Legendary Spaniard, Rafael Nadal has continuously reached new heights throughout his illustrious career. The Spaniard has been one of the most recognizable faces in tennis, recognized even by those who hardly follow the sport. However, while growing up, the Spaniard excelled in a plethora of sports and he could’ve easily chosen another sport as his career.
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One such sport is soccer. Even to this day, Nadal has an undying love for soccer as he both plays the sport and follows his favorite team, Real Madrid, passionately. In one of his old interviews, the eight-time Grand Slam winner, Andre Agassi, echoed such thoughts as he talked about Rafa?s sheer fitness and how he could imagine him fitting in as a forward in soccer.
Andre Agassi on how Rafael Nadal would’ve been a great soccer player
In an interview dating back to 2012 with Club Industry, Andre Agassi spoke about Nadal. The interview focused on varied subjects, like his memoir, their company, BILT, and much more. During the interview, the managing editor of CI asked Agassi?s opinion on strength training being a part of their fitness regime that had just started back then.?
In return, Agassi responded by saying, ?Now you?re starting to see in tennis a whole different set of circumstances take place.? He further continued, ?You?re looking at a guy like Rafa Nadal, who you could envision as a running back. I could see him on ESPN as a forward in soccer doing a scissor kick scoring the winning goal. The guy is an absolute stud who relies on his strength to not only push guys around but to be out there for six hours in a ballistic, urgent manner.?
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Rafa holds a unique record of staying at the number 1 ranking for 209 weeks. In addition, he has won 22 Grand Slam titles and has triumphed on every surface. While he has won 91 ATP singles titles overall, 62 of those have come on clay courts.?
Head-to-head record of Nadal and Agassi
The Spanish champion and the American veteran have played only 2 matches against each other. Nadal won both of them. The first time these two played was in 2005 at the ATP Masters 1000 Canada finals, where Agassi went down against Nadal with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 2-6.?
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And talking about their second and ultimate match, the duo faced each other at the round of 32 at Wimbledon in 2006. Again, Nadal defeated the 52-year-old 7-6, 6-2, 6-4