The Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar (RNA) is a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

training center on the island of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...

, Spain. It was founded in 2016 by tennis great

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...

and located in his hometown of

Manacor Manacor () is a town and municipality on the island of Mallorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is the second largest town in Mallorca, after the capital of Palma. The municipality has tourist areas such as P ...

. The inaugural director is

Toni Nadal Antonio "Toni" Nadal Homar (; born 21 February 1961) is a Spanish tennis coach. Toni Nadal is the uncle and ex-coach of tennis player Rafael Nadal, the elder brother of Spanish professional footballer Miguel Ángel Nadal, and the current coach of ...

, Rafa's uncle and longtime coach.

History and facilities

Nadal founded the Rafa Nadal Foundation in 2008 and opened his first tennis school, the Nadal Educational Tennis School, in the Anantapur Sports Village in India in 2010. The Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor broke ground in November 2014. Operations began in June 2016 and an opening ceremony was held on 19 October 2016. At its opening, the academy was led by

(who stepped away from coaching his nephew the following year) and Nadal's longtime agent Carlos Costa. Nadal's new coach, former world

Carlos Moyá Carlos Moyá Llompart (; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he was part of his country's succ ...

, was the technical director. The campus in Manacor has 23

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface ...

s (19 outdoor, 4 indoor), 20

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. T ...

s (13 outdoor, 7 semi-indoor), 12

padel Padel ( es, Pádel) is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Scoring is the same as normal tennis, and the balls used are similar but with a little less pressure. The main ...

courts (6 outdoor, 6 indoor), two

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

courts, a

football pitch A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is typically made of natural t ...

, and two swimming pools (outdoor and indoor). There are also a

sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since th ...

facility and an

international school An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body a ...

, the Rafa Nadal International School, for 10- to 18-year-olds. Among the tournaments held on the site is the

Rafa Nadal Open The Rafa Nadal Open is a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's ...

on the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP ...

Notable people

Coaches

Pedro Clar Pedro Clar Rosselló (born 23 January 1986) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player. Clar, born in Llucmajor, was at a time the second ranked Mallorcan player on tour behind Rafael Nadal. He reached a best world ranking of 237 ...

(technical director) *

(director) *

Gustavo Marcaccio Gustavo Marcaccio (born 3 May 1977) is an Argentine tennis coach and former professional player. Tennis career Marcaccio, a native of Buenos Aires, played collegiate tennis in the United States for Arizona State University in the late 1990s, via ...

Nuno Marques Nuno Miguel Bacelar de Vasconcelos Marques (born 9 April 1970) is a Portuguese former tennis player. He was the first Portuguese to reach the top 100 ATP rankings and held the record of highest ranked Portuguese player in history until Freder ...

* Tomeu Salvá * Gabriel Urpí

Alumni

Carlos Alcaraz Carlos Alcaraz Garfia (born 5 May 2003) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked as the world No. 1 singles player by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Alcaraz has won six ATP Tour singles titles, including ...

* Alex Eala *

Martín Landaluce Martín Landaluce Lacambra (born 8 January 2006) is a Spanish tennis player. Landaluce has a career high ITF junior combined ranking of No. 1 achieved on 27 February 2023. He also has a career high ATP singles ranking of No. 855 achieved on 22 ...

Jaume Munar Jaume Antoni Munar Clar (; ; born 5 May 1997, in Majorca) is a Spanish professional tennis player. Munar has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 52 achieved on 20 May 2019. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 149 achieved o ...

Casper Ruud Casper Ruud (born 22 December 1998) is a Norwegian professional tennis player. Ruud has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2, achieved on 12 September 2022, making him the highest-ranked Norwegian tennis player in history. He has won nine ...

Abdullah Shelbayh Abedallah Shelbayh ( ar, عبد الله شلبيه, eabd allah shalabih; (also known as Abdullah Shelbayh ( ar, عبدالله شلبيه, eabdallah shalabih; born 16 November 2003) is a Jordanian tennis player. Shelbayh has a career-high ATP s ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafa Nadal Academy Tennis academies 2016 establishments in the Balearic Islands Rafael Nadal Manacor