Rafael Nadal Parera: this world renowned tennis player - Case Study Example

Rafael played football and tennis in his early ages and was equally good at both them until his father made him decide between the two sports so as to maintain balance between his studies and sport activities. Since then, this man has been creating waves in the world of tennis and is currently ranked as the No. 1 tennis player by ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) also earning the moniker of ‘King of Clay’ due to his magnificent performance and triumphs on clay and has impelled the expertise to reward him as one of the greatest clay court sportsmen. Rafael is the winner of nine Grand Slam titles of singles; he became the Olympic gold medalist of singles in the year 2008, has maintained a record of 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series and was also included in the squad of Spain Davis Cup that conquered the finals in 2004, 2008 and 2009. He was the youngest player to win the 2010 US Open and was ranked as No. 7 in the history and is also the successor of Andre Agassi in completing the Career Golden Slam. 2008 proved to be exceptional for Nadal making him the winner of 32 matches starting at Masters Series Hamburg to the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters and finally making it to Women’s Open. His first title; Queen’s Club was awarded to him at Wimbledon also making him the proud owner of Rogers Cup. (Geoffrey, 2006) Nadal was ranked as the world’s second best tennis player after Roger Federer and held this position for a period of 160 successive weeks before achieving the top position which he boasted from August 18th to July 5th 2009. Nadal regained the top notch status i.e. world No. 1 position on June 7 2010 after his victory in 5th French Open. Playing Style Nadal usually prefers to plays staying the baseline; consistency, speed, ferocious ground strokes and persistent coverage of the court are some of his game features and characteristics which mark him as a magnificent player. He has always been able to defend his play in an excellent manner owing to the combination of dropshots and topspins which give the opponents a tough time to compete for. Nadal is stated to be an all rounder when it comes to changing positions on the court; he is constantly volleying between the baseline and positions close to the net. Initially Nadal’s serve was considered to be a weak point in his game; however he has improved a great deal since 2005 by improving on his break and first serve points which have earned him victories and titles on different surfaces. The trend that has been observed in his play is that he focuses on the uniformity of his game rather than aiming for points in his serve. Nadal has been innovating and improving his service style since 2010 by striking the trophy pose and aiming his racket lower during it. Later, the grip on his service was changed and modified to a continental approach. These two alterations in his style have speeded up his pace by an average of 10mph, the maximum being 135mph which enables him to score on his serve. Coming up with the appropriate strategies and maintaining a calm mind during a game is often the key to success; Nadal possesses both the qualities which makes his game even stronger. His optimistic attitude makes him play a consistent game constantly focusing on gaining steady points and is never affected even if the scoreboard displays points in his opponent’s favor. Nadal’s strategy is such that it enables him to access the varying factors such as ...Show more