Rafael Nadal remains one of tennis’ greatest-ever players, and his legend has not diminished since retiring in 2024.
In fact, it could be argued that it has only grown in stature, with many only realising now just how impressive what he accomplished over all those years truly was.
And yet, despite being heralded as an all-time great, he insists that people used to always get one thing wrong about him.
Speaking to BBC Sport, whilst recounting that iconic 2008 Wimbledon final victory, Rafael Nadal has sought to set the record straight.
Rafael Nadal shares what people always used to get wrong about him
He began by sharing his emotions in the run-up to that encounter with Roger Federer, which is widely regarded as the greatest Grand Slam final ever.
Nadal admitted: “To be able to beat the best player on grass in a final, after all the things that happened during the match, was something to be proud of.
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“But I was a player that, because of my character, I was never 100% in peace.
“I had achieved that, but now I have to keep going. That’s the way my mind worked all my tennis career – and that’s what I did.”
However, later on he would outline his desperation to succeed on grass, a surface where he actually felt comfortable.
Nadal added: “I always had in my mind that I need to play well on grass and in every surface to become a complete player.
“I was not that bad. The truth is, I was achieving a lot on hard and grass courts but, because I was winning on clay, people considered me a clay-court player.”
Nadal recently said he plans to go into full-time coaching, when discussing his future plans regarding tennis.
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The statistics certainly back up Nadal’s argument.
After all, whilst on paper it was his worst surface of the three main options, it was only narrowly so.
In the least surprising revelation of all time, clay was Nadal’s best surface. Nobody will ever dominate as he did on the dirt on any surface. It was unnatural.
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As such, he has an 89% win rate on the surface to boot.
The next best was hard courts, with a 79% win rate, which only narrowly beats out grass on 78%.
Nadal won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles on the clay of Roland Garros, two on Wimbledon’s grass, and the rest between the US Open and Australian Open, which are hard courts.
