No one has marked the sporting history of RCT Barcelona like him. 21 years ago, Rafael Nadal Parera, a 16-year-old boy, made his first appearance in the final draw of the Conde de Godó Trophy. After having a wild-card in the previous phase in 2002, in which he lost to Stefano Galvani, the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona granted him in 2003 his first opportunity to compete, in his club, against the greats. He awarded him one of the five wild cards in the main draw along with Galo Blanco, Marc López, Fernando Verdasco and Juan Antonio ‘Juancho’ Marín.
That spring there was still no such thing as ‘Vamos Rafa’, nor pirate pants, but the fuse of ‘Nadalmania’ had already been lit. Everyone wanted to see him in action. It was time for the first press conferences in which Rafa said things like “I would be a fool if I didn’t sign Carlos Moyá’s career now”, “I don’t know if being left-handed is an advantage”, “if the pressure scares me at 16 , I don’t know what will happen to me at 18”, or “I play to learn”.
Rafael Nadal showed up in Barcelona at just the right moment. Just four weeks before, what the technicians closest to youth tennis intuited began to crystallize with unstoppable force, like a diamond in the rough that only another diamond cuts. Juan Antonio Marín, his rival in Barcelona, ??was the exceptional witness.
Rafael Nadal and Juancho Marín had an excellent relationship. They were teammates at RCT Barcelona. Four weeks before the Conde de Godó Trophy, they signed up for the Cagliari challenger, both in singles and as a couple in doubles. In the singles, fate led them to meet in the quarterfinals, in a match in which Nadal won 6-2 and 7-6(3). Nadal then reached the final, in which he was beaten by Filippo Volandri, and, in doubles, the Nadal/Marín tandem fell in the quarterfinals.
Costa Rican by birth, but sculpted into a tennis player in Spain, Juancho Marín, current head of the Murcia Tennis Club school, was a clay court gladiator. In that match in Cagliari he was surprised by something special about Nadal. “He beat me in a contested and battled match on every point. But what surprised me most was his attitude. The challengers during the dirt season were very tough, and despite his age and how little he had competed in the category, he was not intimidated at all. He only thought about competing.”
After Cagliari, Nadal and Marín coincided in another of the classics; Barletta’s challenger. Juancho reached the semifinals, but Nadal raised the bar and won the tournament, beating rivals from Rubén Ramírez, Martín Vassallo Argüello, Albert Montañés, Thomas Behrend and Albert Portas in the final. “The players watched him in detail. We saw that it was special, very special,” Marín recalls.
They did not meet again until Barcelona. And fate, with Nadal as the innocent hand of the draw, paired them in the first round of the Conde de Godó Trophy. Marín remembers the sensations of what was a fateful day for him. “I prepared the game
thinking about our match weeks before in Cagliari. He thought it was going to be another battle, clawing point by point. But it was an ordeal. I found an absolutely different player,” explains Marín.
“Suddenly I couldn’t play with him. I only got powerful winners from both sides of the court. I didn’t know how to do anything else, but to run and fight so that I wouldn’t be left. He dominated me 4-0 and I thought he was going to screw me. I had never had a feeling like this. But the next game I was 40-0, and I told myself that I had to avoid 6-0. On the next point, Nadal threw a very powerful cross at me but I went to fight it and fell. I missed the point, but the worst thing is that my knee creaked. I held on until 6-0, and asked for the physio’s presence and he told me there was no point in continuing. I had torn my ligament. “I was out for four months.”
What had happened in just two weeks? What happened to make Nadal impossible for Marín in 15 days? Why did Nadal change speed? The answer had to be found at the Monte Carlo Country Club.
While Marín prepared his participation in the Conde de Godó Trophy, Nadal signed up for the first Masters 1000 of his career. He made it through Monte Carlo qualifying by defeating Eschauer and Stoliarov. And, already in the final draw, he first defeated Karol Kucera, number 49 in the ATP ranking, and then his first top-ten player, Albert Costa, world number 7 and Roland Garros champion.
“It was the toughest match mentally of my career,” Nadal acknowledged after that fight against Costa that opened the doors for him to the world top-100. The Argentine Guillermo Coria, who would reach the final of the tournament in which he was beaten by Juan Carlos Ferrero, stopped Nadal’s progress on the Côte d’Azur. “Without a doubt that month was the month of change, the month in which Rafa became a full-status player on the circuit,” explained Albert Costa.
After Marín, in Barcelona it was necessary to take action, and no one like Álex Corretja knew how to do it to stop the march of Rafael Nadal. Corretja defeated the Mallorcan 3-6, 6-2 and 6-1 in two hours and 11 minutes. “I have never met a 16-year-old tennis player who plays at that level. It is something out of the ordinary and now I understand why in these weeks he has won so many games,” Àlex explained after the match.
Since that day of Sant Jordi in 2003 when he lost to Corretja, Nadal won every match he played in the Conde de Godó Trophy until Nicolás Almagro beat him in the 2014 quarterfinals.
Alex de Minaur closed his pass to the third round of the tournament a few days ago in a tournament that Rafa has won 12 times. On the court, despite limitations due to injuries, the same ability to spread enthusiasm and respect to spectators and rivals.
