Rafael Nadal Biography: Age, Height, Achievements, Facts & Net Worth -

Rafael Nadal Biography: Rafael Nadal popularly known as “Rafa” is an iconic tennis player from Spain and is arguably the second greatest tennis player of all time after Roger Federer. He has won 18 grand slams, 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles in 2008, 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles and 20 ATP Tour 500 titles.

He has won 83 career titles till date that includes 59 clay court titles and rest on hard court and grass courts. He is only the second player after Andre Agassi to have won a golden slam.

EARLY LIFE:

Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Spain to Sebastián and his wife Ana María Parera on June 3, 1986. He has a younger sibling Maria Isabel. His uncles Miguel Ángel, and Toni were both accomplished sportsmen, Miguel Angel was a soccer player, while Toni was a tennis player. He was the major source of inspiration for Rafael Nadal during his childhood days.

He started playing tennis at the age of 3 and by the time he turned 8, he has already won regional tennis tournament for Under 12 category. He was trained by his uncle Toni and despite being a right-hander, he started playing tennis with the left hand.

At the age of 15, he started playing professional tennis.

PERSONAL LIFE:

Rafael Nadal has been dating Xisca Perello since 2005 and got engaged in January 2019. She is the project manager of Rafael Nadal Foundation. Apart from tennis, he loves playing golf, football and poker.
Despite the hectic schedule, the sportsman has set up an academy in Anantpur, Aandhra Pradesh calling it Anantpur sports village, India to help youngsters and poor children take up the sport.
He has also been associated with A Million Trees for the King’ programme that was launched in Thailand. In 2011, Rafael Nadal published his autobiography “Rafa” with the help of renowned journalist John Carlin.

PROFESSIONAL LIFE:

In the year 2002, he became the ninth youngest player to win an ATP match before turning 16.

During 2003-2005 period he became the youngest player since Boris Ecker to qualify in the third round of the Miami Masters.

Rafael Nadal holds the world record of winning 12 French open titles, the highest by any.

He is the first player in the history of ATP to have won a grand slam final against Roger Federer.

In the year 2007, he claimed his third French Open title and was labelled as clay-court specialist by the spectators. The year 2008, when broke his clay reputation and defeated Roger Federer in the Wimbledon 2008 finals winning his maiden Wimbledon title.

The same year he won gold at the 2008 Olympics Beijing in singles, during 2008 he also won his fourth French Open title.

2009 was not a lucrative year for Nadal, injuries and slump in form haunted the legend throughout the year. He was a top favourite to win the 2009 French Open but was defeated in the fourth round by Robin Soderling. Throughout the year, he only won a single glam (Australian Open).

He bounced back in 2010 and won 3 major grand slams (French Open, Wimbledon and US Open), he missed the Australian Open, and otherwise, it would have been perfect four. During the same year, he also reached the finals of the Tour Finals.

The period between 2011- 2012 was a nightmare for Nadal, injury took a toll on his body. He couldn’t play to his potential and missed the crucial tournaments that year. Although, his dominance on clay continued, he won the French Open both in 2011 and 2012.

Since 2012 the world saw a decline in Nadal performances and the rise of Novak Djokovic. In the last 5 years he failed to win a single Australian Open and Wimbledon, but managed to win 5 French Open titles and 2 US Open titles.

He is only 33 and shall easily win 3-4 grand slams, he is the potential candidate to become the greatest of all time.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

He has won ATP Newcomer of the Year Award in 2003 and 2005
He has won the Golden Bagel Award in 2005 after he won 11 straight sets with losing a single match.
He has won Laureus World Sports Award in 2006
He won Prince of Asturias Award, ATP World Tour Champion trophy and Best International Athlete ESPY Award in 2008
In the 2009-10 season he was awarded with Golden Bagel Award, Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award and BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
During the period between 2011-2014, he has won major awards like Best Male Tennis Player ESPY Award, Laureus World Sports Awards, Sportsman of the Year and Comeback of the Year.
He has won 18 grand slams till date (12 French Open titles, 2 Wimbledon, 3 US Open titles and 1 Australian Open.)
He has won gold in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, gold in doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He has won the Davis Cup in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011

CONTROVERSY:

Nadal is frequently accused of doping by many critics for his agility and boze size, but all the allegations came false.
If believed he once refused to team up with Nick Kyrgios for some unknown reasons at the charity event in the USA, but later it turned to be a rumour.
Nadal is a clay king and has already record 12 `French open, but once the clay specialist said that playing tennis on hard courts damages the neck, back and legs of the player and insisted ATP to organize more clay and grass court tournaments. This statement worked as gasoline and set the whole tennis fraternity on fire and was criticized severely for his outrageous statement.

PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS: