Rafael Nadal's lethal left-handed forehand began as his uncle's idea
Rafael Nadal's left-handed game was a deliberate choice. His uncle and coach Toni moved him off a two-handed forehand and onto the left side for the natural edge it brings, and that heavy-topspin forehand went on to win 22 major titles, including a record 14 at the French Open.
Born on 3 June 1986 in Manacor, Mallorca, Nadal hit his first shots at the local tennis club with Toni, who coached there, though football was his early passion; another uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, played the game professionally. He took up tennis regularly at five and at 8 won a regional under-12 title. Toni then trained him harder and, after studying his two-handed forehand, pushed him to play left-handed.
In February 1998 he competed outside Spain for the first time and won an unofficial under-12 world championship in Auray, beating Jamie Murray in the final. With Miguel Ángel preparing for that year's World Cup, the boy had been torn between the two sports, and the Auray win helped settle it. When the Spanish federation asked him to move to Barcelona to train, the family refused, partly to protect his schooling, and Toni insisted a champion could be made at home.
Nadal turned professional in early 2001 at 14 and that May beat former Grand Slam champion Pat Cash in a clay exhibition. On 29 April 2002, ranked No. 762, he won his first ATP match at the Mallorca event, only the ninth player of the Open Era to do so before 16. In 2003 he beat Albert Costa, the reigning French Open champion, at Monte Carlo, and finished the year at No. 49.
Before turning 20 he had reached No. 2 and won 16 titles, among them the 2005 French Open. He spent 209 weeks as world No. 1 and won 92 singles titles, 63 of them on clay, plus 36 Masters titles and an Olympic doubles gold in Rio in 2016. At the 2022 Australian Open he moved past Federer and Djokovic for the most major men's singles titles, and in 2025 King Felipe VI made him Marquess of Llevant de Mallorca.
Source: Rafael Nadal
