Rafa Nadal, who turns 34 this Wednesday, leaves no one indifferent when he plays his games on a tennis court. The Balearic has become one of the great figures of tennis thanks to his sporting successes and the claw and courage that he displays during impossible points.
However, Nadal also tends to star in a series of actions during games that attract fans' curiosity given the Balearic's meticulousness. Below we review some of them.
The bench bottles lined up
One of Nadal's best-known hobbies is to line up the bottles on the bench during the break between games. A ritual that he explained in a television interview. “If I don't do the bottle thing, I am sitting down and maybe I am distracted thinking about other things. When I always do the same things, I am focused on what I have to do and the head is always awake for me to think purely about tennis “
The talisman clock
Nadal usually plays his games with a watch on his right wrist, a custom suggested by King Juan Carlos I and which, for the moment, is giving him good results on the circuit.
The touch of the underpants
When removing Rafa Nadal, he usually adjusts his underpants before taking his serve. This action has already been used as a mockery by some tennis players such as Juan Martín del Potro and that phrase of “we are going to remove Nadal's breeches from the ortho” before Argentina and Spain were measured in the Davis Cup final. A hobby that even his uncle Toni Nadal has not been able to change and that continues to bring luck to the man from Manacor.
Clean line and slippers
Before each service, Nadal makes sure that both the line and the soles of his shoes are perfectly clean to execute the service without any concern. In addition, he discards one of the three balls that the ball catchers supply him at the beginning of each point when he has the service.