Rafa Nadal (Classic) Book

Red clay clings to his shoes on Court Philippe-Chatrier, a surface he claimed fourteen times over, yet the calluses beneath the tape belong to a boy from a small village in Mallorca who never stopped being exactly that.

Rafa Nadal is the first comprehensive visual biography of the champion, created with his full participation and drawn from three decades of images, many never before published, from the private collections of Nadal, his family, and his inner circle. The narrative moves between the red clay of Roland-Garros and the streets of Manacor; the locker room and the Rafa Nadal Academy; global campaigns and unguarded days at sea.

Written by Jon Wertheim, 60 Minutes correspondent and senior writer at Sports Illustrated, whose Strokes of Genius chronicled Nadal's historic 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer, the volume resists the temptation to mythologize its subject, uncovering instead what Wertheim calls "the warrior next door." Reflections from Federer, King Felipe VI of Spain, wife Mery Perelló, and longtime coach Toni Nadal bring readers inside the private world behind twenty-two Grand Slam titles and fourteen Roland-Garros championships.

For those who admired not only the victories but the sacrifice behind them, Rafa Nadal is the definitive record of a champion who, in Federer's own words, will never come again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Wertheim is an award-winning journalist, author, and correspondent for CBS News’s 60 Minutes. He is also a senior writer and executive editor at Sports Illustrated and a commentator for Tennis Channel. For more than two decades, Wertheim has covered the world’s leading athletes and sporting events, including over 50 Grand Slam tournaments. The author of 11 books, Wertheim has written several New York Times bestsellers. His acclaimed tennis titles include Strokes of Genius, which chronicled the historic 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal and later inspired the documentary of the same name. Wertheim has received multiple Emmy Award nominations for his reporting on 60 Minutes and was honored by the International Tennis Hall of Fame with the Eugene L. Scott Award for his outstanding contributions to tennis journalism.