Rafael Nadal, born on the 3rd of June, 1986 as Rafael Nadal Parera and nicknamed as ‘Rafa’ is one of the greatest tennis players of all time and only the second person ever to complete a Career Golden Slam after Andre Agassi when he won all the four Major titles in tennis that include the Australian Open, the US Open, the French Open, Wimbledon as well as the Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He is a former World Number 1 according to the rankings published by the Association of Tennis Professionals or the ATP and is currently in second position behind the Serbian Novak Djokovich. Revered all over the tennis circuit as one of its greatest exponents, and his exploits on the clay court, particularly after his 6 French Open title wins earned him the nickname The King of Clay.
So far in his career, Rafael Nadal has won a total of ten Grand Slam titles that include 6 French Open titles, one each of the Australian Open and the US Open and 2 Wimbledon titles. His Career Slam was completed when he won the US Open title in 2010, thereby becoming the 7th player to do so and he is also the youngest player to do it in the Open Era. He was the first man to stop the Roger Federer juggernaut from rolling over and winning a sixth consecutive Wimbledon title in what was his first defeat at the famous grass courts of London in 6 six years. He has also won a record breaking 19 titles at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and has been a part of the Davis Cup winning Spanish team on three occasions in 2004, 2008 and 2009.
Born in the Majorcan region of Spain, Rafael Nadal took to tennis quite early in his career and he was trained by his uncle Toni Nadal who wanted nothing but to make his nephew the greatest player the world has ever seen. He was among the wave of Spanish players that invaded the world of tennis at the turn of the millennium and he is without a doubt, the best of the lot. He has a career win-loss percentage of 82.5% and has won 46 titles, including the ten Grand Slams, and he has also won 7 doubles titles. Rafael Nadal is arguably one of the greatest players of tennis in the modern era and he is definitely the greatest ever Spanish player.