Grand Slams
United States
Tennis; the 4 Grand Slams: Australian Open / Roland Garros / Wimbledon / US Open
US Open
Men's Singles - 1st Round
Richard Gasquet(FRA) vs Rafael Nadal(ESP)
Arthur Ashe Stadium
Match scheduled:
02-09-2009 from 15:00 until 22:00
Day 3 - Second Round :: Grand Slam US Open 2009 - Flushing Meadows :: New York, USA
Complete Schedule of Play: The Schedule. Most channels showing the Centre Court or Court 1. We will try to keep the US Open channels as up to date as possible, as those show the most various coverage | Also be aware not all channels are showing tennis non stop. Some channels might have interruptions!
Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Majorca to Sebastián Nadal and Ana María Parera. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional football (soccer) player, having played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team.Nadal supports football clubs Real Madrid and RCD Mallorca. Recognizing that Rafael had a natural talent for tennis, his other uncle, Toni Nadal, a former professional tennis player, introduced him to tennis when he was three years old. Toni Nadal has been coaching him ever since.
At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 year regional tennis championship at a time where he was also a promising football player.This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and at that time he encouraged Nadal to play left-handed—for a natural advantage on the tennis court, as he noticed Nadal played forehand shots with two hands.When Nadal was 12, he won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group and was playing tennis and football all the timeNadal's father made him choose between football and tennis so that his school work would not deteriorate entirely. Nadal said: "I chose tennis. Football had to stop straight away."
When he was 14, the Spanish tennis federation requested that he leave Mallorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis progression and training. Nadal's family turned down this request, partly because they feared it would hurt his education, but also because Toni Nadal said that "I don't want to believe that you have to go to America, or other places to be a good athlete. You can do it from your home."The decision to stay home meant that Nadal received less financial support from the federation; instead Nadal's father covered the costs. In May 2001, he defeated former Grand Slam champion Pat Cash in a clay-court exhibition match.By the age of 16, Nadal was ranked in the world's top 50 players.
