Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera (Catalan: [rəfəˈɛɫ nəˈðaɫ pəˈɾeɾə], Spanish: [rafaˈel naˈðal paˈɾeɾa];[5] born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player, currently ranked world No. 1 in men's singles.[6] Known as "The King of Clay",[a] he is widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player in history.[b] His evolution into an all-court threat has established him as one of the greatest tennis players ever.[c][34][35][36][37][38]

Nadal has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, an all-time record of 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, tied with Novak Djokovic,[39][40][41] and an all-time record 19 ATP World Tour 500 tournaments, tied with Roger Federer. He was also a member of the winning Spain Davis Cup team in 2004, 2008, 2009, and 2011. In 2010, he became the seventh male player in history and youngest of five in the Open Era to achieve the Career Grand Slam at age 24. He is the second male player, after Andre Agassi, to complete the singles Career Golden Slam. In 2011, Nadal was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.[42] The left-hander is the sixth player in the Open Era to reach more than 100 finals on the ATP World Tour.

Nadal and Mats Wilander are the only two male players who have won at least two Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces—hard court, grass, and clay.[43] At the 2014 French Open, he became the first male to win at least one Grand Slam tournament for ten consecutive years, breaking the record of eight consecutive years previously shared by Björn Borg, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer. By winning the Monte-Carlo Masters in 2012, Nadal became the only male player in the open era to win a tournament eight consecutive times. Nadal is the only male player in tennis history to win one Grand Slam and at least one Masters 1000 title for ten consecutive years from 2005–2014. He surpassed Guillermo Vilas's Open Era record of 49 clay-court titles by winning the Monte-Carlo Masters in 2017. Nadal became the only man to win the same tournament 10 times by winning the Monte-Carlo Masters in 2017. He repeated this historic achievement by winning the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell for a 10th time just a few weeks later. By winning the 2017 French Open, Nadal became the only male and second overall to win a single Grand Slam tournament 10 times after Margaret Court's 11 Australian Championships.
Early life
Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Balearic Islands, Spain. His father, Sebastián Nadal, is a businessman who owns an insurance company and a glass and window company, Vidres Mallorca, and manages his own restaurant, Sa Punta. His mother is Ana María Parera, a housewife. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional footballer, who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team.[45] Nadal supports football clubs Real Madrid and RCD Mallorca.[46] Recognizing that Nadal had a natural talent for tennis, another uncle, Toni Nadal, a former professional tennis player, introduced him to tennis when he was three years old.[47]

At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player.[48] This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and at that time he encouraged Nadal to play left-handed for a natural advantage on the tennis court, as he noticed Nadal played forehand shots with two hands.[48] This may be due to the fact he is ambidextrous, playing tennis with his left hand, and writing with his right.[49]

When Nadal was 12, he won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group and was playing tennis and football all the time.[48] Nadal's father made him choose between football and tennis so that his school work would not deteriorate entirely. Nadal said: "I chose tennis. Football had to stop straight away."[48]

When he was 14, the Spanish tennis federation requested that he leave Mallorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis training. Nadal's family turned down this request, partly because they feared it would hurt his education,[48] but also because Toni said that "I don't want to believe that you have to go to America, or other places to be a good athlete. You can do it from your home."[47] The decision to stay home meant that Nadal received less financial support from the federation; instead, Nadal's father covered the costs. In May 2001, he defeated former Grand Slam tournament champion Pat Cash in a clay-court exhibition match.[45]