Rafael Nadal biography and statistics

Posted by bumeral

June 7, 2008

Rafael Nadal biography :

* Born and resides in Manacor, Mallorca in Spain
* Plays left-handed, but is right-handed
* Spanish tennis player
* Began playing tennis at age five with his uncle Toni, who is his coach
* Considers clay his favorite surface
* His uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, is a professional soccer player with stints at FC Barcelona, Real Mallorca and Spanish national team, which competed in 2002 World Cup
* Is no. 2 in the ATP Indesit Race (as of May 2005)
* One of only 7 people that have beaten Roger Federer
* Currently (May 2005) ranked 7th in the world

Rafa detail biography :

Although Nadal plays left-handed, he is naturally right-handed. When he was younger, his coach, Toni Nadal aka Uncle Toni, decided that his two-handed backhand would benefit from a strong right arm, so he taught Rafael to play with his left.[4]

It was not until Nadal was 12 that he decided to pursue a career in tennis instead of football. In May 2001, when Nadal was 14 years old, tennis great Pat Cash played a clay-court exhibition match against him. Cash, who was originally scheduled to play Boris Becker, was reluctant to play against Nadal, taking offense to this last minute change of opponent. Cash lost the match by a close margin.

2002 - 2004

In 2002, the 15-year-old Nadal won his first ATP match, defeating Ramon Delgado in Mallorca 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.

In 2004, Nadal was forced to miss most of the clay-court season, including the French Open, due to a stress fracture in his left ankle, only to find out that he would win the very next year..

Known best for his stunning triumph in the French Open in 2005, (and again in 2006 and 2007) Rafael Nadal was born in Majorca, Spain on June 3, 1986, and has been playing tennis since the age of five with his Uncle Toni, who has since coached him into the world tennis arena.

In 2005, the 19-year-old rookie sensation with the massive arm strength became the youngest player in tennis history to reach the Top Ten since Andrei Medvedev in 1993.

With 31-2 on clay the season before - and 41-6 for the year - Nadal was already red hot to take the men’s 2005 French Open title - and made headlines for his scheduled performance against veteran Roger Federer, following his earlier loss to the Swiss champ at the Nasdaq-100 Open.

In a stunning victory, Nadal finally triumphed over Federer in the French Open semi-final at Roland Garros, and ultimately went up against Argentine strong man, 26-year-old Mariano Puerta in the final.

The teenager battled for the men’s final in a grueling 3 hour-plus match and won 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5. The first left-handed champion since Thomas Muster in 1995, Nadal is the tournament’s fourth youngest champion.

In July 2005, Nadal went on to clinch his 32nd consecutive clay court win during the Mercedes Cup to break a record set by a handful of world champions, including Bjorn Borg who only held 31 consecutive wins.

In May 2006, Nadal beat Roger Federer for the Rome Masters title in a five-set match and tied Guillermo Vilas’ record 53-match winning streak on clay.

Nadal went on to break Vilas’ record at the Roland Garros, where he once again defeated Roger Federer for the men’s title, only later to be defeated by the Swiss champ at the 2006 Wimbledon championship.

In 2007, a leg injury led to an upset loss to Chilean player Fernando Goazalez who ended Nadal’s hopes for another rematch with Federer at the Australian Open, although he did return to roundly defeat Federer on the clay courts at the Monte Carlo Masters in April.

A dramatic showdown with Federer loomed at Roland Garros in June after the Swiss champ scored a rare clay court victory over Nadal a month earlier in Hamburg. However, true to form, Nadal reclaimed his dominance by once again winning the 2007 French Open title over Federer 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-4.

Learn about Rafa :

Rafael Nadal is not afraid of big names in tennis. He entered the ATP arena at the very young age and could be easily intimidated by all the titles and successes of his opponents. But Nadal just sticks to his »never say die« attitude and fights to the end.

He plays the ball not the opponent.

Another fantastic achievement of young Rafa is that he holds an incredible record against an incredible player – Roger Federer. Nadal has won 6 of 7 matches they played including the finals on hard court this year in Dubai.

Not only that – Nadal won 4 of those matches in the finals of the tournament where Federer has a fantastic record of 37 wins and only 13 losses.

Rafael Nadal has won his second Roland Garros title one week ago (at the time of writing this article). He also holds the record of 60 consecutive wins on clay in the Open era.

Who is this remarkable young man and what can we learn from him?

His biography reveals to us that his career started as a typical successful tennis pro. He started to play at a very young age of four and tennis was already big in his family. His uncle Tony was his first and long time coach.

Another important fact is that Rafael Nadal’s other uncle Miguel Angel Nadal is a former professional soccer player which probably influenced young Rafael’s view on sports and competing - namely playing a sport professionally.

Rafael Playing style :
Nadal’s playing style used to be best tailored for clay courts. Playing with a strong two-handed backhand, well-angled heavily topspun strokes, fast mobility on the court, excellent defense, good feel and touch at net, and a preference to play from the deep court, he has developed into one of the, if not the best clay court players in the history of the game. He uses a full western grip forehand, which allows him to hit heavy, powerful topspin forehands giving him a bigger margin of error because of the height in which he clears the net and the speed of which the ball drops because of the topspin that is applied to the ball. He is naturally right-handed, but he plays left-handed, and uses his dominant hand as an anchor for his two-handed backhand which he can flatten out or hit topspin like his forehand. Known for his excellent defense, Nadal hits on the run well and creates many winners from seemingly defensive positions. Rafael Nadal is extremely athletic, and tends to go after every shot, even apparent winners from his opponents.

I really enjoy watching Nadal play with his heavy topspin, grunts, power, movement, running down every ball and pretty much his full speed type of playing. Now I’m no Nadal but I use a full western grip (No haters:) ) and pretty much try to hit like him and go to extremes for every ball (though i will never be able to hit or move like him.. just makes it more fun for me .. ) . I think why I do that also is because I have low attention span and for me to be alert more is to play with such intensity or i start daydreaming or something during a match. But Nadal is what like 20 years old now, do you think he will be playing like this 10 years from now (if injuries don’t get a hold of him). Seeing him in action is quite amazing, but seems like it’s taking a lot of toll on his body? Or since his playing style is pretty extreme, will it be short lived?

So pretty much if Nadal was to retire from atp tour and join the outback championship tour (35 and over??) how do you think he will do? I guess not very good question since others in the outback tour will be losing much there power, speed, agility etc also… he’ll still be able to counterpunch like crazy.

While Nadal’s serve is not considered one of his strengths because of the lack of pace and variety compared to other players, it has become more of a weapon over the years. Employing usually a hard lefty slice towards most of his opponents’ backhands, his serve can be relied upon for consistency and also for some short-point such as aces and bad service-returns.With excellent accuracy, power, and consistency, his topspin groundstrokes are his main assets.

Overall, Nadal is an aggressive counterpuncher, forcing his opponents to make errors with his powerful topspin, his speed, and his athleticism and attacking short balls.

Statistic :

Tournament	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	Career SR	Career W-L
Grand Slams
Australian Open	A	A	3R	4R	A	QF	SF	0 / 4	14-4
French Open	A	A	A	W	W	W		3 / 3	21-0
Wimbledon	A	3R	A	2R	F	F		0 / 4	15-4
U.S. Open	A	2R	2R	3R	QF	4R		0 / 5	11-5
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 2	1 / 4	1 / 3	1 / 4		3 / 14	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	3-2	3-2	13-3	17-2	20-3		N/A	56-12
Year-End Championship
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A	A	A	SF	SF		0 / 2	4–4
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	3R	A	SF	W	SF	1 / 4	16-3
Miami Masters	A	A	4R	F	2R	QF	F	0 / 5	14–5
Monte Carlo Masters	A	3R	A	W	W	W	W	4 / 5	24-1
Rome Masters	A	A	A	W	W	W	2R	3 / 4	17-1
Hamburg Masters	A	3R	A	A	A	F	W	1 / 3	11–2
Canada Masters	A	A	1R	W	3R	SF		1 / 4	11-3
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	1R	1R	QF	2R		0 / 4	3–4
Madrid Masters	A	1R	2R	W	QF	QF		1 / 5	10-4
Paris Masters	A	LQ	A	A	A	F		0 / 1	4–1
ATP Tournaments Played	1	11	18	21	16	18	10	N/A	95
ATP Finals Reached	0	0	2	12	6	9	5	N/A	34
ATP Tournaments Won	0	0	1	11	5	6	3	N/A	26
Hard Win-Loss	0–0	1–2	14-10	28-6	23-8	31-12	21-6	N/A	118-44
Clay Win-Loss	1–1	11-6	14-3	50-2	26-0	31-1	15-1	N/A	148-14
Grass Win-Loss	0–0	2–1	0–0	1–2	8–2	8–2		N/A	19-7
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	70-15	36-7	N/A	289-73
Year End Ranking	200	49	51	2	2	2		N/A	N/A