What Rafael Nadal once shouted at his opponent on clay during a changeover which ‘threw him off’ completely

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In 2005, Rafael Nadal kick-started his dominance on clay, which would last for the best part of two decades on the ATP Tour.

Nadal won a maiden French Open title that year, defeating Mariano Puerta in the final to hoist the trophy on Court Philippe Chatrier for the first of 14 times.

The Spaniard also emerged victorious at the Monte-Carlo Masters, and in his debut appearance at the Italian Open, he won the tournament.

In Nadal‘s first championship match in Rome, he met Guillermo Coria for the second time in a month, having beaten him in the Monte-Carlo final earlier in the clay swing.

They provided one of the best ATP Masters 1000 finals in history, in which the future king of clay came out on top after five sets.

Guillermo Coria recalls his match in Rome with Rafael Nadal

Recalling the bout with Nadal in Rome, Coria said: “He had beaten me in Monte-Carlo, and then he beat me in Rome, but it was an electrifying match.

“I remember it as if it were yesterday. I break. I have a double break point. I look at him because it’s an important moment, and I see that he’s signalling to his friend that he has nothing left in him; he was very tired.

“We had been playing for four hours. It was a very intense match; very long. I sat down and relaxed a little.

“When the umpire called ‘time’, he was on the other side and was coming over to my side. He ran in front of me shouting: ‘Come on, let’s do this.’

“He began celebrating. He was jumping around. He had got his energy back, and he began to speed up too. He threw me off a little mentally.

“He was very young. It was surprising for someone of his age. Nowadays, we don’t see players like Rafa in his heyday, at his age, with the [same] mental and physical strength.”

Guillermo Coria’s record on the ATP Tour against Rafael Nadal

In 2003 Coria won his first meeting with Nadal, beating the teenager in straight sets at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

That day marked the last time he would best the eventual 22-time Grand Slam champion, however, as he went on to lose their next four clashes.

Following their 2005 matchups on clay, they met again in the final in Beijing that year, where Nadal triumphed in their only hard-court face-off.

Coria lost the last time he went toe-to-toe with the legend, suffering a straight-sets defeat in Monte-Carlo during the 2006 season.