Rafael Nadal Parera (born June 3, 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since August 18, 2008. He has won five Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. He has captured the last four French Open singles titles, joining Björn Borg in 2008 as the only men to have won four consecutive singles titles there. In 2008, Nadal became the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. Nadal is the only player in the open era to have won the French Open, the London Queen's club, and Wimbledon in the same year. For much of his career, Nadal has had a rivalry with Roger Federer, which many critics consider to be the greatest rivalry in tennis history.They are the only men in the open era who have played each other in six Grand Slam finals,with Nadal winning four of those matches. Nadal was ranked World No. 2 behind Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot.Nadal has won 12 of their 18 singles matches. He has been especially successful on clay courts. He has a 22–1 record in clay court tournament finals and is undefeated in 43 best-of-five-set matches on clay.[8] In each of the last four years, he has won both the French Open and two clay court Masters Series tournaments. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007.As a result, some tennis critics and top players already regard him as the greatest clay-court player of all time. On October 18, 2008, Nadal clinched the year-end World No. 1 ranking for 2008.The same year, he was given the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for his achievements in sports.
Career
2002–2004 In April 2002, at 15 years and 10 months, the World No. 762 Nadal won his first ATP match, defeating Ramón Delgado, and became the ninth player in the open era to do so before the age of 16.The following year, Nadal won two Challenger titles and finished the year in the top 50. He is the second-youngest man to be ranked this high.[citation needed] At his Wimbledon debut, Nadal became the youngest man to reach the third round since Boris Becker in 1984.During 2004, Nadal played his first match against World No. 1 Roger Federer at the Miami Masters, and won in straight sets. He missed most of the clay court season, including the French Open, because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Nadal at 18 years and six months became the youngest player to register a singles victory in a Davis Cup final for a winning nation. By beating World No. 2 Andy Roddick, he helped Spain clinch the 2004 title over the United States in a 3-2 win. He finished the season at No. 49 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings.
2005
At the Australian Open, Nadal lost in the fourth round to eventual runner-up Lleyton Hewitt in five sets. Two months later, Nadal reached the final of the Miami Masters, and despite being two points from a straights-set victory, he was defeated in five sets by World No. 1 Roger Federer. Both performances were considered to be breakthroughs for Nadal. He then dominated the spring clay court season. He won 24 consecutive singles matches, which broke Andre Agassi's open era record of consecutive match wins for a male teenager.Nadal won the tournament in Barcelona, Spain and beat 2004 French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria in the finals of the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Monte Carlo and Rome. These victories raised his ranking to World No. 5and made him one of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the French Open semifinals, preventing the Swiss from potentially achieving a career Grand Slam. Two days later, he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the first male player to win the French Open on his first attempt since Mats Wilander in 1982and the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Winning the French Open increased Nadal's ranking to World No. 3. Three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal's 24-match winning streak was snapped in the first round of the grass court tournament in Halle, Germany.He then lost in the second round of Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg. Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments. Winning the clay court events in Båstad and Stuttgart caused Nadal's ranking to rise to World No. 2 on July 25, 2005. At age 19 years, 1 month, and 22 days, he became the third teenager to reach World No. 2 in the history of the ATP computer rankings, which began in 1973, joining Boris Becker (age 18 years, 9 months, and 17 days) and Björn Borg (age 18 years, 10 months, and 2 days) as the only teenagers to be ranked second. Nadal started his North American summer hard court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the ATP Masters Series tournament in Montreal, Canada but losing in the first round of the ATP Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second at the US Open, where he was upset in the third round by World No. 49 James Blake in four sets. Nadal played only three events the remainder of the year. In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the tournament in Madrid. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup. Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four ATP Masters Series titles in 2005, thus Nadal broke Mats Wilander’s previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay and the remainder on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005 with eleven 6–0 sets during the year.Also he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award.
2006
Nadal missed the Australian Open because of a foot injury.In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of the year in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open. To complete the spring hard court season, Nadal was upset in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California and in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open. On European clay, Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. He defeated Federer in the final of the Masters Series Monte Carlo in four sets. The following week, he defeated Tommy Robredo in the final of the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. After a one week's break, Nadal won the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Federer in a fifth set tiebreaker in the final after saving two match points, thus Nadal equaled Bjorn Borg’s tally of 16 ATP titles won as a teenager. Nadal then broke Argentinan Guillermo Vilas' 29-year record of 53 consecutive clay-court match victories when he first round at the French Open. Vilas presented Nadal with a trophy, but commented later that Nadal's feat was less impressive than his own because Nadal's winning streak covered two years and was accomplished by adding easy tournaments to his schedule. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open. The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive as the rivals traded 6–1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker. Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first player to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final.also he became the youngest back-to-back champion at Roland Garros since Borg in 1974-75. On grass, Nadal injured his shoulder while playing a quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt at the Artois Championships, played at Queen's Club in London.Nadal was unable to complete the match, which ended his 26-match winning streak. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon but was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets. In the third round, Nadal defeated World No. 20 Andre Agassi in straight sets at Agassi's last career match at Wimbledon. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up another final with Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years,becoming the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966 to reach the Wimbledon final. Federer won the match in four sets. Nadal and Federer were the only pair of men during the open era who had reached the Wimbledon final after having just played each other in the French Open final. During the lead up to the US Open, Nadal played only the two Masters Series tournaments in North America. He was upset in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second, but lost in the quarterfinals to World No. 54 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets. Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. Joachim Johansson, ranked World No. 690, upset Nadal in the second round of the if... Stockholm Open 6–4, 7–6. The following week, Nadal lost to Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals of the year's last Masters Series tournament, the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid. Afterwards Nadal blamed mental and physical exhaustion for his recent losses.[citation needed] During the round-robin stage of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Tommy Robredo. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer 6–4, 7–5. This was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer. He went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1994-95 to finish as the World No. 2 in back-to-back years.
2007
Nadal started the year by playing in six hard court tournaments. He lost in the semifinals and first round of his first two tournaments and then lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to eventual runner-up Fernando González. After another quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Tennis Championships, he won the Masters Series Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California before Novak Djokovic defeated him in the quarterfinals of the Masters Series 2007 Master Series Miami. He had comparatively more success after returning to Europe to play five clay court tournaments. He won the titles at the Masters Series Monte Carlo, the Open Sabadell Atlántico in Barcelona, and the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome before losing to Roger Federer in the final of the Masters Series Hamburg. This defeat ended his 81-match winning streak on clay, which is the male open era record for consecutive wins on a single surface. He then rebounded to win the French Open for the third straight year, defeating Federer once again in the final. Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Majorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay. Nadal played the Artois Championships at Queen's Club in London for the second consecutive year. As in 2006, Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before losing to Federer in the five-set final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001. In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which proved to be his last title of the year. He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was a semifinalist at the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal before losing his first match at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open but was defeated in the fourth round by World No. 15 David Ferrer. After a month-long break from tournament tennis, Nadal played the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid and the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him 6–4, 6–1. During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. In addition, there were rumors at the end of the year that the foot injury he suffered during 2005 caused long term damage, which were given credence by coach Toni Nadal's claim that the problem was "serious". Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".
2008
Nadal began the year in India, where he was the runner-up to Mikhail Youzhny at the Chennai Open. Nadal then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time. He also reached the final of the 2008 Master Series Miami for the second time. During the spring clay court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his open era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer holding a 4–0 lead in the second set.[38] He then won his fourth consecutive title at the Open Sabadell Atlantico tournament in Barcelona. A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg, defeating Federer in the three-set final. He then won the French Open, becoming only the fifth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set.[39] He defeated Federer in the final for the third straight year, but this was the most lopsided of all their matches, as Nadal only lost four games and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999.This was Nadal's fourth consecutive French title, tying Björn Borg's all-time record. Nadal became only the fourth male player during the open era to win the same Grand Slam singles tournament four consecutive years (the others being Borg, Pete Sampras, and Federer). Nadal then played Federer in the final of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry.Nadal entered the final on a 23-match winning streak, including his first career grass court title at the Artois Championships,becoming the first Spanish man to win a grass-court title since Andres Gimeno in 1972, staged at Queen's Club in London prior to Wimbledon. Federer had won his record fifth grass court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle without facing a break point and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win.They played the longest final in Wimbledon history, and because of rain delays, Nadal won the fifth set 9-7 in near-darkness. The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some long-time tennis critics[who?] even calling it the greatest match in tennis history. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became only the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year (after Rod Laver in 1969 and Borg in 1978-80) as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. He also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles and 65 straight wins on grass courts. He became the first player to remain No. 2 for three consecutive (non calendar) years from 25 July, 2005 to 24 July, 2008. After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Rogers Cup title in Toronto and then made it into the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, Nadal clinched the US Open Series and, combined with Federer's early round losses in both of those tournaments, finally earned Nadal the World No. 1 ranking on August 18, officially ending Federer's record four-and-a-half year reign at the top. Nadal is also the fifth left-hander to rank No. 1, the first since Chilean Marcelo Rios in 1998. Other left-handers to hold the top position are Austrian Thomas Muster (1996), and Americans John McEnroe (1980) and Jimmy Connors (1974). At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the semifinals 6–4, 1–6, 6–4 and Fernando González of Chile in the final to win his first Olympic gold medal. Nadal became the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal. At the US Open, Nadal was the top-seeded player for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament. He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round. He then needed four sets to defeat both Sam Querrey in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost to Andy Murray 6–2, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4. Later in the year in Madrid, Nadal helped Spain defeat the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals. At the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid, Nadal lost in the semifinals to Gilles Simon 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(6). His performance at this event however, guarantees that he will become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year as the World No. 1.Two weeks later at the BNP Paribas Masters in France, Nadal, received a first round bye and defeated two French favorites Florent Serra and Gaël Monfils before making it to the quarterfinals where he faced Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal would lose the first set 6-1, before retiring in the second with a knee injury.The following week, Nadal then announced his withrawal from the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai citing tendinitis of the knee. On 10 November Nadal withdrew from his Davis Cup tie final against Argentina as his injury to his knee had not healed well enough.
2009
After losing to Andy Murray in the final of the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi,Nadal began his participation on the official 2009 ATP Tour by playing the 250 series Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. In the first round, Nadal and Fabrice Santoro played each other for the first time in their careers, with Nadal winning 6–0, 6–1 in only 46 minutes. Immediately after the match, Nadal was awarded the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion trophy.Nadal then defeated Karol Beck in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to World No. 13 Gaël Monfils 6–4, 6–4. This was Monfils's first win over Nadal in four matches. Nadal, however, was successfull on the doubles in Qatar, winning with Marc Lopez on the final round over the world's number one doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.
Playing style
Nadal plays with well-angled topspin heavy strokes, a strong two-handed backhand, fast mobility on the court, and a preference to play from the deep court. Though naturally right-handed, Nadal plays left-handed, and uses his dominant right hand as an anchor for his two-handed backhand. In addition, being naturally right-handed allows him to stay balanced regardless of which foot he puts his weight on, an exceptional talent when one tries to hit the ball after starting a move in the wrong direction. Although, a natural right-hander, Nadal claims he is left footed and that it is difficult for him to play with his right hand.Known for his excellent defense, Nadal hits well on the run and creates many winners from seemingly defensive positions. Because of his extreme athleticism, Nadal tends to go after every shot, even apparent winners from his opponents.Historically, Nadal's playing style has worked best on clay courts, and he was once considered a clay-court specialist. Recent success on other surfaces has helped Nadal shed that label, though he is still considered most dominant on clay. Nadal 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 at which his shot clears the net and the speed at which the ball drops due to the topspin that is applied to the ball. Nadal's heavy topspin makes the ball bounce up high in the air for his opponent, making it difficult to return. These types of shots tend to be returned short in length, but the spin kicks it up so high that this kind of play is sufficient on clay. For many years, Nadal's serve was not considered one of his strengths. However, it has become more of a weapon lately; Nadal currently possesses a highly effective first serve and a moderate second serve. Usually employing a hard lefty slice towards most of his opponents' backhands (right-handed opponents), his serve can be relied upon for consistency and also for some short-point wins such as aces and bad service-returns. Another one of Nadal's strengths is the mental aspect of his tennis game. His ability to come back from behind in a match greatly assists him. He also has good footwork, which helps him to prepare for tennis strokes and get around the court efficiently. In addition, he can put away short balls and comes to the net quite often. Rafael Nadal has an under-emphasized net game. He is able to volley deep, but his main strength at the net is his touch and feel. Nadal is good at angling volleys away from his opponents and can hit drop volleys well after running extremely quickly up to the net to return any drop shot made by his opponent.
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