Joan Nadal, Rafa's cousin, debuts in a professional tournament

The Nadal family celebrated this Sunday the debut in a professional tournament of one of its members, Joan, son of Toni Nadal, who was invited to play the preliminary phase of the ITF M15 in Manacor, which is being held these days at the Rafa Nadal Academy on hard court.

Joan Nadal Vives, 16 years old, lost against Turkish Kuzey Cekirge, 20 and 14th seeded in this qualy, by 6-1 and 6-3, but surely he will never forget the day of his debut as a professional tennis player, more than 20 years after his cousin Rafa did it in an F10 held in Madrid. Curiously, the current world number two also started with a defeat against Spanish Guillermo Platel (2-6, 7-5 and 6-2). And you know what came next. In any case, only the boy will know if he wants to dedicate himself professionally to tennis.

Joan Nadal has an older brother, Toni (17), who also plays tennis, and whom he faced and won 6-3, 4-6 and 11-9 a few months ago in the quarterfinals of the Absolute Championship of Mallorca. Both are disciples of their cousin's Academy and there is no better environment and environment than that in which they can learn and develop.