The tennis world has heard the story of his uncle, Toni Nadal, essentially telling the 6-year-old Nadal, “You throw one racket and I’m no longer your coach. There are millions of kids in the world who would love a racket and don’t have one.”
Marc Lopez, Rafa’s close friend who played doubles with Nadal on Wednesday night, smashed a racket when the pair were playing a doubles match here a couple of years ago. At practice the next day, Nadal told Lopez, “Don’t ever do that again or we won’t play together anymore.” Lopez looked at him as if he was joking. “No, I’m serious,” Rafa shot back. “Don’t ever do it again.”
