18 years ago, Rafael Nadal Parera, a 15-year-old boy, made his first appearance in the Conde de Godó Trophy thanks to a wild card in the preliminary phase of 2002. He was defeated 6-2 and 7-5 by Italian Stefano Galvani. “He had an energy that was out of the ordinary for a boy of 15 years. I remember that, already in the first point of the rally, I had an incredible forehand winner. I knew him because we had played a few months before in the Seville Cup. I also beat him, but I already knew he was going to be a tremendous tennis player. At the end of the match, on court 1 in Barcelona. We barely said anything to each other, because neither he nor I were very talkative, ”recalls the Italian.
The next day, Nadal stepped on the center court to be presented by Santi Millán as one of the participants in the Sunday clinic ‘Nike’ in which he shared tennis and soccer touches, with Feliciano López, Carles Puyol, Lleyton Hewitt and Tomeu Salvà .
In 2003 the RCT gave him his first opportunity in the main draw
RCT Barcelona gave him in 2003 his first opportunity to play the main draw of the tournament and rub elbows, at his club, against the greats. He was awarded one of the five wild cards in the big picture along with Galo Blanco, Marc López, Fernando Verdasco and Juan Antonio ‘Juancho’ Marín. In that spring there was still no ‘Let’s go Rafa’, nor pirate pants, but the wick of the ‘Nadalmania’ had caught.
Everyone wanted to see that young man from Manacor in action. It was time for the first press conferences in which Rafa said things like “I would be a fool if I didn’t sign Carlos Moyá’s career now”, “I don’t know if being left-handed is an advantage”, “if I’m afraid of the pressure at 16 , I don’t know what will happen to me at 18 ”, or“ game to learn ”.
Nadal’s first steps in Barcelona
(Pedro Hernández)
Rafael Nadal appeared in Barcelona at just the right time. Just four weeks earlier, what those closest to youth tennis intuited began to crystallize with unstoppable force, like a diamond in the rough that only another diamond cuts. Juan Antonio Marín, his rival in Barcelona, was the exception witness.
Juancho Marín and Rafael Nadal had an excellent relationship. They were teammates at RCT Barcelona. Four weeks before the Conde de Godó Trophy they signed up to the Cagliari challenger, both in singles and as a couple in doubles. In the singles, fate led them to face each other in the quarterfinals, in a match in which Nadal won 6-2 and 7-6 (3) .Nadal reached the final, in which he was overtaken by Filippo Volandri, and, in doubles, the Nadal / Marín tandem fell in the quarterfinals.
He beat me in a game contested and battled at every point. But what surprised me the most was his attitude ”
Costa Rican by birth, but sculpted as a tennis player in Spain, Juancho Marín, current head of the Murcia Tennis Club school, was a clay gladiator. In that match in Cagliari he was surprised by something special about Nadal. “He beat me in a game contested and battled at every point. But what surprised me the most was his attitude. The challengers of the ground season were very tough, and he, despite his age, and the little he had competed in the category, was not intimidated at all. I was just thinking about competing. ”
After Cagliari, Nadal and Marín coincided in another of the classics; Barletta’s challenger. Juancho reached the semifinals, but Nadal raised the bar and won the tournament, beating rivals from the entity of Rubén Ramírez, Martín Vassallo Argüello, Albert Montañés, Thomas Behrend and Albert Portas in the final. “The players were watching him in detail. We saw that it was special, very special, ”recalls Marín.
Nadal’s first steps in Barcelona
(Pedro Hernández)
They did not meet again until Barcelona. And fate, with Nadal as the innocent hand of the draw, matched them in the first round of the Conde de Godó Trophy. Marín remembers the feelings of what was a fateful day for him. “I prepared the game thinking about our match weeks before in Cagliari. I thought it was going to be another battle, scratching point by point. But it was an ordeal. I found an absolutely different player ”, explains Marín.
“Suddenly I couldn’t play with him. Only powerful and winning shots came to me from one side of the track to the other. I didn’t know how to do anything else, but by running and fighting it wouldn’t stay. He dominated me 4-0 and I thought he was going to screw me up. I had never had such a feeling. But the next game I got 40-0, and I told myself I should avoid 6-0. At the next point, Nadal threw a powerful crusade at me but I went to fight it and I fell. I missed the point, but the worst part is that my knee cracked. I held out until 6-0, and asked for the presence of the physio who told me that there was no point in continuing. I had torn my ligament. I was on leave for four months. ”
What had happened in just two weeks? Why did Nadal become impossible for Marín in 15 days? Why did Nadal change speed? The answer had to be found at the Monte Carlo Country Club.
It was the hardest game mentally of my career ”
While Marín was preparing his participation in the Conde de Godó Trophy, Nadal signed up for the first Masters 1000 of his career. He surpassed the previous phase of Monte Carlo defeating Eschauer and Stoliarov. And, already in the final draw, he first defeated Karol Kucera, number 49 in the ATP ranking, and then his first top-ten, Albert Costa, number 7 in the world and champion of Roland Garros.
“It was the mentally hardest game of my career,” acknowledged Nadal after that match against Costa that opened the doors to the world top-100. The Argentine Guillermo Coria, who would reach the final of the tournament in which he was overtaken by Juan Carlos Ferrero, stopped Nadal’s march on the French Riviera. “Without a doubt, that month was the month of change, the month that Rafa became a full-status player on the circuit,” explains Albert Costa, current director of the Conde de Godó Trophy.
After Marín, in Barcelona it was necessary to shoot ex officio, and no one like Álex Corretja knew how to do it to stop Rafael Nadal’s march. Corretja defeated the Majorcan by 3-6, 6-2 and 6-1 in two hours and 11 minutes. “I have never encountered a 16-year-old tennis player who plays at that level. It is something out of the ordinary and now I understand why in these weeks he has won so many games, ”Àlex explained after the match.
Rafael Nadal after winning the Open Sabadell Atlantico Barcelona against David Ferrer
(Julian Finney / Getty)
From that day of Sant Jordi in 2003 in which he lost to Corretja, Nadal won all the games he played in the Conde de Godó Trophy until Nicolás Almagro beat him in the 2014 quarter-finals. But Rafa continued to expand his love story with the RCTB-1899 and with the Conde Godó Trophy breaking records, until achieving in 2018 his eleventh title on the central court named after him.
His desire and champion character continue to star in priceless details. Last year, after being defeated by Austrian Dominic Thiem in the semifinals, Rafa marched on his way to the locker room. Albert Costa, tournament director, followed in silence. Suddenly Rafa went to Costa and said: “Now I know that I am going to win Roland Garros.” Weeks later, Rafa raised the Musketeers Cup for the twelfth time, beating Thiem in the final in Paris.
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