The blissful feeling of having his son watch his matches will never get old for Rafael Nadal, but the tennis legend has jokingly suggested he seems to have lost more matches than he has won since Rafael Nadal Junior’s arrival.
Nadal and his wife Maria Francisca Perello became first-time parents in October 2022 as they welcomed a son named Rafael Nadal Junior into the world.
With former world No 1 Nadal missing the bulk of the 2023 season due to injury, his son was unable to see his father in live action during his first year, but that changed in 2024.
Rafa Jr travelled to Australia with his parents as Nadal competed at the Brisbane International while the little one was also in attendance at the Netflix Slam in Las Vegas, the Barcelona Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, French Open and Paris Olympics.
The two-year-old latest high-profile appearance came at the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh when his father took on Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner went down 6-3, 6-3 against his young compatriot and during the post-match on-court interview, it was put to Nadal: “It must be nice to have baby Rafa here with your wife and family. He thinks you’re great whether you win or lose… he was jumping up and down like crazy.”
And the 38-year-old hit back with a funny reply, saying: “Well I don’t think I’m great. Since he arrived to the world I lost more than I won [but] at the same time having him here helps all the tough moments I’ve been through the last couple of years,” he said.
“He behaves very well even when it’s late. I’m happy.”
For the record, Nadal is 12-7 in singles matches since the start of the year while he also lost exhibition encounters against Alcaraz in Las Vegas and Riyadh.
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The tennis great – who announced he will retire after the Davis Cup Finals in November – has made no secret of the fact that he wants his son to watch him as often as possible before he hangs up his racket.
“I would love to play a little bit longer and give him a memory of myself playing tennis,” he said earlier this year. “That’s what will be the ideal thing for me and for my wife and family.”
The Spaniard added: “Probably I will not be able to make that happen. But at least I’m happy to have a great team and family and friends around me during all my life that helped me in every single way of being happy.”
Rafa Jr will see his father again in action on Saturday as Nadal will take on Novak Djokovic in the third-place playoff on Saturday.
It will likely be the last time they meet, although it will be in an unofficial capacity.
“To have Novak in front of me, it’s like a nostalgic thing,” Nadal said. “We’ve played each other a lot, so it’ll be fun to play each other again in this match.”
