Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal (born June 3, 1986, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain) is a Spanish tennis player who emerged in the early 21st century as one of the game’s leading competitors, especially noted for his performance on clay. He won a record 14 career French Open championships and was the first player to win 22 Grand Slam men’s singles titles.

Early life

Nadal grew up in a sports-minded family; his uncle Miguel Angel Nadal was a professional association football (soccer) player who competed in the 2002 World Cup. Rafael began playing tennis at age four, guided by another uncle, Toni Nadal, who remained his coach on the professional tour. In his early years, Nadal (who wrote with his right hand) played left-handed tennis with both a two-handed forehand and backhand. When he was 12, however, his uncle encouraged him to adopt a more conventional left-handed style. Nadal stuck with his two-handed backhand but switched to what became his signature one-handed forehand, the stroke that was credited with lifting him into the sport’s upper echelons.

Professional career: 2001 to 2008

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. In 2004 he played a crucial role in Spain’s defeat of the United States in the Davis Cup final. Toppling Andy Roddick—then number two in the world—in a four-set opening-day singles clash, 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.

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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.

2009 to 2018: making history at the French Open

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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.

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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, but Nadal gained a measure of redemption by capturing his second career Olympic gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games. He advanced to his first Grand Slam final in three years at the 2017 Australian Open, where he lost a thrilling five-set match to Federer. Nadal ended his Grand Slam title drought when he won a 10th career French Open championship in June 2017. 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, but he recovered in time to claim another French Open championship, which was his 17th Grand Slam title.

Later career: 22 Grand Slam titles and injuries

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 for men behind Federer’s 20 titles. The following year he tied Federer when he won his 13th French Open title. (Their record was equaled in July 2021 by Djokovic.) After losing in the semifinals of the French Open in 2021, Nadal missed most of the year’s remaining tournaments, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, because of a foot injury. He entered the 2022 Australian Open with low expectations, but he stunned many observers by overcoming a two-set deficit to defeat Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the final and claim his 21st Grand Slam title. Some four months later Nadal won his 14th career French Open championship.

Nadal’s strong play continued at Wimbledon, but an abdominal injury forced him to withdraw before his semifinal match. He was able to compete at the 2022 U.S. Open, but he lost in the fourth round. More disappointment followed at the 2023 Australian Open, where he was defeated in the second round after suffering a hip injury. In addition, Djokovic won the tournament to tie Nadal for most Grand Slam titles. Nadal subsequently missed that season’s French Open, which was won by Djokovic, who gained sole possession of the title.

Nadal returned to competitive play in 2024, but he continued to struggle. At that year’s French Open he lost in the first round. Afterward he said, “If it’s the last time that I played here, I am at peace with myself.” He then skipped Wimbledon in order to focus on the Paris Olympics. There he faced Djokovic in the first round and was defeated in straight sets. In November Nadal retired from professional tennis after competing in the Davis Cup. Following his last match Nadal reflected on his career with gratitude:

The titles and numbers are there so people probably know that, but the way I would like to be remembered is being a good person from a small village in Mallorca where I had the luck to have my uncle as a tennis coach. I had a great family who supported me in every moment. I was a kid who followed their dreams, worked as hard as possible to be where I am today. At the end of the day, a lot of people try their best every single day, but I’m very lucky to have the life I have to live because of tennis.