Every legendary sports star began their journey somewhere and with Rafael Nadal preparing to wave goodbye to tennis, it’s intriguing to take a look at where it all started.
Born in Mallorca to a sports-mad family, Nadal was picking up a tennis racket in super quick time and it wasn’t long before everything else paled into insignificance behind tennis.
At 38-years-old, Nadal has decided enough is enough. He doesn’t feel he can compete how he wants to anymore and after this week’s Davis Cup he will sail off into the sunset.
Nadal received a heartwarming message from Roger Federer ahead of his final tournament. The pair had many great battles down the years and it’s a rivalry that will perhaps remain unopposed in the future of tennis.
For Nadal, it all began on the ATP Tour in April 2002 when he was just 15-years-old. It was the start of an iconic career and from that very moment, it was abundantly clear that Nadal was special.
Ramon Delgado: The first player to lose to Rafael Nadal on the ATP Tour
Meet Ramon Delgado, the very first player to ever lose to Nadal on the ATP Tour. The fateful day came on April 29th, 2002 and Nadal was invited to play in the Mallorca Open as a wildcard.
Nadal was handed the opportunity by the tournament director. Despite going into the tournament as a rank outsider sat 762nd in world tennis, he simply blew Delgado away.
The Spaniard won 6-4, 6-4 against Delgado. He emphatically defeated a player who was 81st in the world at the time and proved himself to be a very consistent clay-court player during his career.
This result was actually a huge one for Nadal. He climbed almost 200 places in the world rankings and managed to ride the momentum to claim six Future Tour titles in a row and won nine honours that year.
Delgado enjoyed good moments during unfulfilled career
Like many players who try their best to make it on the professional tennis circuit, Delgado did enjoy some moments in the sun but never really fulfilled his dreams in terms of trophies.
The Paraguayan never won a title playing either singles or doubles and failed to make it beyond the fourth round in any of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Clay was clearly his favoured surface. In 1998 he enjoyed his finest moment in professional tennis when he sent Pete Sampras packing in straight sets at the French Open.
Delgado was eventually beaten by Spanish 15th seed Felix Mantilla in the fourth round and as far as the majors were concerned that was as fruitful as things got.
A retirement announcement came in May 2011 and he finished playing tennis with a career-high ranking of 52 and amassed $1.3 million in prize money.
Delgado started coaching shortly after he finished playing and captained Paraguay in the 2015 Davis Cup.
Perhaps rightly or wrongly, people will know who Delgado is, given he’s the man who played in the match when everyone realised that in Nadal there was a new kid on the block when it came to the ATP Tour.
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