It was April 18, 2005 when the almost 19-year-old Rafael Nadal reached the 11th position in the world ranking, becoming one of the youngest in the history of tennis to achieve this milestone. But who were the top 10 of that period that preceded it? The leaderboard spoke like this: Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Guillermo Coria, Tim Henman, Carlos Moya (his current manager), Gaston Gaudio, David Nalbandian and Andre Agassi.
The players who came closest to the Manacor bull, as far as personal data is concerned, were Roddick who was 22, followed by Nalbandian, Coria and Federer (the only one still present in the circuit) who were 23. Instead, the most successful of those present in the top 10 at the time, Agassi, was 34 years old, almost double the age of the Spaniard.
The Majorcan, however, was about to overturn this ranking by placing first in tenth place the week after and then finishing the year in second position, after a season on clay that consecrated him to the whole world by winning Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and his first of the thirteen Roland Garros.
Among other things in his career Nadal is ahead, in head-to-head matches, against all the tennis players who were above him in the standings on April 18, 2005. The only one who at least managed to equalize the score was Gaudio: the score in fact speaks of 3-3.
Against the others, the head to head reads like this: 24-16 against Federer, 7-4 against Hewitt, 2-0 against Safin, 7-3 against Roddick, 4-1 against Coria, 2-0 against Henman, 6-2 against Moya, 5-2 against Nalbandian and 2-0 against Agassi.
Against these ten, among other things, the almost 36-year-old Spaniard took home 19 titles, 14 of which won against Roger.
Rafa made a terrific comeback on the ATP tour
In a recent interview with The Sun, World No. 5 Rafael Nadal disclosed that while he “loves kids,” he will probably wait until his sporting career is over before starting a family.
“I would love to have children: boys, girls… I’m a person who loves kids and I’m a family guy. But also I tell you that the reality is, the years keep passing, I would like to start to do all of this when my sporting life determines it,” said Nadal.
This is not the first time Nadal has shared his views about having kids. In an interview with the ATP in 2020, he stated he “could have had children before” if he had retired from the sport. “I didn’t know.
If I didn’t see myself playing tennis… then possibly, I could have had children before. It’s not something that just depends on you. I love children and I would like to form part of a family, and at the age, we are now we’re not going to wait five years,” mentioned Nadal.