Benito to ‘translate’ which meant they conferred in Spanish till the PR delivered some smooth PR-y answer. Nadal’s command of English seemed highly variable but never great.
Everyone kept telling me that Rafa was so tired and had had a bad day. But then I was so tired and had had a bad day too, traipsing round the boiling Foro Italico stadium, surviving on bottled water, watching his boring match, waiting for his press conference and then hanging about with mobs of screaming fans waiting for him to emerge from the players’ entrance. He eventually came out with a posse of security men, signed a few autographs, had his photo taken with a baby, and was whisked off in his car. I was told to follow and meet him at his hotel, which turned out to be some characterless sports/conference complex miles outside Rome – it could have been in Croydon.
HIS bad day only consisted of playing one short tennis match and signing a few autographs, which I thought was what tennis players were paid to do. He admitted at the press conference that he had played badly, dropping a set to a completely unknown Italian player, but he offered no excuses. However other people were quick to offer them for him: it was the day of Seve Ballesteros’ funeral and Rafa was very fond of Ballesteros. When he had to sign his name on the television lens (apparently one of those rituals they do at tennis tournaments) he signed ‘Seve’ instead of ‘Rafa’. And, according to David Law, a radio commentator and media director for Queen’s Club who very kindly served as my guide to the tennis world, Rafa was definitely below par the day we met, and two days later was diagnosed with a virus. He then went on to lose the Rome finals to Novak Djokovic, having lost the Madrid Masters to him the Sunday before, so his position as world number one was already beginning to look shaky.
What do we know about Rafa Nadal? Only what his minders want you to. He was born in 1986 in Majorca. His father is a businessman but the whole family is sporty – one uncle was a professional footballer known as the Beast of Barcelona. Another uncle, Toni, a former tennis pro, taught Rafa to play tennis from the age of three, and encouraged him to hold the racquet in his left hand, even though he is naturally right-handed. Rafa played in the Spanish juniors and was urged to go to tennis school in Barcelona but he chose to stay in Majorca with his family – Uncle Toni has been his only coach throughout his career. He started playing professionally when he was just fifteen and won his first Grand Slam at nineteen. He lost his first two Wimbledons but finally won against Roger Federer in 2008. At that point he seemed unstoppable – but then a string of knee injuries (tendonitis) meant he didn’t win a title for almost a year and commentators started saying he might have to retire. He missed Wimbledon in 2009 partly because of injury but also because his parents had just split up and he was very upset – ‘For one month I was outside the world.’ But he bounced back in 2010 and there has been no talk of tendonitis recently. However, he is now under threat from Djokovic.
Despite his vast wealth – £24 million in winnings, probably twice that in sponsorship – everyone agrees that he is unspoiled, unchanged. His best friends are still the friends he made at school; his hobbies are football, golf and fishing. He goes back to his home town, Manacor, in Majorca whenever he has time, and shares a big apartment block with his mother, sister, grandparents and Uncle Toni and his family. He also has a beach house at Porto Cristo, Majorca (not Ibiza as the press sometimes says) where he likes to go fishing. Two years ago he bought a £2 million beachfront house with its own golf course in the Dominican Republic, but he has never stayed there. I asked if there was some tax reason for choosing the Dominican Republic but he said no – he pays all his taxes in Spain – but he has some
Everyone kept telling me that Rafa was so tired and had had a bad day. But then I was so tired and had had a bad day too, traipsing round the boiling Foro Italico stadium, surviving on bottled water, watching his boring match, waiting for his press conference and then hanging about with mobs of screaming fans waiting for him to emerge from the players’ entrance. He eventually came out with a posse of security men, signed a few autographs, had his photo taken with a baby, and was whisked off in his car. I was told to follow and meet him at his hotel, which turned out to be some characterless sports/conference complex miles outside Rome – it could have been in Croydon.
HIS bad day only consisted of playing one short tennis match and signing a few autographs, which I thought was what tennis players were paid to do. He admitted at the press conference that he had played badly, dropping a set to a completely unknown Italian player, but he offered no excuses. However other people were quick to offer them for him: it was the day of Seve Ballesteros’ funeral and Rafa was very fond of Ballesteros. When he had to sign his name on the television lens (apparently one of those rituals they do at tennis tournaments) he signed ‘Seve’ instead of ‘Rafa’. And, according to David Law, a radio commentator and media director for Queen’s Club who very kindly served as my guide to the tennis world, Rafa was definitely below par the day we met, and two days later was diagnosed with a virus. He then went on to lose the Rome finals to Novak Djokovic, having lost the Madrid Masters to him the Sunday before, so his position as world number one was already beginning to look shaky.
What do we know about Rafa Nadal? Only what his minders want you to. He was born in 1986 in Majorca. His father is a businessman but the whole family is sporty – one uncle was a professional footballer known as the Beast of Barcelona. Another uncle, Toni, a former tennis pro, taught Rafa to play tennis from the age of three, and encouraged him to hold the racquet in his left hand, even though he is naturally right-handed. Rafa played in the Spanish juniors and was urged to go to tennis school in Barcelona but he chose to stay in Majorca with his family – Uncle Toni has been his only coach throughout his career. He started playing professionally when he was just fifteen and won his first Grand Slam at nineteen. He lost his first two Wimbledons but finally won against Roger Federer in 2008. At that point he seemed unstoppable – but then a string of knee injuries (tendonitis) meant he didn’t win a title for almost a year and commentators started saying he might have to retire. He missed Wimbledon in 2009 partly because of injury but also because his parents had just split up and he was very upset – ‘For one month I was outside the world.’ But he bounced back in 2010 and there has been no talk of tendonitis recently. However, he is now under threat from Djokovic.
Despite his vast wealth – £24 million in winnings, probably twice that in sponsorship – everyone agrees that he is unspoiled, unchanged. His best friends are still the friends he made at school; his hobbies are football, golf and fishing. He goes back to his home town, Manacor, in Majorca whenever he has time, and shares a big apartment block with his mother, sister, grandparents and Uncle Toni and his family. He also has a beach house at Porto Cristo, Majorca (not Ibiza as the press sometimes says) where he likes to go fishing. Two years ago he bought a £2 million beachfront house with its own golf course in the Dominican Republic, but he has never stayed there. I asked if there was some tax reason for choosing the Dominican Republic but he said no – he pays all his taxes in Spain – but he has some
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