Rafael Nadal aka The King of Clay turned 27 yesterday. Hailed as one of the greatest tennis players ever, Rafa started playing from the tender age of four. CS gives you some lesser known facts about him:
>> Rafael Nadal is the editor of the Barcelona daily newspaper El Periódicou00a0de Catalunya.
>> The ace tennis player plays tennis left-handed, but is right-handed.
>> The Spanish player began playing tennis at age four with his uncle Toni, who is his coach as well.
>> His uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, is a professional soccer player with stints at FC Barcelona, Real Mallorca and Spanish national team, which competed in 2002 World Cup
>> Nadal is one of the seven players to have beaten Roger Federer since Federer attained the number 1 ranking.
>> When Nadal played Roger Federer in the finals of Wimbledon 2008, it was the longest men’s singles final in the history of the prestigious tournament: four hours 48 minutes. Former Wimbledon champ John McEnroe proclaimed that it was the greatest match he’d ever seen.
>> At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player.
>> In addition to tennis and association football, Nadal enjoys playing golf.
>> In February 2010, Nadal was featured in the music video of Shakira’s Gypsy and part of her album release She Wolf.
>> 128036 Rafaelnadal is a main belt asteroid discovered in 2003 at the Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca, Spain and named after Nadal.
>> Nadal took part in Thailand’s ‘A Million Trees For The King’ project, planting a tree in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on a visit to Hua Hin in 2010. u00a0
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