Tweet
Odg: ATP - RAFAEL NADAL
Cuando Nadal es Rafelet
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/depor...lpepudep_9/Tes
When Nadal is Rafelet
The four-time Roland Garros champion and candidate to win the Wimbledon grass court tournament is quite clear about his native land: Manacor (Mallorca). He lives there protected by a powerful family clan who make sure he keeps his feet on the ground.
"Rafael has gone fishing with his girlfriend, Xisca. These days we've preferred not to train, or speak to the press." It is a little after 9.30 am, and Toni Nadal, uncle, coach and shadow to tennis champion Rafael Nadal, is meticulously vacuum cleaning the upholstery of his impressive white Mercedes, at a gas station with a wash-it-yourself facility on the industrial estate in Manacor. Here nobody takes any notice of him, perhaps because, in this Mallorcan town, the Nadals are a famous clan, and Toni one of its best known members, although he is not a star like his nephew. "It's all the same. Rafael also cleans his car at the gas stations around here and nobody bothers him," he says. Really?
It is difficult to believe that tennis' world number two, the guy who has just beaten Roger Federer in Paris, bringing home his fourth consecutive Roland Garros trophy, who at 22 years of age has already won 18 million dollars in prize money and, as of tomorrow, will take the Swiss on again on the grass of Wimbledon, spends his holidays personally cleaning his own car.
"You've got to have your feet on the ground. This tennis business is something transitory. You have to know we are all equal and that you've got to respect the others." Toni Nadal, an upright Mallorcan, probably thinks the only way to own the latest model Mercedes without arousing jealousy is to wash it yourself. Modesty, a low profile, are indispensable conditions for enjoying success.
Quite a plan, apparently to counteract the destructive influence of the cohort of flatterers that surround the famous, of the sponsors willing to satisfy the star's slightest whim, of the tournament organizers that demand him and overwhelm him with attention. "He's just one of many," appears to be his uncle's maxim, although he never ceases to be given presents and be showered with VIP cards by airlines. Just one of many, despite rolling in millions. Manacor is a key port of call in this plan of making sure he is well anchored to the ground. Here the people have known him since he was a child and nobody bats an eyelid at his presence. No sooner did he set foot in the town last Monday than the tennis megastar disappeared from the map to be replaced by the anonymous youth. It was a matter of taking off his Nike uniform - the shirt that leaves his extraordinary arms exposed, the pirate pants - and returning to the life he has always lived. Though the tennis player does move around Manacor without causing the slightest stir wearing sports clothes by his sponsor. He does not have a yacht moored at the quayside in Porto Cristo, where the family's summer residence is, but the car he gets around the island in - "he drives rather badly," says his uncle - is a gift from the automobile company of which he is the international image.
His father, , comes and goes in a Mercedes, but with his mobile phone glued to his ear, and wearing well worn clothing. "I prefer not to talk about Rafa; let Toni tell you, he knows everything," joked the man who takes care of handling our great tennis star's sponsors and advertisers. The Nadal clanhas that cohesion and harmony characteristic of those that have businesses in common. The limited company manages a considerable economic patrimony, but Mallorcan austerity takes priority in their lives: No excesses and much discipline. In the book says that one of his maxims for maintaining his paternal authority is always to pay the bill when the family go out for a meal. Rafa might well be an out of the ordinary tennis player who earns millions, "but at home he is just one of my children," his father has said.
Nobody could imagine a situation like that in the case of other tennis stars like Roger Federer. The first thing that surprises when you are introduced to the Spanish tennis player's environment is the almost village naturalness that prevails among the members of his family. The clan occupy a whole building in a square in the centre of Manacor, dominated by the gothic Virgen de los Dolores church. It is a tall modern sand coloured building that does not break the harmony of the whole, thanks to the shade of the stone and the venetian blinds. "It's all theirs. The 'palau', as the building is called, and the shops underneath. All except for one floor," commented a neighbour of the same age as the family patriarch, Rafael Nadal senior, who was conductor of the municipal band and an orchestral conductor. "He wasn't a bad musician, but he was far too arrogant," he added.
It is said that the patriarch's salary was the third largest paid by the Town Hall. Today, he still sits behind the wheel of his car when he leaves the house with one of his sons. The power of the grandfather can be seen in the nephew. While other top tennis players establish their residences in Monte Carlo or other tax havens,Nadal still lives in the house where he was born, mixing with the friends he has had since a teenager, obeying his parents and especially his uncle, like a serious minded boy. He is still a young man who does not raise his voice, who does not create problems, who does not cause scandals. In charge of managing his earnings is his father, who runs, among other family businesses, the importation of Climalit double glazing for which he has sole rights for the whole island. In addition, in recent years, the Nadals have invested in a luxury restaurant and have acquired various properties in this part of Mallorca.
"They have always been a family with money," commented Rafel, a monitor at Manacor tennis club, where Nadal played his first matches as a child and where he still trains when he is in town. "Of course, Rafa was already very good from when he was a little kid. A born fighter. But if your family doesn't support you, if they don't pay for you to attend tournaments at the beginning of your career, it's difficult for you to go far."
Rafel defends the thesis that Rafa's serve is weak because his height, 1.85 metres, is the worst possible. "He is short for serving flat and too tall for the topspin one." Quite a theory. This topspin style is what has converted the champion's left arm into that mass of muscle that flattens his opponents. Something like a 'mazinger zeta' launching an attack. , another one beaten by Nadal, still see him when he comes to Manacor. "Rafa," points out ,"is a normal guy. He goes out on the town some nights, comes to the club; it hasn't gone to his head at all." This is the mantra that is repeated by everybody in this town of some 30,000 inhabitants, governed by the Partido Popular (PP) with the support of Porto Cristo's . From the members of the municipal corporation to the young tennis players, from the shop assistants on the ground floor of his building to the waiters in the surrounding bars, all Manacor is in agreement.
"That's the way it should be. What's important is that each one is content with what he does. It is certainly not normal for a lad of 20 to stay at the most expensive hotel in the world, the Burj al Arab, in Dubai, as Rafa has done. But, at the moment of truth, the important things are the same for everyone," concluded his uncle. Toni Nadal, 48 years old, the man who has built the tennis player, who took charge of him when he was little more than three years old, does not mean that his nephew is perfect. "He's a lad like those of his age, maybe a bit better than the average, with little curiosity about the world. Tennis players go to play a tournament somewhere and don't bother to find out where it is. I've had to make my nephew go out into the street sometimes, to do a bit of sightseeing." Nadal is an exceptional sportsman, who loves practically all sports, but with very little interest in intellectual pursuits. Reading, the minimum. He has been completely absorbed by his career since before he became a professional. He did not even manage to finish high school.
As a child he went to the Carmelite nuns' school and then to the grant aided La Salle in Manacor. "One of his teachers told me that when Nadal won boys' championships as a child, they would all celebrate it in class, and he, embarrassed, would hide," says journalist Llorens Riera, from local newspaper Diario de Mallorca. The celebrations at school soon ended because Nadal had to abandon his studies at Son Sacs public senior high school in Palma. "We used to travel a lot even then and this made him lose continuity at school," recalled his uncle, while he parked the Mercedes in front of the house he is having built in Porto Cristo. On the other side of the harbour mouth is the Nadals' family residence.
And Rafael? Does he not want a house of his own? Is he not tempted by the luxuries his bank account could permit him? "Where is he going to be better than here?" answers his mother. Anna Maria Parera, herself a Manacorian, has been, according to many who know the family, the key influence on Rafa Nadal's character. A catholic, though not an especially practising one, she had her two children - Rafa, born 3 June 1986, and Maribel (five years younger) - baptized and they also took their first communion, and she made sure that the budding tennis player was not left to drift when he had to enrol in a tennis school in Palma. "She took the boy there and back every day," a neighbour told us. And, it must be true, for when Anna Maria is asked about the omnipresent influence of Toni on her son, her almost offended response is: "Toni has influence on the professional side; but, on the personal, in no way."
The Pareras, owners of a furniture factory in Manacor, have also played an important role in the shaping of Rafael Nadal. It is said that his maternal grandfather was scandalized when he won his first Roland Garros and he learned how much cash he had won. "He is just a mere boy. I think it's foolish for him to win so much money," he commented indignantly.
Anna Maria follows her son whenever she can. Sometimes she has to make do with watching the tournaments on television, because the tennis calendar is interminable. She does, however, travel to the US Open every year, and hopes to attend Wimbledon in a few days time. "Now that Maribel [the player's younger sister] has finished the academic year, we can travel." she says. She has no special aspirations for her son's stunning career. "I want him to do what he wants." Although she is delighted with everything he has achieved and the good friends he has made: "I had Nalbandian here at our house for two days, and Juan Monaco; Feliciano, too, who's a friend. They are all very nice."
Her son is, of course, something else. A kind of Peter Pan with a racquet not especially interested in growing up or becoming independent. It is as if the world number two were not disposed to cutting the umbilical cord that joins him to his parental home. Despite the temptations that surround stars, Nadal has a normal girlfriend; a discreet girl, two years younger than him, who studies business management and belongs to a Manacor family that are family friends.
"He's still the same as he was when he was 15 years old. He is very honest and very human, and he has a great personality that allows him to reach the public," says his friend and ex idol, tennis player , who is convinced a "good draw" will help him to win Wimbledon. He admits: "Off court he is just a youngster, on court he is a very mature player."
In Manacor he is Rafelet, far too domestic a hero to arouse passions. "We Mallorcans are pretty laid back," his Uncle Toni points out. "Neither here, nor in Barcelona is there the madness that you get in Madrid. When we're there, Rafa gets heaps of invitations to dinner sent to him. Here an invitation like that would never occur to anyone."
It is not that he has got anything against Madrid, but Toni Nadal insists time and time again that Mallorcans are closer to Catalonia. He, personally, could not be in more agreement with the new Balearic Government's campaign to promote Catalan as the islands' language. He also wants to make it clear that his ideology is rather progressive, although in their hometown they are considered PP sympathisers, with some reason: Rafael Nadal, another of the tennis player's uncles, was a member of the town council for this (conservative) party for twelve years and ex number two to the present mayor, Toni Pastor, a personal friend of another member of the clan, , ex Barcelona Football Club player and the first famous person in the family.
In the times when Jaume Matas (PP) was the Baleares president, the Nadals signed an agreement to create a top level tennis training centre (CAR) in Manacor which would bear the great tennis player's name. The change of government has spoiled all of that. "It doesn't make any sense to spend 13 million euros on an elite centre, especially when there isn't any money," explained Manacor Town Council opposition member Catalina Julve of . "Rafael Nadal has been like a big prize in the lottery for this town, but that doesn't mean we have to finance a centre of those characteristics with public money for him to act as advisor to."
The so-called has been left as a mere club with a dozen tennis courts for the young people of the town. There has been a total parting of the ways with the Nadals . Last January, the tennis player complained to the political leaders. "It hardly seems possible that I receive proposals from all over the world and they treat me badly in my own autonomous region," he arrived at saying, determined to remove his name from the centre.
The mayor, Toni Pastor (PP), thinks the Baleares government is not taking the advantage it should of the unquestionable pull Nadal has in order to promote the islands. "I was at Roland Garros and I was surprised that one of the sponsors was Tenerife," he complained. He is convinced, however, that the political rows will not alter the good relationship the tennis player has with his town.
Toni, Rafa Nadal's uncle, also takes care of that. The political storms blow straight past him when the champion is practising to achieve what no other Spanish men's player has done since Manuel Santana in 1966: to win on grass at the All England Club, Wimbledon (London). There is much at stake, because, as his coach admits, the problem now is not so much Federer as Djokovic, "a real number one" and on the ascent, eager for victories. He does not scare Nadal. The youngster from Manacor will return to being a mature player when he puts on his tennis outfit and takes up his racquet.
Cuando Nadal es Rafelet
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/depor...lpepudep_9/Tes
When Nadal is Rafelet
The four-time Roland Garros champion and candidate to win the Wimbledon grass court tournament is quite clear about his native land: Manacor (Mallorca). He lives there protected by a powerful family clan who make sure he keeps his feet on the ground.
"Rafael has gone fishing with his girlfriend, Xisca. These days we've preferred not to train, or speak to the press." It is a little after 9.30 am, and Toni Nadal, uncle, coach and shadow to tennis champion Rafael Nadal, is meticulously vacuum cleaning the upholstery of his impressive white Mercedes, at a gas station with a wash-it-yourself facility on the industrial estate in Manacor. Here nobody takes any notice of him, perhaps because, in this Mallorcan town, the Nadals are a famous clan, and Toni one of its best known members, although he is not a star like his nephew. "It's all the same. Rafael also cleans his car at the gas stations around here and nobody bothers him," he says. Really?
It is difficult to believe that tennis' world number two, the guy who has just beaten Roger Federer in Paris, bringing home his fourth consecutive Roland Garros trophy, who at 22 years of age has already won 18 million dollars in prize money and, as of tomorrow, will take the Swiss on again on the grass of Wimbledon, spends his holidays personally cleaning his own car.
"You've got to have your feet on the ground. This tennis business is something transitory. You have to know we are all equal and that you've got to respect the others." Toni Nadal, an upright Mallorcan, probably thinks the only way to own the latest model Mercedes without arousing jealousy is to wash it yourself. Modesty, a low profile, are indispensable conditions for enjoying success.
Quite a plan, apparently to counteract the destructive influence of the cohort of flatterers that surround the famous, of the sponsors willing to satisfy the star's slightest whim, of the tournament organizers that demand him and overwhelm him with attention. "He's just one of many," appears to be his uncle's maxim, although he never ceases to be given presents and be showered with VIP cards by airlines. Just one of many, despite rolling in millions. Manacor is a key port of call in this plan of making sure he is well anchored to the ground. Here the people have known him since he was a child and nobody bats an eyelid at his presence. No sooner did he set foot in the town last Monday than the tennis megastar disappeared from the map to be replaced by the anonymous youth. It was a matter of taking off his Nike uniform - the shirt that leaves his extraordinary arms exposed, the pirate pants - and returning to the life he has always lived. Though the tennis player does move around Manacor without causing the slightest stir wearing sports clothes by his sponsor. He does not have a yacht moored at the quayside in Porto Cristo, where the family's summer residence is, but the car he gets around the island in - "he drives rather badly," says his uncle - is a gift from the automobile company of which he is the international image.
His father, , comes and goes in a Mercedes, but with his mobile phone glued to his ear, and wearing well worn clothing. "I prefer not to talk about Rafa; let Toni tell you, he knows everything," joked the man who takes care of handling our great tennis star's sponsors and advertisers. The Nadal clanhas that cohesion and harmony characteristic of those that have businesses in common. The limited company manages a considerable economic patrimony, but Mallorcan austerity takes priority in their lives: No excesses and much discipline. In the book says that one of his maxims for maintaining his paternal authority is always to pay the bill when the family go out for a meal. Rafa might well be an out of the ordinary tennis player who earns millions, "but at home he is just one of my children," his father has said.
Nobody could imagine a situation like that in the case of other tennis stars like Roger Federer. The first thing that surprises when you are introduced to the Spanish tennis player's environment is the almost village naturalness that prevails among the members of his family. The clan occupy a whole building in a square in the centre of Manacor, dominated by the gothic Virgen de los Dolores church. It is a tall modern sand coloured building that does not break the harmony of the whole, thanks to the shade of the stone and the venetian blinds. "It's all theirs. The 'palau', as the building is called, and the shops underneath. All except for one floor," commented a neighbour of the same age as the family patriarch, Rafael Nadal senior, who was conductor of the municipal band and an orchestral conductor. "He wasn't a bad musician, but he was far too arrogant," he added.
It is said that the patriarch's salary was the third largest paid by the Town Hall. Today, he still sits behind the wheel of his car when he leaves the house with one of his sons. The power of the grandfather can be seen in the nephew. While other top tennis players establish their residences in Monte Carlo or other tax havens,Nadal still lives in the house where he was born, mixing with the friends he has had since a teenager, obeying his parents and especially his uncle, like a serious minded boy. He is still a young man who does not raise his voice, who does not create problems, who does not cause scandals. In charge of managing his earnings is his father, who runs, among other family businesses, the importation of Climalit double glazing for which he has sole rights for the whole island. In addition, in recent years, the Nadals have invested in a luxury restaurant and have acquired various properties in this part of Mallorca.
"They have always been a family with money," commented Rafel, a monitor at Manacor tennis club, where Nadal played his first matches as a child and where he still trains when he is in town. "Of course, Rafa was already very good from when he was a little kid. A born fighter. But if your family doesn't support you, if they don't pay for you to attend tournaments at the beginning of your career, it's difficult for you to go far."
Rafel defends the thesis that Rafa's serve is weak because his height, 1.85 metres, is the worst possible. "He is short for serving flat and too tall for the topspin one." Quite a theory. This topspin style is what has converted the champion's left arm into that mass of muscle that flattens his opponents. Something like a 'mazinger zeta' launching an attack. , another one beaten by Nadal, still see him when he comes to Manacor. "Rafa," points out ,"is a normal guy. He goes out on the town some nights, comes to the club; it hasn't gone to his head at all." This is the mantra that is repeated by everybody in this town of some 30,000 inhabitants, governed by the Partido Popular (PP) with the support of Porto Cristo's . From the members of the municipal corporation to the young tennis players, from the shop assistants on the ground floor of his building to the waiters in the surrounding bars, all Manacor is in agreement.
"That's the way it should be. What's important is that each one is content with what he does. It is certainly not normal for a lad of 20 to stay at the most expensive hotel in the world, the Burj al Arab, in Dubai, as Rafa has done. But, at the moment of truth, the important things are the same for everyone," concluded his uncle. Toni Nadal, 48 years old, the man who has built the tennis player, who took charge of him when he was little more than three years old, does not mean that his nephew is perfect. "He's a lad like those of his age, maybe a bit better than the average, with little curiosity about the world. Tennis players go to play a tournament somewhere and don't bother to find out where it is. I've had to make my nephew go out into the street sometimes, to do a bit of sightseeing." Nadal is an exceptional sportsman, who loves practically all sports, but with very little interest in intellectual pursuits. Reading, the minimum. He has been completely absorbed by his career since before he became a professional. He did not even manage to finish high school.
As a child he went to the Carmelite nuns' school and then to the grant aided La Salle in Manacor. "One of his teachers told me that when Nadal won boys' championships as a child, they would all celebrate it in class, and he, embarrassed, would hide," says journalist Llorens Riera, from local newspaper Diario de Mallorca. The celebrations at school soon ended because Nadal had to abandon his studies at Son Sacs public senior high school in Palma. "We used to travel a lot even then and this made him lose continuity at school," recalled his uncle, while he parked the Mercedes in front of the house he is having built in Porto Cristo. On the other side of the harbour mouth is the Nadals' family residence.
And Rafael? Does he not want a house of his own? Is he not tempted by the luxuries his bank account could permit him? "Where is he going to be better than here?" answers his mother. Anna Maria Parera, herself a Manacorian, has been, according to many who know the family, the key influence on Rafa Nadal's character. A catholic, though not an especially practising one, she had her two children - Rafa, born 3 June 1986, and Maribel (five years younger) - baptized and they also took their first communion, and she made sure that the budding tennis player was not left to drift when he had to enrol in a tennis school in Palma. "She took the boy there and back every day," a neighbour told us. And, it must be true, for when Anna Maria is asked about the omnipresent influence of Toni on her son, her almost offended response is: "Toni has influence on the professional side; but, on the personal, in no way."
The Pareras, owners of a furniture factory in Manacor, have also played an important role in the shaping of Rafael Nadal. It is said that his maternal grandfather was scandalized when he won his first Roland Garros and he learned how much cash he had won. "He is just a mere boy. I think it's foolish for him to win so much money," he commented indignantly.
Anna Maria follows her son whenever she can. Sometimes she has to make do with watching the tournaments on television, because the tennis calendar is interminable. She does, however, travel to the US Open every year, and hopes to attend Wimbledon in a few days time. "Now that Maribel [the player's younger sister] has finished the academic year, we can travel." she says. She has no special aspirations for her son's stunning career. "I want him to do what he wants." Although she is delighted with everything he has achieved and the good friends he has made: "I had Nalbandian here at our house for two days, and Juan Monaco; Feliciano, too, who's a friend. They are all very nice."
Her son is, of course, something else. A kind of Peter Pan with a racquet not especially interested in growing up or becoming independent. It is as if the world number two were not disposed to cutting the umbilical cord that joins him to his parental home. Despite the temptations that surround stars, Nadal has a normal girlfriend; a discreet girl, two years younger than him, who studies business management and belongs to a Manacor family that are family friends.
"He's still the same as he was when he was 15 years old. He is very honest and very human, and he has a great personality that allows him to reach the public," says his friend and ex idol, tennis player , who is convinced a "good draw" will help him to win Wimbledon. He admits: "Off court he is just a youngster, on court he is a very mature player."
In Manacor he is Rafelet, far too domestic a hero to arouse passions. "We Mallorcans are pretty laid back," his Uncle Toni points out. "Neither here, nor in Barcelona is there the madness that you get in Madrid. When we're there, Rafa gets heaps of invitations to dinner sent to him. Here an invitation like that would never occur to anyone."
It is not that he has got anything against Madrid, but Toni Nadal insists time and time again that Mallorcans are closer to Catalonia. He, personally, could not be in more agreement with the new Balearic Government's campaign to promote Catalan as the islands' language. He also wants to make it clear that his ideology is rather progressive, although in their hometown they are considered PP sympathisers, with some reason: Rafael Nadal, another of the tennis player's uncles, was a member of the town council for this (conservative) party for twelve years and ex number two to the present mayor, Toni Pastor, a personal friend of another member of the clan, , ex Barcelona Football Club player and the first famous person in the family.
In the times when Jaume Matas (PP) was the Baleares president, the Nadals signed an agreement to create a top level tennis training centre (CAR) in Manacor which would bear the great tennis player's name. The change of government has spoiled all of that. "It doesn't make any sense to spend 13 million euros on an elite centre, especially when there isn't any money," explained Manacor Town Council opposition member Catalina Julve of . "Rafael Nadal has been like a big prize in the lottery for this town, but that doesn't mean we have to finance a centre of those characteristics with public money for him to act as advisor to."
The so-called has been left as a mere club with a dozen tennis courts for the young people of the town. There has been a total parting of the ways with the Nadals . Last January, the tennis player complained to the political leaders. "It hardly seems possible that I receive proposals from all over the world and they treat me badly in my own autonomous region," he arrived at saying, determined to remove his name from the centre.
The mayor, Toni Pastor (PP), thinks the Baleares government is not taking the advantage it should of the unquestionable pull Nadal has in order to promote the islands. "I was at Roland Garros and I was surprised that one of the sponsors was Tenerife," he complained. He is convinced, however, that the political rows will not alter the good relationship the tennis player has with his town.
Toni, Rafa Nadal's uncle, also takes care of that. The political storms blow straight past him when the champion is practising to achieve what no other Spanish men's player has done since Manuel Santana in 1966: to win on grass at the All England Club, Wimbledon (London). There is much at stake, because, as his coach admits, the problem now is not so much Federer as Djokovic, "a real number one" and on the ascent, eager for victories. He does not scare Nadal. The youngster from Manacor will return to being a mature player when he puts on his tennis outfit and takes up his racquet.
Comment