Photo courtesy of reiko

Seventeen-year-old Spanish player RAFAEL NADAL has a great deal in common with his 26-year-old mentor, CARLOS MOYA. They both are from Mallorca, they practice together, they share a coach during ATP events, they sometimes play doubles together and, in their spare time, they battle on Playstation. They even share an unusual trait: Moya plays right-handed, but writes with his left hand. Nadal plays left-handed, but writes with his right hand.

The prot�g� stunned his mentor in straight sets the first time they played in Hamburg in May. Moya predicted a different result at the Croatia Open in July. According to the tournament director, Slavko Rasberger, Moya told Nadal, "You can win here, but only when I stop playing." When he learned he was to play Nadal in the semifinal, Moya said, "We might even practice again tomorrow, I don't know, but when we step out onto the court, I need to forget about who I'm playing and everything else."

Nadal and Moya did not practice before the match, which likely was Nadal's choice. Moya admitted, "We've been playing this week and I've been winning most of the tie breaks." During one practice, Nadal and Moya made a bet. Moya won, causing Nadal to drop on all fours and crawl slowly along the net from one side of the court to the other, and back again -- to Moya's amusement and the spectators' applause.

After winning the semifinal, 6-4, 6-4, Moya expressed relief, "Now I can say I beat Nadal. This is the time to beat him, he's improving a lot so I needed to get a win while he was still young." Moya may have a point. Nadal plans to outdo his mentor. "Moya is a great player, he was once #1 in the world," says Nadal, "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." Nadal was right. Not only did he win his first ATP title in Croatia, in doubles, but the next week he won the prestigious Segovia challenger, moving into the Top 50 for the first time.



**Thanks to Layla for the translation of certain quotes from Croatian, as they were used in the article. Please do not use or copy without the permission of the original source and VamosRafael.com. Thanks.**

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