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Rafael Nadal has "Character"

El Mundo
February 10, 2025

Espanol Version

Rafael Nadal, one of the heroes of the recent Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic, has become at 17 everything a person could wish for in Spanish tennis. The son of Sebasti�n and Ana Maria, the popular Raf� has played this season with all the force of his 183 cms.

This week he is ranked 41 in the world, competes in Milan, where he will make his debut against the Croatian giant, Ivo Karlovic, and barring injuries will play at the Roland Garros in May. A left-handed player from an early age and playing soccer, but skilful in the rest of his applications, Nadal excels, not only by his strokes, but by his combative character on the court, an inheritance that comes from his two uncles, the football player Miguel Angel Nadal, ex-player of Barcelona and now Real Mallorca, and Toni, his coach.

Tennis has been for Raf� a liberation of his soldier character. Ever since his uncle gave him a small racket at five years old, he showed a special ability for this sport, and a ferocity on the court that contrasts with his calm and relaxed manner off court. Once in France playing against a Japanese and when he had a complicated match, Nito Llorens his then trainer, commented to him that the Japanese killed dolphins and the Manacor� was enraged so much that he went on to win the match.

His father Sebasti�n enjoys the character of his son. "He is a very normal, ordinary person, of simple tastes, who likes to go out with his friends." His father recognizes that his passion for Real Madrid has influenced his tennis. "Rafa is white (colours worn by Real Madrid), and sometimes he has resentments with Toni", he commented playfully remembering that the family used to support Barcelona (blue and scarlet).

Sebasti�n runs several family businesses, relating to glass and double glazing of houses, and a restaurant. He has a daughter, Maria Isabel, who will be 13 in March. "Family life has not been disturbed by all the sport success, we carry on the same, although the mother suffers when she sees him fighting on the court like the other day against Stepanek".

The sport success has prevented the left-handed player from Manacor continuing his studies. He finished the advanced ESO (Secondary School Certificate?) and although he tried to make it compatible with tennis, the intensity of the circuit prevented it. In 2002, however, the family opinion prevailed and he did not go to the juniors of Roland Garros because he had to finish the course. "He understood that and knew that he had to fulfil his obligations� the father commented.

Anecdotes apart, Nadal has put together all the pieces of the puzzle that have been inside him and when in Auckland, New Zealand, he defeated the Czech Jiri Novak by 6-1 and 6-3, and reached his first ATP singles final, although he soon ended up yielding to the greater experience of the Slovak Dominik Hrbaty.

He had already pointed his objectives in 2003, opening like a professional, when he won two Challenger matches (Barletta and Segovia) and made the first two notches in his racket at the cost of two Roland Garros champions, Albert Costa and Carlos Moy�; and to add to his reputation, triumphs over the Slovak Karol Kucera and the Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, to finish the year in position 67 in the world. This year is crucial for him. There are many expectations put on his shoulders, and he has begun in the best possible way. Still with the problem to be accustomed to a new racket, he gained his second doubles title (first in Umag in the 2003), with Tommy Robredo. His match against Lleyton Hewitt in the Australian Open revealed still more than when he became the youngest player after Boris Becker, to reach the third round of Wimbledon in 2003, and later the Davis Cup in Brno, where he has confirmed that his rage on the court is innate.