Tidningen Tennis (Sweden)

November 5, 2024

By: Jonas Arnesen (translated from Swedish by Elina M�ntyl�)

Only the portions about Rafael Nadal have been translated. Thanks to Elina for both the translation and the scans. Click on each photo to enlarge scan.

The Spanish teenager talents have totally different conditions to get started internationally. Compare for example how many domestic tournaments Spain has compared to Sweden. Their biggest talent � Rafael Nadal � and our alike Robin S�derling have therefore not competed in the same �division�.

He is 17 years old and a huge talent. In case he doesn�t become a world star he can�t blame bad support or difficult conditions. Namely Rafael Nadal is Spaniard�

Many young tennis prospects have reason to look jealously at Rafael Nadal. Not because he would have greater talents than the others but because he has got an education that not least the Swedish juniors can only dream of.

- I�m aware that we Spaniards are very long ahead and even though I don�t go and think about it every day. I�m of course very thankful, says teenager from Manorca which is vacation island Mallorca�s second biggest town.

Even Carlos Moya, who for four years ago became Spain�s first and so far only no.1 ranked player, comes from �Mallis�. Many believe that Rafael Nadal can become island�s next world no.1.

- It has been very much talk around me this year and if I had listened all of that, I had thought that I�m already a star. But that I�m not, I have a long way to go, says the left-handed young man.

Well, actually it�s maybe wrong to call him left-handed. He namely does everything right-handed � except just play tennis.

- It just became that way when I started, says Rafael who hit his first shot when he was five years old.

- It was my uncle Toni who taught me and he still is my coach.

Maybe luck for Rafael and especially for tennis that his other uncle Miguel didn�t have the biggest influence in nephew�s sports career. Because Miguel Nadal is a football star and has played in the national team and Barcelona.

- I also played football until few years ago but thought that tennis was more fun, maybe because I had bigger success there.

But you are of course a loyal Barcelona supporter?

- (laughing) No, actually not. My team has always been Real Madrid and because they are the greatest rivals of Barcelona there was always lots of debate when Miguel played there. But now he plays for Mallorca so there�s no danger anymore.

On the courtside the young Spaniard gives a quiet, almost shy impression. It�s different on court. There he is full of adrenaline, grunts loud and plays wonderfully ruthless.

- If I meet a top player I tend to be quite nervous before and think that I don�t have any chances to beat him. Then it�s enough that I win some balls in the beginning and I will totally forget who is my opponent.

Rafael Nadal has this year defeated both Albert Costa and Carlos Moya, two of his countrymen who have won French Open.

- For them and other Spaniards I have less respect for than for foreign stars. In fact that�s not at all notable.

Already before he reached teenage Rafael namely got a chance to make closer relationship with Moya and other tennis stars of Spain.

- It�s part of our philosophy that the youngsters will get a possibility to learn from the older and more experienced, says Miguel Margets who is coach in the Spanish federation but also private coach for Tommy Robredo who just like Moya has been a mentor for Rafael Nadal.

Margets means that the Spanish team spirit reminds of the one that was found in the Swedish tennis in the 80s.

- In that time we actually had ourselves only two coaches in Spain and we travelled to Sweden to research what you had done to achieve so enormous success. We didn�t find any secret recipe but understood that the team relations are very important. At the same time that was emphasized the Spanish federation invested heavily in coach training. Above that was created possibilities for talents to compete in home ground.

- Maybe the most important is just to have many small tournaments in the own country, says Margets and explains:

- We mean that it is important to place 14-15-year-olds in a tough environment but that is not economically possible if the players have to travel abroad to compete. Our talents have many possibilities to compete in Spain and I think that is the greatest explanation to our success.

Spain has 30 Futures during the season and the Spanish players have in Futures and Satellites chance to play on home ground in total 46 weeks (equivalent number for the Swedish talents is two).

- There is not much money to win in those tournaments but that is actually only good. Otherwise maybe many players would be satisfied to reach that level but now they understand that they have to improve to survive, says Margets.

Rafael Nadal is a brilliant example how the Spanish system works:

2001 he won six Futures titles on home ground and had a match record 37-3. With this valuable �training� as a foundation he was soon ready for the next test.

Last year he became the ninth player ever win an ATP match before age of 16 and this year the progress has continued: During the three first months of the season he took his first Challenger title and reached three other finals before he began to make himself known also at the ATP tour.

Albert Costa got himself beaten by his young countryman in Monte Carlo Masters Series tournament and a month later Carlos Moya came short in Masters Series tournament in Hamburg.

- Obviously the wins meant a lot for confidence, says Rafael Nadal who has played in only four ATP tournaments when he this summer came to Swedish Open in B�stad.

There he beat last year�s finalist and crowd favourite Younes El Aynaoui, and soon became himself spectators� darling.

Rafael reached the first quarterfinal of his career in the Swedish tennis metropolis and had match points in an unusually well-played and besides extremely exciting match but lost to Nicolas Lapentti.

Some weeks after that the new Spanish comet reached semifinal in Umag.

After his 235th place in the rankings last year Rafael Nadal climbed up earlier this year to the top 100 list where he became the first 16-year-old since Michael Chang at the end of the 80s. At that time teenagers swarmed on the tour but while tennis has evolved comes breakthrough ever later. But of course there are some exceptions.

World number one Lleyton Hewitt was not even 17 when he five years ago conquered ATP title in home town Adelaide and won six more titles before leaving teenage behind himself.

How many titles Rafael is going to win before June 2006 when he will be 20? Impossible to answer of course. But in any case he has strongly decided contrary to many of his compatriots not to become a typical clay court player.

- I�m already working hard to improve on hard court and hopefully one day I will be so good on grass that I can win Wimbledon. That�s my biggest dream, says miracle child whose biggest threat against future success is that he won�t manage to improve his now quite weak backhand.

Miguel Margets highlights that Spanish players deliberately want to get rid of the name �typical clay court specialists�.

- The majority of the 5000 courts we have are clay courts so it�s evident that predominates playing style. But we are trying to become better on hard court and on fast indoor courts.

That will happen without losing the typical Spanish playing style. Swedish David Cup captain Mats Wilander means that is a very important explanation to Spain�s success.

- They learn to play tennis the same way, basic style is very much identical. That we had in the 80s all except Stefan Edberg and someone who tried to resemble Bj�rn Borg�s shots and then develop his own play from that. Now we have instead an identity crisis, says Wilander.

He and everyone else in tennis-Sweden struggle today with same problems than Miguel Margets & co faced before the 80s. Now the roles have switched. And Rafael Nadal is of course thankful for it � now he has a chance to refine his great talent�


**Many thanks to Elina for the translation. Please do not copy without permission of VamosRafael.com.**

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