final.

Asked by Tennis Channel in 2011 when he realised he was special, Nadal’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 behaviour, 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, modelled young Rafa’s game after left-handers Jimmy Connors and Thomas Muster, and right-hander 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 demeanour 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, befuddled righties, especially Federer, and seemed almost sinister!

Uncle Toni honed Rafa’s mental strength as much as his unique 21st-century game, a brilliant amalgam of ferocious spin and high-percentage offence and defence. Toni, a middling tournament player himself, proved a harsh taskmaster. In his memoir, 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, he 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 that 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, Nadal called his mother every night while on tour, and well into his 20s, he contacted his sister, Maribel, multiple times in a day by phone or online.

The third woman in his life is Maria Francisca (Mery) Perelló, his girlfriend since 2005 whom he married in 2019. Mery gave birth to their son, also named Rafael, on October 8, 2022.

La familia: Nadal celebrates his 2019 Davis Cup triumph with his mother, wife, and sister (left-right), along with his father (top right).
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“They all share what his mother 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 recognisable 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, Nadal told Essential Sport about his mother’s crucial role during his exhilarating but injury-plagued journey 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 shares 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.”

Nadal’s wife, who seems to be the antithesis of Mirka Federer, played no role in the Spaniard’s career for several years and relished her anonymity and independence, working full-time at an insurance company.

She seldom travelled with him because, as she put it, “even if I could, [it] would not be good either for him or for me.”

She never speaks to the media, and said in the memoir, “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.”

Today, Mery, who holds a degree in business administration, serves as the Project Director of Strategy and Relations with Institutions for the Rafa Nadal Foundation.

Big Three bonanza

Whenever the legendary Big Three clashed at a Grand Slam event, we were guaranteed a stellar performance from at least one of them. And when they played at their dazzling best, particularly in a final, they produced matches for the ages. Here are the crème de la crème:

Nadal def. Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 — 2008 Wimbledon final

Inflection point: Tennis got a new king in 2008 after Nadal dashed Federer’s hopes of winning his sixth Wimbledon crown in a pulsating final.
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So dominant were No. 1 Federer and No. 2 Nadal that they had combined to win 14 of the previous 16 Major championships leading into the 2008 Wimbledon. The Mighty Fed had seized five successive Big W titles and pronounced himself “the big favourite obviously”. For Nadal, the most devastating loss of his career — falling to Federer in the 2007 Wimbledon final — would inspire his most momentous triumph. After that defeat, he reportedly sat on the shower floor for 30 minutes, crying in despair and self-recrimination.

In 2008, the two protagonists brought out the spectacular in each other with attacks and ripostes that screamed “Anything you can do, I can do better!”. 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 achieve his life’s work, sacrifice, and dream.

For 28 years, cognoscenti ranked the unforgettable Borg-McEnroe 1980 Wimbledon final as the sport’s most brilliant and riveting match. But after the Federer-Nadal extravaganza of almost superhuman tennis, which broke the record for being the longest final in Wimbledon history, John McEnroe — the very McEnroe of that famed 1980 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.”

Djokovic def. Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 — 2012 Australian Open final

For sustained brilliance and suspenseful twists, the 2012 Australian Open final ranks as an all-time classic, second only to the Nadal-Federer 2008 Wimbledon final.

Nadal led 4-2, 30-15 on his serve in the fifth set but missed an easy backhand passing shot by inches. Defending champion and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic capitalised, prevailing in a 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 had lost to the Serb for the seventh consecutive time. Djokovic called the epic “definitely the greatest match I’ve ever played.”

Longest Open-era final: At 5 hours and 53 minutes, the 2012 AO summit clash between Djokovic and Nadal pushed every possible limit of endurance. During the post-match ceremony, the two players could barely stand.
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Nadal def. Djokovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7 — 2013 French Open semifinal

The stakes could not have been higher: Nadal was aiming for a record eighth title at Roland Garros, while Djokovic sought the only Grand Slam that had eluded him. He was also bidding to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete a calendar Grand Slam. In what was considered the de facto final, Nadal clawed back from a 4-2 deficit in the deciding set to secure a thrilling victory in four hours and 37 minutes.

McEnroe summed it up for NBC when he said: “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 the match was the greatest we’ve ever witnessed on a clay court.”

A powerful argument indeed!

Evolution of a legend

I first saw this whiz kid play around 2003 on my old-fashioned 28-inch TV. His performance left me gobsmacked as Nadal sprinted so far to retrieve shots that he briefly disappeared from the screen, only to reappear and stay in the point after three, four, or even five seemingly impossible defensive gets. After winning the clay-court match, I predicted, “Nadal will win four to eight French Opens,” even though the long-haired, determined Spaniard needed to improve significantly on other surfaces. Over the years, Toni and Carlos Moya, Nadal’s longtime friend and advisor from Mallorca — who replaced Toni as head coach in 2018 — honed Nadal’s technique and tactics. Nadal added power to his groundstrokes and improved his volley and serve. No longer a one-trick pony, he reached the Wimbledon finals in 2006 and 2007, winning the coveted title in 2008.

Before the 2008 US Open, where Nadal 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 still young. He has learned how to play on grass and made three finals. He will learn this on hard courts.”

Following a similar progression, Nadal made the semifinals at Flushing Meadows in 2008 and 2009, and in 2010, he captured the only Major that had eluded him. His first serve, which averaged a modest 107 mph in 2009, shot up to an impressive 118 mph in 2010.

His volleying also improved dramatically. “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 McEnroe for CBS during Nadal’s sensational 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Djokovic in the 2010 US Open final.

Whether blasting astonishing forehand winners on the dead run from outside the alley or belting backhand passing shots, Nadal evolved into an offensive juggernaut and 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,” McEnroe raved.

When Nadal captured his second US Open title 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.”

By age 32, after taking his record 11th title at the Barcelona Open, Nadal noted, “Now I look for more angles, trying to open the court” to set up forehand winners. This tactic also applied 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 per cent of the time.

Nadal celebrates after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Barcelona Open in 2018.
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What former No. 1 Jim Courier rated as “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 RPM — significantly faster than the ATP top 50 average of 2,800 RPM. These fearsome forehands bounded higher and wider (on crosscourt forehands), forcing errors and eventually wearing out opponents.

In Nadal’s never-ending quest for perfection, court-positioning became his final frontier. A 2020 New York Times article referenced the findings of Sam Maclean, a data analyst with Hawkeye, which showed that in his 30s, Nadal’s long, gruelling rallies gave way to aggressive, first-strike tennis.

“From 2012 to 2016, Nadal hit 30 per cent 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 per cent, then to 39 per cent, then to 41 per cent, and last year to 42 per cent. Why is that so important? Because when Nadal hits that first shot from inside the baseline, he wins 74 per cent of the points. When he hits the first shot from behind the baseline, he wins just 59 per cent.”

Despite debilitating injuries, Nadal managed to win eight more Grand Slam titles from 2017 to his last dominating year in 2022, when he seemed almost superhuman at the Australian and French Open. Neither chronic foot pain nor the effects of COVID in the previous six months stopped Nadal at Melbourne where he fought back from a two-set deficit to outlast Daniil Medvedev for the title. At Roland Garros, he needed injections to numb foot pain for the entire fortnight to conquer four top-10 players, including Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, and Casper Ruud.

Circuits of perfection

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. begins 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 the microscopic substance called myelin and the critical role it plays in mastering piano, chess, or sports, but he observed its effects. In The Talent Code, Coyle asks and answers a question about the power of deep practice: ‘Why are passion and persistence key ingredients of talent?’ His answer: “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 explains: “The simplest skill — say, a tennis backhand — involves a circuit made up of hundreds of thousands of fibres 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.”

The simplest skill — say, a tennis backhand — involves a circuit made up of hundreds of thousands of fibres and synapses.
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Rafael Nadal was renowned for his gruelling, focused practice sessions, which 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 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, as quoted in The Miami Herald.

A sea of 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 number of triumphs at the same Grand Slam tournament, for men or women — will never be equalled, let alone eclipsed.

Equally astounding and seemingly unbreakable is the King of Clay’s feat of capturing four different tournaments 10 or more times: the French Open (14), the Barcelona Open (12), the Monte Carlo Masters (11), and the Italian Open (10).

Just as jaw-dropping, though less often highlighted, is Nadal’s perfect 14-0 record in French Open finals. His 112-4 match record at Roland Garros also gave him the highest winning percentage — 96.5 per cent — of any singles player in any Major.

In the ‘almost unbreakable’ category, two more records stand out. Nadal holds the longest winning streak on a single surface among male players, with 81 consecutive victories on clay. This unparalleled streak lasted from the Monte Carlo Masters in April 2005 to the Hamburg Masters in May 2007, when Federer finally ended it in the final. Nadal also owns the men’s record for the most clay-court titles, an astonishing 63, far ahead of Guillermo Vilas with 49.

Nadal holds the longest winning streak on a single surface among male players, with 81 consecutive victories on clay. 
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The Spanish superstar’s remarkable records don’t end there. In 2010, Nadal became the only player to win all three clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments — Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome — as well as the French Open in the same season, achieving a historic sweep of the four most prestigious annual clay events. Later that year, when the Mallorcan marvel seized his first US Open crown, he made history as the youngest man at 24 to complete both a career Grand Slam and a career Golden Slam.

Nadal’s patriotism is also reflected in his contributions to Spain’s Davis Cup triumphs. He helped his country win five editions — 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019 — tying McEnroe for the Open Era record. To cap his extraordinary career, Nadal also became the first player in tennis history to win multiple Majors in three different decades, securing six in the 2000s, 13 in the 2010s, and three in the 2020s.

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 almost always bounced the ball 11 times before serving, avoided stepping on the 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 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.”

Every player has routines, rituals, and perhaps even superstitions. But Nadal took it to a new level.
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“You have to find a way to be 100 per cent 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 article: “I’m not very brave about anything in life. In tennis, yes. In everything else, not very.”

Missteps and misdemeanors

Before on-court and in-match coaching was legalised in men’s tennis, Rafa and his uncle flagrantly violated the rule. When Nadal was fined 2,000 USD 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 of 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(5), 7-6(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 [a] second warning, just because it was Rafa. Before every point, he [Toni] 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 took between points. Exhausted opponents often welcomed the extra rest rather than complain.

Nadal has often been found stalling play with his pre-serve tics and bathroom breaks.
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In his 2015 French Open fourth-round victory over Jack Sock, the stalling Spaniard violated the 20-second time limit 100 per cent 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 seconds) and Gilles Simon (43 seconds) following Nadal.

Uncontrite and even defiant, Nadal tried to get umpires Carlos Bernardes and Carlos Ramos banned from officiating when they applied the time rule fairly and penalised 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 — to lament the visible loss of his bulging biceps.

Wit and wisdom

Although not a quote machine like Serena, Federer, and Djokovic, Nadal did come up with plenty of playful and perceptive quotes of his own.

After Nadal edged 48th-ranked Pablo Andújar 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(4) 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 — Federer, Djokovic and Murray — remain friendly despite the pressure of competing for big titles, Nadal said, “We have a good relationship. That’s important because in 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 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 losing 6-3, 6-3 to 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’. Nadal promptly replied, “No. I like challenges… but I am not stupid.”

Rafa has come up with plenty of playful and perceptive quotes of his own. 
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When Jim Courier asked him in an on-court interview 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 Nación, 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!”

Empathy personified

In the fiercely competitive individual sport of tennis, few champions have empathised with their rivals as genuinely and often as Nadal.

At the 2009 Australian Open, the trophy presentation for the men’s final was unforgettable. After Rafa had outlasted Federer in five fluctuating sets to thwart the Swiss star’s quest to tie Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, Federer broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. “God, it’s killing me,” he said in a trembling voice, before having to stop speaking.

With empathy and grace, Nadal placed his arm around Federer to console him. “Roger, sorry for today. I really know how you feel right now. Remember, you’re a great champion,” Nadal told him and the captivated crowd. Afterward, the compassionate Spaniard confessed to reporters, “I can’t enjoy 100 per cent the victory because I saw him cry.”

Federer later 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.”

When Alexander Zverev severely injured his ankle and screamed in agony near the end of the second set of their 2022 French Open semifinal, Nadal immediately moved across the court to comfort him. 
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Similarly, after annihilating close friend Juan Monaco 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 in the 2012 French Open fourth round, Nadal 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 thrilling 2018 US Open quarterfinal, Nadal and Austrian star Dominic Thiem slugged it out in a four-hour and 49-minute battle that ended at 2:04 a.m. with Nadal finally prevailing 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5). After the gruelling encounter, Nadal remarked, “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 Zverev severely injured his ankle and screamed in agony near the end of the second set of their 2022 French Open semifinal, Nadal immediately moved across the court to comfort him. “We are colleagues; we have been practicing together a lot of times,” Nadal said. “And to see a colleague on the tour like this, even if for me it’s a dream to be in the final of Roland Garros, of course that way is not the way that we want it to be. If you are human, you should feel very sorry for a colleague.”

Mr. Nice Guy

Sports mottos like ‘Nice guys finish last’ and ‘Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing’ never applied to Nadal. Before the sporting world knew much about him, they quickly warmed to the exuberant yet mature teenager. As the 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 youngster in unconventional attire — pirate pantaloons and colourful sleeveless shirts — and noticed his acts of kindness on and off the court.

A tennis philanthropist, he launched the Rafa Nadal Foundation in 2010. It has improved the lives of thousands of children through a wide range of programmes, such as the NETS project (Nadal Educational Tennis School) in India, the ‘More Than Tennis’ meetings (where athletes with intellectual disabilities gather from schools 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 USD to those affected. He partnered with Federer to donate 250,000 USD towards Australian bushfire relief in January 2020.

Federer played his last professional tennis match with his greatest rival and best friend at the 2022 Laver Cup.
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The two superstars’ exhibition match — held before the largest crowd in tennis history in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2020 — attracted 51,954 fans and raised 3.5 million USD for the Roger Federer Foundation.

Nadal’s affection and compassion for his longtime rival and close friend were never more evident than during Federer’s poignant retirement ceremony at the 2022 Laver Cup. As both giants of the sport wept, 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, I’m happier to finish our career like friends after everything we shared on court as rivals.” Two years later, Nadal retired during the Davis Cup in Málaga, Spain, and two legends of the fabulous Big Three are now gone.

“There is so much to respect about Nadal, but what I respect most is the respect he had for the game, and for the athletes who played it,” Carillo said. “Nadal changed the sport for good and with manifest goodness, and that is a legacy in and of itself.”

Tributes to Rafael Nadal

The tennis world paid tribute to the Spanish legend after he announced on October 10 that 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.”

End of an era: The 38-year-old bid adieu to the sport in the 2024 Davis Cup, where he played the final match of his career, losing to Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets.
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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 started 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.”