Sunday, September 8, 2013

Rafael Nadal



Full Name: Rafael Nadal Parera
Country: Spain Spain
Residence: Manacor, Balearic Islands, Spain
Born: 3 June 1986
Manacor, Balearic Islands, Spain
Height: 1.85m (6ft 1in)
Plays: Left-Handed (two-handed backhand)

Grand Slams Singles Results
AUSTRALIA OPEN - W(2009)
FRENCH OPEN - W(2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
WIMBLEDON - W(2008, 2010)
US OPEN - W(2010)


Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Balearic Islands, Spain, to Sebastián Nadal, a businessman who owns an insurance company, a glass and window company, Vidres Mallorca, and manages his own restaurant, Sa Punta. His mother is Ana María Parera, a housewife. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional footballer, who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team. Nadal supports football clubs Real Madrid and RCD Mallorca. Recognizing that Nadal had a natural talent for tennis, another uncle, Toni Nadal, a former professional tennis player, introduced him to tennis when he was three years old.

At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player. This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and at that time he encouraged Nadal to play left-handed for a natural advantage on the tennis court, as he noticed Nadal played forehand shots with two hands. When Nadal was 12, he won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group and was playing tennis and football all the time. Nadal's father made him choose between football and tennis so that his school work would not deteriorate entirely. Nadal said: "I chose tennis. Football had to stop straight away."
When he was 14, the Spanish tennis federation requested that he leave Mallorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis training. Nadal's family turned down this request, partly because they feared it would hurt his education, but also because Toni said that "I don't want to believe that you have to go to America, or other places to be a good athlete. You can do it from your home." The decision to stay home meant that Nadal received less financial support from the federation; instead, Nadal's father covered the costs. In May 2001, he defeated former Grand Slam tournament champion Pat Cash in a clay-court exhibition match.

At 15, he turned pro. Nadal participated in two events on the ITF junior circuit. In 2002, at the age of 16, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Boy's Singles tournament at Wimbledon, in his first ITF junior event.
By the age of 17, he beat Roger Federer the first time they played and became the youngest man to reach the third round at Wimbledon since Boris Becker. At 18, he helped pace Spain over the US in the junior Davis Cup in his second, and final, appearance on the ITF junior circuit. At 19, Nadal won the French Open the first time he played it, a feat not accomplished in Paris for more than 20 years. He eventually won it the first four times he played at Roland Garros. In 2003, he had won the ATP Newcomer of the Year Award. Early in his career, Nadal picked up the trademark habit of biting the trophies he won.

Nadal lived with his parents and younger sister Maria Isabel in a five-story apartment building in their hometown of Manacor, Mallorca. In June 2009, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, and then The New York Times, reported that his parents, Ana Maria and Sebastian, had separated. This news came after weeks of speculation in Internet posts and message boards over Nadal's personal issues as the cause of his setback.
Nadal has revealed himself to be agnostic. When a young boy, he would run home from school to watch Goku in his favorite Japanese anime, Dragon Ball. CNN released an article about Nadal's childhood inspiration, and called him "the Dragon Ball of tennis" due to his unorthodox style "from another planet."
In addition to tennis and football, Nadal enjoys playing golf. Nadal's autobiography, Rafa (Hyperion, 2012, ISBN 1401310923), written with assistance from John Carlin, was published in August 2011


Grand Slam Tournaments Performance Titles
Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 SR W–L Win %
Australian Open A 3R 4R A QF SF W QF QF F A 1 / 8 35–7 83.33
French Open A A W W W W 4R W W W W 8 / 9 59–1 98.33
Wimbledon 3R A 2R F F W A W F 2R 1R 2 / 9 36–7 83.72
US Open 2R 2R 3R QF 4R SF SF W F A

1 / 9 34–8 80.95
Win–Loss 3–2 3–2 13–3 17–2 20–3 24–2 15–2 25–1 23–3 14–2 7–1 12 / 35 164–23 87.70

All-time tournament records

Tournament Since Record accomplished Players matched
All 1877 8 consecutive titles at any single tournament Stands alone
Grand Slam 1877 8 men's singles titles at any single Grand Slam event Stands alone
Monte Carlo Masters 1897 8 men's singles titles Stands alone
French Open 1925 8 men's singles titles Stands alone
Rome Masters 1930 7 men's singles titles Stands alone
Barcelona Open 1953 8 men's singles titles Stands alone



*source from Wikipedia

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