Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal-Parera was born on 3rd June, 1986, in Manacor, Mallorca.

His parents, Sebastian and Ana Maria introduced him to tennis at a very young age and he played his first championship tournament at the age of 8 years old in Baleares.


He turned professional in 2001 at the age of 15 and won his first ATP match, defeating Ramon Delgado to become only the ninth player before his 16th birthday to do so.

His hero is Carlos Moya, his coach is his uncle, Toni Nadal and he is managed by Carlos Costa.

2005 proved a pivotal year for Nadal. By May 2005 he had made it into the top 5.

By the autumn of 2005, Nadal had won a further 10 singles titles (to add to his one in 2004) including 3 ATP Masters Series events and 1 Grand Slam title with a 72-10 match record - second only to Roger Federer.

In early 2005 he won 24 matches in a row, breaking the record for the longest winning streak of a teenager, beating Andre Agassi's run of 23 matches in 1988.

In his French Open debut, he won his first Grand Slam event, beating Federer in the semi-finals on his 19th birthday.

In 2005 at Wimbledon, Nadal was seeded 4, but crashed out in the 2nd round to the Luxembourg player, Gilles Muller. He was eliminated in the third round of the 2005 US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, by American James Blake.

Rafael Nadal has a fantastic record on clay courts. In May 2006, his defeat of Roger Federer to win the Rome Masters meant that he equalled the record of consecutive 53 wins on clay. His next match - victory over Robin Soderling in the first round of the French Open ensured that he overtook Argentina's Guillermo Vilas 1977's run and had the record to himself.

Nadal went on to win the 2006 French Open again beating Roger Federer in the final. Nadal said he was delighted with the win because: "Federer is the best player in history - no other player has ever had such quality."

However, Federer turned the tables on Nadal on the grass of Wimbledon. Nadal had played well to reach the final and managed to take a set off Federer but eventually went down 6-0 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (2-7) 6-3.

In April 2007, Rafael Nadal continued his brilliant run on clay, when he won the Monte Carlo Masters title beating Roger Federer in the final, however in May 2007 Roger Federer took revenge, beating Rafael Nadal 2-6 6-2 6-0 to win the Hamburg Masters title and end Nadal's record run of 81 straight wins on clay.

However, the tide turned again in June 2007 when Rafael Nadal won a third straight French Open title beating Roger Federer 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final.

In June 2008 Rafael Nadal made it four straight French Opens when he easily defeated Roger Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0.

On 6 July 2008, Rafael Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.

Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in an epic Wimbledon final 6-4 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-7 (8-10) 9-7.

On August 17, 2008 Rafael Nadal beat Fernando Gonzalez to win gold in the men's tennis tournament at the Beijing Olympics.

On the following day, Rafael Nadal took over from Roger Federer as the tennis world number one in the official rankings.