Rafael Nadal is one of the legends in tennis history. The Spaniard is the King of clays court and has 15 Grand Slams. He has also won a record 30 Masters 1000 titles, tied with Novak Djokovic.
In 2003, he defeated the reigning Roland Garros champion Monte Carlo Masters when he was 16 year old.
Speaking in an interview, Nicolas Almagro described how great Nadal and he believes former world number 1 to be the best player ever in tennis history.
“He is easy and tough at the same time. He is a guy who is trying to be the best ever in a sport like this. There are a few words for it.” Almagro said.
“He belongs to another level, like Federer and Djokovic. They overcame amazing guys like Sampras, Borg, McEnroe. Hopefully yes, but it’s clear that what you had over the last years is difficult to repeat.” Almagro added.
Nadal and Roger Federer shared the longest final in Wimbledon history of 4 hours and 48 minutes.
“Having a Rafa Nadal, who can be the best player ever, in your country is almost impossible. Or a Federer, who was at the top for a long time is not easy. We had 20 Spanish players on the top 100. It seems easy but it’s very complicated.” Almagro said.
“Tennis clubs were very important, we had a good weather and people like Moya, Costa, Bruguera. They were a mirror for us and we wanted to be like them.” he added.
The 33-year-old tennis player was named The Greatest Spanish sports star in history by readers of Spanish sports paper Diario Marca and soon will be The Greatest Tennis Player of All Time.
Nadal on the other hand, is one of the true gentlemen to have played tennis, according to his coach uncle Toni Nadal.
“He (Nadal) has never broken a racket in anger. It would be showing a lack of respect to people who actually have to buy the equipment to play the sport.” Toni said.