Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal (born June 3, 1986, Manacor, Majorca, Spain) is a Spanish tennis player. He is currently the world’s number two male tennis player-his highest career singles ranking-and the first man since Boris Becker to reach that spot before the age of 20.

Career In 2002, he won his first ATP match at Majorca at the age of 15, defeating Ramon Delgado to become the ninth player in the Open Era to win an ATP match before his 16th birthday.

In 2003, Nadal became the second-youngest player to be ranked among the world’s top 100 singles players. He finished the year in the top 50, winning two Challenger titles. At his Wimbledon debut in 2000, he became the youngest player (at age 13) to reach the 3rd round since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984.

By May 2005, he had reached the top 5 in world rankings, becoming the youngest player to break into the Top 10 since Andrei Medvedev in 1993.

Nadal has won ten titles in 2005, including three ATP Masters Series events (Monte Carlo, Rome and Montreal, defeating Guillermo Coria in the finals of Monte Carlo/Rome, and Andre Agassi in Montreal) and one Grand Slam title (Roland Garros, becoming the first player since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the tournament in his first attempt). He boasts a 44-2 match record on clay in 2005 and a 72-10 record on all surfaces this season, second only to Roger Federer, winning the most matches out of any player on the tour this year.

Nadal won 24 consecutive matches during early 2005, the longest winning streak of any teenager in the Open Era, topping Andre Agassi’s run of 23 matches in 1988.

In his Roland Garros debut, he claimed the title by defeating world number one Roger Federer in the semi finals on his 19th birthday on the way. At 19 years and two days, he became the sixth-youngest Grand Slam champion, and the fourth-youngest Roland Garros champion in the Open Era. He became the seventh player to win a Grand Slam in his first appearance at the event, and the first since Andre Agassi at the 1995 Australian Open. He became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Nadal is the first teenager to win six titles in a year since Agassi in 1988 at the age of 18.

Three days after his victory in Paris, his winning streak was snapped on the grass of Halle, Germany, where he was beaten by German Alexander Waske in the first round.

He was eliminated in the second round of Wimbledon, at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where he was seeded fourth, by Luxembourg player, Gilles Muller.

Nadal has a 35 match winning streak on clay from April till September 2005, and with his tournament victory in Stuttgart, he has become the first man since to win eight clay court titles in the same year (Thomas Muster held the previous record of seven titles on clay in 1995).

He was eliminated in the third round of the 2005 US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, by American James Blake. His second seed overall and third round U.S. Open performance were both career highs. He defeated Bobby Reynolds in the first round and Scoville Jenkins in the second, both Americans.