Rafael Nadal, the youngest member of TOP 100, is in Umag for the first time. And for the first time he is seeded in an ATP tournament. By defeating Magnus Norman, he reached his first ATP semi-final.

He received a very warm welcome indeed in Umag, and because he is great friends with Carlos Moya (both are from Mallorca), many see him as the future King of Umag. �You can win here, but only when I stop playing�, is what Moya said to Nadal on one of the Umag nights, according to the tournament director Slavko Rasberger. Hopefully, he understood. (note � remember that Carlos is THE most popular player in Umag, ever) But the pupil has his own plan � to outdo his teacher. And he is doing great, he hasn�t lost a set so far.

�Moya is a great player, he was once #1 in the world, but my goal is to be better than him one day. I�m currently ranked 58 in the entry list, but I�m certain that I will soon get even higher, says Nadal.

Despite his relatively easy win over Norman, Nadal wasn�t completely satisfied with his game. �This wasn�t my best day (note - I don�t know what the hell he�s talking about, he was very impressive and outsmarted Norman with wicked dropshots, his tactics were perfect), we played a tough match. But the important thing is that I won. This is my first semi-final after all.

�I expected Carlos to beat Ferrer, even though David is also a very good player. Realistically, I don�t have much of a chance against Moya, but I�m hoping for a good match, claims Nadal modestly, even though he has already beaten Moya this year, in the second round of TMS Hamburg, and in straight sets at that.

The young Spaniard appears to have adapted extremely well to the arena of professional tennis, he doesn�t seem to be bothered by the heavy competition. �Everyone has problems with the transition from junior tennis to the ATP tour. I was just a little luckier and I�m progressing very well. I never dreamed I would reach my first semi-final as early as in Umag, admitted Rafael.

In this year�s Wimbledon he proved that he can play well on grass as well, reaching the third round on the courts of the All England Club and upsetting Mario Ancic in the first round.

Rafael comes from a sporting family, his uncle is Miguel Angel Nadal, a former Spanish national team player, who played for Barcelona and Mallorca.

�I�m proud of that, it�s important to have a sportsman in the family. I trained to be a footballer for a long time, but I was better at tennis, so I decided to stick with that, explains the young Spaniard, and adds: �I admire players like Moya, Albert Costa and Fernando Gonzalez, but my greatest wish is to play against Andre Agassi. I hope this wish will one day come true.�

In Umag, he spends his spare time battling on the play station with Carlos Moya.



**Thanks to Layla for the translation from Croatian. Please do not use or copy without the permission of the original source and VamosRafael.com. Thanks.**

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