Rafael Nadal (b. 1986) is currently the No. 2 ranked tennis player in the world. From
Mallorca,
Spain, Rafael "Rafa" (as he is known) won his first
ATP match at
the tender age of 15 and at just 20 years of age is already 35th on the list of top prize
$ winners, with over $8m already won.
He is known as the "
King Of Clay", due to his
dominance over the clay court
tournaments such as the
French Open. In June 2006 he managed to fend off world #1
Roger Federer to
win the
French title for his second
successive year, earning himself €940 000 for four sets of tennis, and denying the
Swiss his as-yet
elusive Grand Slam. It was his 60th straight clay victory. The same
pair would meet again at
Wimbledon some weeks later (a record), although this time, it was on
Federer's preferred surface:
grass. Although Nadal lost that match in four sets, it was a great achievement to even
reach the final. Nadal is one of a select few players who have a positive match record against
Roger Federer: 6-3 on
clay, 2-2 on
hard courts, and 0-1 on
grass.
1
Nadal has 2 winning streaks of more than
20 matches, and, after proceeding to the second round of the 2006 French Open Nadal surpassed
Argentine Guillermo Vilas's 29-year record of 53 clay court victories in a row, going on to
extend that record to 62 successive wins on clay.
Sponsored by
Nike, he is easy to recognise on
court because of his preference for wearing sleeveless shirts. He is principally a base-line player, usually more than happy to go blow-for-blow with any
opponent, setting up winners with his two-handed backhand. As long as his grass court game keeps improving, and we have no reason to believe that it isn't, it's hard to see now why he won't eventually
succeed Roger Federer as the world #1.
French Open Champions
...
2003 Juan Carlos Ferrero
2004 Gastón Gaudio
2005 Rafael Nadal
2006 Rafael Nadal
Source
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Nadal