Nadal Rafael

Spanish tennis player, nicknamed Rafa, he has been ranked No. 1 in the ATP rankings for 209 weeks, and was an Olympic gold medal winner at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. Nadal has won 21 Grand Slam mens singles titles, the most in history. He has won 62 of his 90 ATP Singles titles on clay, including a record 13 French Open titles and 26 of his 36 Masters titles. His 81 consecutive wins on clay is the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era. He was born to a well-to-do close-knit family on Mallorca that includes another professional athlete, his soccer-playing uncle Miguel Angel. Another uncle Toni taught him tennis when Rafael was three years old and he has been wielding a racket since then. Uncle Toni continues to coach him. He turned professional at age 15 in 2001 and in 2003 became the youngest player ever to win two rounds at Wimbledon. He won his eighth French Open title in 2013 and was defeated a few days later at the first round of Wimbledon by Steve Darcis. After injuring his left wrist, he had to abandon play at Roland-Garros in 2016. In April 2017, he won his 10th Monte-Carlo (29th ATP Masters 1000), his 50th success on clay at ATP tournaments. On 18 November 2019, he was ranked again world No. 1. On 30 January 2022, after a new injury and testing positive for Covid-19, he became the most titled tennis player with 21 Grand Slam tournament wins (outdoing Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic who have 20 wins each), after defeating Russian competitor Daniil Medvedev in 5 sets in the final of the Australian Open. Despite a recurring (left) foot injury that he has had since 2005, he won his 14th French open on 5 Juni 2022, defeating Norwegian Ruud. Nadals autobiography, Rafa, written with assistance from John Carlin, was published in August 2011. Nadal has been in a relationship with María Francisca (Mery) Perelló Pascual since 2005, and their engagement was reported in January 2019. The couple married in October 2019. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less