Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal was born 3 June 1986 and is a former World No. 1 Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked No. 4 in the world. Nadal has won six Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, 15 ATP Masters Series tournaments and also was part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004 and 2009.

Nadal was ranked World No. 1 from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. Nadal was ranked World No. 2, behind Roger Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot. In 2009, he became the first player to simultaneously hold Grand Slam titles on clay, grass and hardcourt. His success on clay has earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

In 2008, Nadal was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, in recognition of his achievements in tennis.

Nadal uses an AeroPro Drive racquet with a 4 1/4″ L2 grip. As of 2010 season, Nadal’s racquets are painted to resemble the new Babolat AeroPro Drive with Cortex GT racquet in order to market a current model which Babolat sells. Nadal uses no replacement grip, and instead wraps 2 overgrips around the handle. Nadal uses Duralast 15L strings—strung between 55 and 66 pounds — while promoting Babolat’s Pro Hurricane Tour strings for marketing purposes.
Nike serves as Nadal’s clothing and shoe sponsor. Nadal’s signature on-court attire entailed a variety of sleeveless shirts paired with 3/4 length capri pants. For the 2009 season, Nadal has adopted more traditional on-court apparel. Nike encouraged Nadal to update his look in order to reflect his new status as the sport’s top player at that time and associate Nadal with a style that—while less distinctive than his “pirate” look—would be more widely emulated by consumers.

At warmup tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha, Nadal played matches in a polo shirt specifically designed for him by Nike, paired with shorts cut above the knee. Nadal’s new, more conventional style carried over to the 2009 Australian Open, where Nadal was outfitted with Nike’s Bold Crew Men’s Tee and Nadal Long Check Shorts.

Nadal wears Nike’s Air CourtBallistec 1.3 tennis shoes, bearing various customizations throughout the season, including his nickname—”Rafa”—on the right shoe and a stylized bull logo on the left.

Nadal has appeared in advertising campaigns for Kia Motors as a global ambassador for the company. In May 2008, Kia released a claymation viral ad featuring Nadal in a tennis match with an alien. Nadal also has an endorsement agreement with Universal DVDs.

Rafael Nadal has either equaled or set various records in tennis history.
Longest single-surface winning streak (clay): 81 matches (2005- 21 May 2007)
Winning the French Open at the first attempt. Tied with Mats Wilander (1982)
Only the third teenager in history (since 1973) to reach world no. 2
Most consecutive clay court winning streak: 81
Most consecutive French Open titles: 4 tied with Björn Borg
Winning French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. Tied-three others in Open Era history.
Only male player to have won French Open, Wimbledon, and Olympic gold medal in the same year (2008)
Won most titles as a teenager: 16 tied with Björn Borg
Won 24 consecutive matches, the longest winning streak of any teenager in the open era, in 2005
Most consecutive French Open finals in the Open Era: 4 (tied with Borg, Lendl and Federer)
Most consecutive Masters Quartefinals (Hamburg 2008- Paris 2009)
The first player to win 400 singles matches in fewer than 500 matches played (401-91).