Rafa Nadal: El rey de la tierra

by Christopher Clarey, Raquel García Ulldemolins (Translator)

From the  New York Times bestselling author of The Master , comes an intimate, original biography of tennis’s enduring champion Rafael Nadal.

After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world’s preeminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Rafael Nadal, the indomitable and inspiring force of nature from Spain who has been one of the most relentless competitors in any sport. THE WARRIOR examines Nadal’s mindset and most mind-blowing 14 French Open titles. Nadal has won big and won often on tennis’s other surfaces en route to becoming one of the greatest players of all securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and four U.S. Open titles on cushioned acrylic hardcourts. But clay, the slowest and grittiest of the game’s playgrounds, is where it all comes together best for his tactical skills, whipping topspin forehand and gladiatorial mindset. Clay is to Rafael Nadal what water is to Michael Phelps, which helps explain one of the most impressive individual sports achievements of the 21st century. Clarey, who has been covering Nadal since he was 17, draws on interviews over many years with Nadal and his team and with rivals like Roger Federer. But like The Master , this is not just a book about tennis. THE WARRIOR draws much wider lessons from Nadal’s approach to competition.

Genres: Sports, Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Journalism, Memoir

448 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2025

About the author

Christopher Clarey has covered global sports for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune for more than 30 years from bases in France, Spain and the United States. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on tennis and the Olympics, reporting from more than 100 Grand Slam tournaments and from seven Summer Olympics, seven Winter Olympics and nine world track and field championships. In 2021, Clarey’s in-depth biography of Roger Federer was published and became a New York Times bestseller and international success.

The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer was excerpted in The New York Times Magazine, the Times of London and the Sydney Morning Herald. It received favorable reviews from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Australian, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, The Straits Times, The Hindu, Kirkus, Library Journal and others. Booklist gave it a starred review and named it one of the best 10 sports and recreation books of the year. The Times of London called it “certainly the best Federer biography yet published”. Corriere dello Sport in Italy called it a “monumental opera”.

The Master, also a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon in several categories and in several countries, is based on 20 years of interviews and travels following the Swiss champion and this golden age in men’s tennis. The publisher is Hachette Group’s “Twelve” in North America and John Murray in the U.K., India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Sevnteen deals for foreign-language rights were secured, including Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Russia, Spain and Taiwan.

Fluent in French and Spanish, Clarey has traveled in and reported from more than 70 countries on six continents. He has written for the Times since 1991. In 1998, he was named chief sports correspondent at the International Herald Tribune, which later became the International New York Times. He wrote a general sports column, “In the Arena”, for 16 years.

In 2018, Clarey received the Eugene L. Scott Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a career prize awarded for “communicating honestly and critically about the game” and for “making a significant impact on the tennis world”. Previous winners include Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Clarey is also a past winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the breaking news category for coverage of South African runner Caster Semenya.

A former television commentator for Eurosport, Mr. Clarey has made regular appearances for more than 20 years on major international television and radio outlets. His Twitter account has been named one of 50 must-follows for tennis and the Olympics by Sports Illustrated and Eurosport. Clarey’s other areas of expertise include soccer and sailing: he has covered six World Cups and five America’s Cups. But he also has reported on nearly every major international sport, covering 21 British Opens, 10 Ryder Cups, eight world figure skating championships, the Super Bowl and the Rugby Union World Cup. He has written about everything from bullfighting to sepak takraw to the Inuit sport known as the knuckle hop.

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Clarey grew up primarily in Washington D.C; Hawaii and Coronado, Calif.. He is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., where he majored in English and History. While at Williams, he was a soccer goalkeeper, captain of the volleyball team and the No. 1 tennis player. He and his wife Virginie, proud parents of three multilingual daughters, are based in the Boston area and in Paris.

Reviews

[Thyagarajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely read. It was so much more than just about Nadal. Delightful chapters on the history of Roland-Garros, Les Quatre Mousquetaires, the making of terre battue, the politics of the FFT.

The Master. The Warrior. I really hope Clarey completes the trilogy with The Monster about the third guy.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may have accepted the fact that I’m never going to watch Rafa play Roland Garros again, but you can be damn sure I’m going to read about all the good times whilst the tournament’s on this year. That’s HIS house.

This book was super interesting, especially the deep dive into playing on clay and all the properties that give it the reputation of being ‘the surface of truth’. I enjoyed how Rafa’s achievements were weaved into a historical context throughout the chapters. That said, it feels like there could have been a little more from Rafa himself, but this was not exactly a true biography so much as a history of the sport so perhaps that is a different book. I think towards the end things fell a bit flat, when there should have been a more celebratory feel. Perhaps it would have benefitted from a delayed publication to take advantage of the addition of the new plaque on Chatrier - remarkable in itself that there are now two monuments to this incredible fighter in the tournament grounds. But what Rafa did there was remarkable, and ultimately it does feel right that this book returns us, again and again, to the red clay of court Philippe-Chatrier, where a teenager from Manacor began an impossible legend.

By necessity certain things remain fully unexplored - a whole book could (and should) be written on Fedal, and the Spanish Davis cup team (the Armada) is ripe for its own deep dive (2019 alone could fill pages), but overall this was a nice way to soften the blow of my first true post-Rafa clay season.

Vamos siempre.

[kedvemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great if you’re a hard-core Nadal fan, it offers a lot of insight into the depths of tennis, which I genuinely enjoyed. Five stars on that front.

With that being said, sometimes it felt like the book was less about Nadal himself and more about the author showcasing his own knowledge. Since I’m not a huge Nadal nerd, it took me ages to finish it, and for that reason I can’t go higher than three stars. Still, if you love the sport and want to learn more about it, it’s definitely worth picking up.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography of Nadal is not so much a full-throated biography as it is a chronicle of Nadal’s 14 Roland Garros titles. That is probably appropriate for the average tennis fan, but I found myself wishing for more material on Nadal’s junior career and his relationships. Clarey also uses the framing as an opportunity to take some detours into the history of Roland Garros, including sections on the various types of clay, the Four Musketeers (Lacoste, Barotra et al), and the origins of French tennis. These interludes were a bit distracting and interrupt the flow of the narrative. Nevertheless, Clarey has followed the circuit for years and probably has had as much access to Nadal as any journalist. He’s also a great writer, and exceedingly curious (as evidenced by some of the historical sections). If I’m being fair, Nadal is also probably not the easiest subject; his effort and intensity are extraordinary, but his personality is not the most layered. (For that, I will wait for the Djokovic book). All in all, a good read, if perhaps not the great tennis book that one might have hoped for.

[Jas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This man had been preparing to write this book for two decades and it SHOWS. Excellent sourcing and understanding of Rafa’s raison d’être. Surprisingly, some of my favorite chapters were the ones about Novak- Clarey absolutely needs to complete the set with a final book about him when the time comes.

[Kulturowa.Anihilacja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clarey kolejny już raz w arcymistrzowski sposób opowiada historię gigantów tenisa, ukazując głębie, której wiele osób może nawet nie być świadomym. Książka w nietuzinkowy sposób sięga do emocji Nadała i co dla mnie najważniejsze zgłębia tajniki jego fenomenalnej siły mentalnej, która dała tenisiście w trudnych momentach mnóstwo paliwa do przełamywania barier.

Książka śledzi losy bohatera od niemal samego początku nastoletniego króla mączki, w przedstawianiu portretu Nadała posiłkuje się licznymi rozmowami zarówno z samym zawodnikiem, sztabem i co dodaje najwięcej smaczku zaciekłymi rywalami, czyli Federerem i Djokovicem. Dzięki temu otrzymujemy kompletny i wielowymiarowy obraz bohatera, który zarówno siła fizyczną jak i żelazną wolą walki doprowadzał swoich rywali na mączce do absolutnej rozpaczy i bezsilności.

Spodobało mi się, że autor nie wystawia laurki Rafaelowi, a ukazał też trudniejsze momenty z jego bogatej kariery, w której niejednokrotnie miały miejsce momenty zwątpienia. Clarey pokazał, jak kontuzje były w stanie pokonać nawet takiego gladiatora kortu, jak presja społeczna zamiast motywować była ciężarem, a własne ambicje stawały się pętlami prowadzącymi do ograniczeń. Dzięki takiemu portretowi ta książka jest znacznie bardziej intymna nisz sztampowa biografia mówiąca tylko o sukcesach i powstawaniu z popiołów.

Książkę czytałam w zastraszająco szybkim tempie za sprawą bardzo wygodniej konstrukcji, gdzie wątki reporterskie są przeplatane rozmowami i przemyśleniami samego autora. Ja tę biografię zdecydowanie najbardziej cenie za bogactwo szczegółów i jeśli wyobrażam sobie dobrą biografię, to chciałabym żeby wyglądała dokładnie tak jak ta.

To książka nie tylko dla fanów tenisa, to historia pozwalająca zrozumieć fenomen absolutnie topowego sportować, ale przede wszystkim człowieka. To barwna historia sukcesów i porażek, ale też o wytrwałości i harcie ducha, który w trudnych momentach może być motorem napędowym o nieskończonym paliwie.

[Ronan Dunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book split into a twin narrative on the history of Rolland Garros and the career of Rafael Nadal.

You get from the Nadal chapters exactly what you expect - an insight into his relentless competitiveness, some insane facts/statistics about his winning and not much else. His noble character and generous spirit are admirable but the lack of salaciousness doesn’t make him the most interesting subject. That said from a sporting achievement perspective his chapters are an interesting read. “Maybe I enjoy trying to win more than I enjoy winning” was the quote that stood out to me the most from this part of the book and the quote that I think Rafael Nadal embodies more than any athlete ever- The pride and the joy he takes from the sport is ensuring he puts everything into every point.


The Rolland Garros chapters are far more interesting and full of colour. I especially enjoyed the focus chapters on the four musketeers and the building of clay courts

[Robert Bastone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rafa loved the battle and the fight more than the titles. This is perspective of elite high level athletics. The grind is where you are able to be lost in the process and winning is the outcome of being meticulous is preparation. This made me sad that I didn’t watch more tennis when the Big 3 were all at their pinnacle. Each one of them have their own personality that compliment one another and made each other bigger. With Joker or Fed, Rafa would not be Rafa and vice versa.

Lito and Sinner are fun characters and have different personalities but the fire that the big 3 had can not be replicated.

[Tomas Curcio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such quality journalism and legitimate passion and investment in his subject, his legacy, and his invasion of France.

[Dorota Zet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dla każdego fana Rafy.

[Reemsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone, be Nadal.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very diffucult to rate. 3.5 ⭐️ rounded down because I was quite bored at times. But it still offered great insight into Nadal‘s life and career

[Nolan Bowar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part Nadal biography, part history of Roland Garros. Great for a tennis novice, like myself. Will have to read Clarey's book on Federer to determine who my personal GOAT is.

[Ryan Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite tennis match of all-time is the 2017 Australian Open final between Nadal and Federer.

I was in-between residences at the time after my first year of uni and adapting to the feeling that it was actually happening. A colleague’s friend had put me up in his beautiful home and he had gone to bed while I stayed up to watch the most beautiful tennis match I’d even seen. Federer’s ballet backhands, Nadal’s lasso forehands. The context of Federer’s post-prime come-back. The matching black-and-white outfits. The pink shoes.

Federer hit a winner on championship point but Nadal challenged it with a shrugging smile. ‘IN’. He lifted his arms up in victory with an expression of boyish wonder.

I loved Federer. The contained emotion. Bottled in play, burst in victory.

I did not have adequate regard for Nadal at the time. I only watched the AO so I did not appreciate his broader accomplishments. I thought of him as the grunter and had never even watched the French Open.

But over time I saw interviews with him, learned that he never smashed a racket (an oddly specific mark of non-violent character in tennis), rooted for him as Djokovic encroached on the all-time record, saw how warm and persevering he was on and off-court, saw his late-career family.

I experienced delayed admiration for his relentless intensity, his fluid strokes and his respectful demeanour.

He just never gave up.

And so when I found myself consistently not finishing sets at the gym, it was Nadal I thought of. So I got some creatine, renewed my library membership, and got to work.

*

So much could have blown Nadal off course: injuries, family dynamics, soccer, big money, ennui, pressure, the azure lure of the nearby Mediterranean Sea that seemed a world away from clay-stained socks, sweat-stained bandannas, and daily sacrifice.
What were the odds?
I remember mulling something similar when I visited Kopaonik, the modest ski resort in Serbia where Novak Djokovic, one of Nadal's future archrivals, took his first tennis lesson just across the street from the family pizzeria, much as Nadal had taken his first lesson from Uncle Toni just across the street from the family apartment in Manacor.
When I stepped onto that Serbian hard court, which was cracked and neglected when I arrived in 2010, it was child's play to imagine another outcome. There were no serious tennis players in Djokovic's family, only competitive skiers. If those courts had not been built in that particular spot, and if Jelena Genic, a charismatic tennis teacher and formidable talent spotter, had not chosen that particular summer to start giving clinics on those remote courts in the Serbian mountains, Djokovic would never have had the early start and solid platform a future tennis professional required.

Is geography destiny? Is family?

Only the rural juror can say.

*

The other element here is Nadal's roots are not simply his roots. They are his present. He does not need to make a nostalgic pilgrimage to the modest spot where it all began: to fly from the Spanish mainland or farther afield with camera crews and chroniclers to Manacor (population 43,000) and these clay courts on the edge of it. He drives by them all the time even if he stops very rarely. His eponymous, state-of-the-art tennis academy is nearby. His boyhood apartments in Manacor are even closer, and his new clifftop dream house with a Bondian boat slip cut into the rocks below is in Porto Cristo, the resort village only twelve kilometers from Manacor that has long been a getaway for the Nadal clan.
When people rightly talk about Nadal being grounded, this is where the ground is. He was born in Manacor, grew up there, and except for one up-and-down year of boarding school in the Mallorcan capital of Palma, he has remained based in Manacor, marrying a local—Maria Francisca Perelló and staying a local: usually returning as quickly as he can after the tennis travels that made him a household name far beyond his home island. In his teens, he and his parents and younger sister Maribel moved to an apartment building in central Manacor with their grandparents and Toni Nadal's family, each generation and family unit getting their own floor.
The building was on one of Manacor's main squares, the site of the principal church that Nadal could see so clearly from his balcony.
Once out the door, he was in a cozy community full of familiar faces, neighbors, and shopkeepers to greet politely; a community where ostentatiousness and braggadocio were frowned upon.
He would bring that same ingrained civicism to the tennis world, re-creating a sense of village on the tournament grounds at Monte Carlo, Rome, and Roland-Garros.

I love the localism of Nadal’s life.

I relate to it in an aspirational way. I have it now in my village but that is not the same as it being lifelong. It is my oasis in a desert I am accustomed to wandering.

*

Toni Nadal, knowing his nephew needed all the positive energy he could get, delivered a prefinal pep talk in which he kept repeating the 2008 campaign slogan of U.S. president Barack Obama: "Yes we can!" And Rafael repeated it to himself on the changeovers.

Every time I go to the gym I hope there will be some woman there. There never is. Or sometimes there is but then not again. Again is the foundation of anything.

But there is always some other reward. An engaged couple I can imagine becoming friends with offer me to take their kelpie for a run. A warm greeting from the now-married couple who now both go. The hot mom.

I change the nights I go to do the hardest workout twice at 7. There are only one or two or sometimes no others there that late. I can’t hide that I’m not doing every rep and I am yelled at just how I want to be. ‘C’mon Ryan, get up, two more!’

At 6 before 10, I say to myself ‘do it for them’ and I make it to 8.

*

And it was not that Nadal's work ethic was based on delayed gratification. The work ethic was the gratification.
"Maybe," he told us, "I like more fighting to win than to win."

[…]

It seemed so simple, so obvious, when he described his mindset. But very few in the history of sports have been able to develop and maintain such a mindset over the long haul. Nadal did not want another Roland-Garros title.
He wanted a Roland-Garros title. He was not focused on breaking anyone's record. He was focused on getting the best out of himself in any given point, match, or year.

Maybe not my best but somewhere between trying and enough.

The point is that the result of anything is only ever the product of small repeated efforts. This workout, this workday, this book, this restraint, this interaction.

*

"I always say, it's good to enjoy suffering," Nadal said. "When you are fit, with passion for the game, and when you are ready to compete you are able to suffer while enjoying the suffering. Today I had this feeling."

I am collapsed on the floor panting, drenched, I did it, I can do hard things, I am rewarded with good feeling. There is no way to this feeling without suffering.

*

"Loeuf" supposedly morphed into "love" in modern English tennis scoring. But there is also the possibility that the term came from "playing for love" of the game rather than victory. The term "love" existed in card-game scoring in the eighteenth century. But whatever the truth, the term never made the romantic leap into French (or any other Romance language), which still—in tennis at least—relies on the rather less hopeful "zero."

I am not losing. I am playing for love. I am playing for nothing.

*

"The vast majority of people who follow Rafa in Spain and elsewhere don't play tennis," he said. "And that makes you wonder why Rafa is so closely followed and why he generates so much emotion in so many people who don't play the game he plays. And my conclusion was that Rafa embodies excellence.
When someone in whatever activity achieves excellence the barriers between different disciplines and walks of life disappear. And others can find a way to apply what Rafa does to their own lives."

I do a schema quiz as a self check-in. All low scores except unrelenting standards—still there—and a new one: insufficient self-control.

I realise unrelenting standards is what is causing my intolerable frustration at work. It is a lack of standards I perceive of others.

It is harsh and judgemental but a consistent and genuine emotional reaction. Being excluded from shaping ideas that impact your day-to-day work is devaluing, being isolated from a team that refuses to come in more than one day a week is anti-social (thank god for my daily delight of rotating office pals), and being left to figure out and correct illogical and unstructured work is unfair intellectual and emotional labour.

I could detach myself but I feel that is wrong—like numbing the pain rather than treating the source. Outside of work, I can reset easily and enjoy life.

I cannot expect or ask others to change when they do not share my values. That is its own kind of unfairness. And in expressing my frustration I only cause everyone discomfort.

I am the one who suffers. I am the one who needs to move carriages. I am the one who needs to find players who play my game.

*

Overall, I found this biography of Nadal really well-constructed and engaging. It tells his story chronologically but with alternating chapters that digress into things like the history of red clay, Rolland-Garros, and even the etymology of tennis terms.

The narrative anchoring around significant matches were highlights for me: the Söderling upset and redemption arc, the astonishing Djokovic classics, and the villainous Medvedev encounters. The emotional charge of these matches are testament to the zero-sum dynamics of elite sport as a spectacle of elation and despair. It is a simplified metaphor for the challenges we all face and seek to overcome.

My only surprise or disappointment was the near-complete absence of anything about his wife and child, Maria and Rafael Jr. They are mentioned only in passing a few times. I suspect Nadal requested Clarey not to focus on his personal life, which is actually to be admired—tennis is public, relationships are private.

[Booksandchinooks (Laurie)]

Rafael Nadal was a master of the clay surface and won an astounding fourteen times at Roland-Garros in Paris. Nadal is now retired and this book is a great biography describing his career. The book also goes into great detail about Roland-Garros and I found that interesting. Overall a very comprehensive and deeply researched book about an amazing champion and what it took to become one and remain one for so many years.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part a biography of Rafael Nadal, part a history of Roland-Garros, the place where Nadal won 14 French Open championships, this book tells the story of an iconic athlete and an iconic place. Fascinating!

[Paul Mackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeking the sources of Rafael Nadal's unbelievable French Open dominance

It’s fun to tell myself that Rafael Nadal’s record of 14 French Open championships is a greater feat than Novak Djokovic’s 24 total Grand Slam championships.

That’s likely to be debated for possibly the rest of all time, since it’s difficult to imagine either record ever being broken again. The reason I prefer Nadal’s is because he is one of my favorite players of all time. Others will side with Djokovic, whom I don’t like one bit.

“Nadal came close to Djokovic’s mark for total majors. No one is remotely close to Nadal’s Roland-Garros record, not even his two greatest rivals, and neither could match that kind of dominance at a major on their own best surfaces,” writes Christopher Clarey, a French-American who has long reported on the French Open for the New York Times, in his new book The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay. This is a followup to his book on Roger Federer titled The Master.
“Federer, brilliant on grass, won Wimbledon a record eight times before retiring in 2022. Djokovic, excellent on everything but at his best on hard courts, has won Wimbledon seven times and the Australian Open a record 10 times, which would have gotten a lot more attention if not for Nadal’s numbers in Paris.”
Former player and coach John Lloyd adds, “Of all the statistics that have come out of this great era in tennis on the men’s side, in the locker room what stops people in their tracks the most is 14 French Opens for Rafa.”


I have yet to find a really great book on Nadal. Perhaps the bar has been set too high by perhaps my favorite sports memoir ever, Andre Agassi’s Open, which I recently wrote about in a four-part series. This latest offering doesn’t start out promisingly, jumping around with what at first seems to be a lack of direction and offering silly lines like “One suspects, after watching Nadal beggar belief in Paris for so long, that he might find a way to reach 15 [French Opens] even in retirement.”

But then Clarey begins to find his groove when—perhaps a little too far in—he offers his thesis that Nadal will truly be remembered long into history primarily for those 14 French championships and the many reasons why Roland-Garros was the place that allowed all that dominance to happen for this one man.

Ion Ţiriac, the former Romanian player and continuing influencer for the sport, keeps the Nadal praise flowing: “You are never going to see, not in your life or the life of your children, someone winning a Grand Slam tournament 14 times again.”

When Nadal first played at the French Open in 2005, the record for men’s titles there seemed astronomically out of reach: Bjorn Borg with six. Back in the early 1990s, former No. 1 Ilie Năstase told the author, “Nobody is going to win six again like Borg.”

Clarey argues that one of Nadal’s winning attributes is how he always stayed in the moment better than his foes. Even before all the current distractions of social media, cameras in every pocket, and streaming videos everywhere, this has always been one of the most difficult tasks for tennis players. Nadal found that habitually following routines (including all those wild ticks and pulls and wipes we saw him perform between every point) was his way of staying in the zone.

He laughs about it in the book and admits it all looks ridiculous to the outside eye. But one thing I learned so far in the book that is just utterly stupendous is that Rafa never once threw or broke his racquet. If you don’t play tennis, let me just tell you that is a really amazing accomplishment in such an emotional, difficult, and frustrating game.

In line with the humor he finds in his habitual ticks, he had other ways to turn it on and off on the court versus away from it. While he never threw a racquet on the court, he is known to throw his PlayStation controller plenty when back at the hotel or at home playing video games with friends.

Another paradox: When Rafael’s uncle Toni, who would go on to become his coach, was 11, he saw Năstase play in a tournament in Barcelona and that was the moment he fell in love with tennis. Years later, Toni was done with his own short-lived professional tennis career but recognized the talent in toddler Rafael. Năstase was the complete opposite of what Rafa would become; he was unpredictable, flashy, an underachiever, temperamental, impulsive, vulgar, displayed midmatch buffoonery, and fought with umpires.
Nadal himself explains early in the book: “Clearly there’s always someone with more money, a bigger boat, and a more beautiful wife. I cannot always be looking at the outside, because it’s a recipe for constant unhappiness. It has to come from the inside.”

Many of his peers highlight his ability to outlast his opponents, and clearly that inner strength he was able to conjure was the ultimate source of his legend. Former player John Isner calls Nadal “the greatest competitor in any sport in the history of the world.”

Nadal is of course now retired and remains living in Manacor—where he has essentially always lived. It’s a town of about 50,000 people on the island of Mallorca, Spain, which is east of Valencia and Barcelona and straight north from Algiers, Algeria (the island of Ibiza is also nearby). Clarey writes: “His eponymous, state-of-the-art tennis academy is nearby. His boyhood apartments in Manacor are even closer, and his new clifftop dream house with a Bondian boat slip cut into the rocks below is in Porto Cristo, the resort village only twelve kilometers from Manacor.”

Nadal’s recent retirement adds to the allure of reading the The Warrior right now. Not to mention that the French Open itself has begun (qualifier matches started on Monday) and runs through June 8.

https://popculturelunchbox.substack.c...

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite tennis player of all time. The author spends too much time comparing himself to Nadal and then Nadal to other players. Absolutely ruined what should have been a celebration of all that Rafael Nadal put into the game of tennis.

[Patrick Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rafa Nadal

- His core motivation is not being better than others but being better than Rafael
- His uncle is his coach. Second to Rafa, his uncle deserves the most credit for Nadal’s success. He was relentless and tough. Embrace the challenge, no excuses, self criticism is a good thing
- Focus on the challenge, solve the problem. Be full of grit
- A large section on the mechanics of his stroke
- He is not a naturally lefty, Tony made him a lefty. There is a whole discussion on choosing dominate hands. Hand preference does not take place until 3, fully integrate until 6, and can take as long 9 to fully form. Tennis players that start at a young age <6, like Rafa, their dominant hand can be manipulated or chosen. It was an odd but fascinating section. I need to read The Left Hand Syndrome
- Only 15% of the tour is lefty, only 11% of the world population is lefty. There have been few dominate lefty or ambidextrous tennis players. That was surprising. Rafa being a lefty was a change to the game. He was the first lefty in the top in five years
- The section discussed two handed back hand v one handed. Mechanics, dominate hand, and how that plays out on court
- The history of tennis surfaces
- Grass is the oldest, hard the newest
- There are a myriad of different kids of clay to play on
- Clay emerged in the 1870-1880. It greatly expanded the where tennis could be played and the season. It was easier to maintain than grass
- 90% of the courts in Spain are clay
- Rafa went 10 years without losing from being up two sets. Roger did it +20 times
- Around 2011 Rafa lost to Novak 7 straight times in finals
- Rafa and Novak played each other 60 times in their career. They each lost to each other more than any on person
- Sections on Novak. Novak seems like an introspective and passionate person. I am growing to like him more
- Steroids, Rafa was extensively tested and never failed a test. His prime came as the Lance Armstrong, baseball, Olympic steroids scandals were at their height. There is a big steroids section in the book
- Side note on the Roger book. It talks about how good Hewitt and Safin were. Before Nadal Hewitt was legitimate rival to Roger and beat him in a few early matches
- The tics, Rafa does not have OCD. The tics and routines were first implemented by his uncle when Rafa was young. They were away to get him to slow down between points. Rafa added more throughout his career and they took on a life of their own. Rafa is aware of how ridiculous they are, he wanted to limit them but was unsuccessful. He said they are not superstitions, other wise he would have changed them after poor performances. He is a creature of habit. He used the same shower and locker throughout his career at Rolland Garros. Habit, tic, routine, superstition - all of them or none of them, it’s Rafa
- When the clay is wet the ball is slower and Rafa can’t get as much top spin on his hits. Novak benefited when they played in wet clay
- The history of Rolland Garros, tennis in France, the origin of tennis, tennis terminology, the great French players - lots of topics are covered
- Gosh it seems like so much fun to be a sports writer
- Rafa is much more eloquent in his native Spanish. Despite thousands of interviews in English, you don’t get the full Rafa experience in English. He has never gotten comfortable speaking English
- French Open: 112-4 | French Open Finals: 14-0 | All other grand slam finals: 8-8 |
- He won an impressive five Davis cups with Spain
- Babalot made tennis strings out of pig intestines until the 1930’s???
- He suffered from injuries for much of his career. He frequently played through pain. Roger was in 64 straight slams, 16 years. Rafa’s longest streak was 14 slams. Similar to Roger, he took significant time off during the 15-16 seasons. Similar to Roger he had late career revival, going three years 14-17 without slam
- After ‘13 he only beat Novak on clay
- He played in four Olympics, winning a gold in doubles and gold in singles. He stayed in the Olympic village with the other athletes. In ‘16 he was the Spanish torch barrier
- It is said that he is humble, kind, and friendly. He treats people well, regardless of who they are. All positive things to say about him as a person
- There was less about his personal life than the Roger book
- This book was more personal for the author because he lived in France and Spain. His first French open was ‘94, a week after he moved to Paris. For years he lived close enough to Rolland Garros that he would ride his bike there during the tournament
- As always I am sure I am missing things. I loved this book, I am enjoying reading and watching tennis

[Balachander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been watching tennis from 1990 & was a serious watcher between 1993 and probably 2019. And my tennis favourites have changed over the years - it was originally Jim Courier (a weird choice I know but he was the first male player I saw in action), Navratilova, Leander Paes and Boris Becker. In between I found time to root for underperformers or underdogs like Ivanisevic, Rafter, Henman & a few more. I, like maybe many other fans, found it hard to root for those who were undisputed champions or those who they were at the top of their game like Sampras. (It didn’t help that he would routinely defeat Goran, Courier or Becker), Federer, Nadal, Djokovic. That is, until they started losing to a superior player (Federer to an extent) or until Father Time started showing his effect (in the case of Sampras - I never rooted for him as much as when he won his final grand slam). In Nadal (& to a greater extent Djokovic)’s case the wait was longer - despite the injuries, age and a superior opponent (Novak), it never seemed like success was far away especially on the surface on which Nadal was king - clay and specifically, Roland Garros. This is despite the fact that more than any other champion before or after, Nadal is someone who has performed heroic deeds on the court but has always been the most humble, grounded individual off it. But this biography makes me wonder if I would have been a hard core fan if it had come even 10 years ago. Through it, Nadal comes across as a very decent and honourable person - willing always to give credit to others, always trying to acknowledge every individual (from those at the top to the pole to those at the social bottom), always staying grounded despite the stratospheric heights he reached as a sportsperson. More than any self help book, this book on Nadal is an inspiration on how to lead one’s life, on how to treat one’s family and friends and in general how to lead a life in public. The fact that through all this Nadal developed the record that he did (not only on clay but also on other surfaces in each of which he won multiple slams) is a testament to his talent and drive - which helped him stay at the top for so long despite so many injuries and such a punishing game. Chris’s book is also interesting in the other side topics he covers - the history of the sport and French open, the other players who shone briefly before Nadal entered the game and took over, technicalities of court/racquet design and many more. Truly, this is a fascinating bio of Nadal and of tennis. A must read

[Dexter Scott]

Sometimes I read a book and wonder, "Where was the editor?" This is one of those cases.
"The Warrior" is ostensibly about Rafael Nadal and the French Open, but if we're being honest, we care about Nadal much more than the tournament itself. The author knows this—the book isn't titled "Roland Garros and Rafael Nadal," but rather "The Warrior" with the subtitle "Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay." It's clearly marketed as being about Rafa.

The result is a book that provides great, zoomed-in detail about Nadal and roughly a year of his career, then steps back to offer broader historical context about the French Open. This structure simply doesn't work. We get intimate details about Rafa's journey, but because of the expanded timeframe, we receive only a zoomed-out narrative of Roland Garros.
The tournament sections cover topics like the complicated process of layering rocks, sediment, and clay to achieve the perfect playing surface, along with early history notes—such as how poor record-keeping means the first champion's identity is actually unknown. While these details are somewhat interesting, they pale in comparison to Nadal's personal narrative.

I understand why the book is structured this way. Both publisher and author know readers care about Rafa, but perhaps there wasn't quite enough material for a full Nadal biography, so tournament history was added to reach book length. The author might have been better served working harder to gather more Nadal content, then including a single chapter on tournament history when the narrative reaches Rafa's first French Open appearance.

Clarey couldn't place all the Roland Garros information at the beginning—readers would skip it—nor at the end, since most would stop after the Nadal narrative concluded. Instead, the tournament history becomes the book's vegetables, served alongside the Nadal "meat" to slow readers down. By the time you reach 2017, these interruptions don't just slow the pace; they become genuinely frustrating.
I'm not opposed to either narrative individually, but combining them diminishes both.
Final Ratings:

Rafa sections: 4 stars
Roland Garros sections: 3 stars
Combined: 2 stars

[WildesKopfkino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich habe dieses Buch aufgeschlagen und wollte eigentlich nur ein paar Seiten lesen – zack, war ich drei Stunden später komplett durch. Christopher Clarey hat’s echt drauf, Nadals Karriere wie ein feines 5-Gänge-Menü zu servieren. Und ich? Ich hab’s gefressen wie ein hungriger Balljunge nach dem fünften Satz.

„Der Sandplatzkönig“ klingt erstmal wie ein Märchenbuch – ist es im Grunde auch. Nur dass der Held nicht mit Drachen kämpft, sondern mit Tennisschlägern, Schweiß und Leuten wie Djokovic. Clarey nimmt einen mit nach Roland Garros, und ich schwöre, beim Lesen hat’s nach rotem Sand gerochen.

Was mir besonders gefallen hat: Es ist keine trockene Biografie, sondern eher wie ein Tennis-Match im Kopfkino. Mal elegant, mal kämpferisch, manchmal auch zum Schmunzeln – aber immer mit ordentlich Spin. Clarey schreibt so, als hätte er Nadal persönlich beim Frühstück mit Churros interviewt.

Ich hab beim Lesen nicht nur Gänsehaut bekommen, sondern auch ein bisschen Muskelkater in der Seele – so intensiv ist das Ding. Man versteht plötzlich, warum Nadal auf Sand spielt, als wär er mit dem Platz verwachsen wie Moos auf ’nem alten Baum.

Und nein, man muss kein Tennis-Nerd sein, um das Buch zu feiern. Aber Vorsicht: Nach der Lektüre hab ich ernsthaft drüber nachgedacht, mir ein Stirnband zuzulegen und den Sandkasten meines Neffen in einen Center Court zu verwandeln.

Fazit: Ein Buch wie ein Satz mit Ass – souverän, mitreißend und definitiv ein Volltreffer. Wer Nadal liebt, wird’s vergöttern. Wer ihn nicht kennt, wird ihn danach nicht mehr vergessen. Fünf Sterne? Mindestens!

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Clarey (2025) THE WARRIOR: RAFAEL NADAL AND HIS KINGDOM OF CLAY (AUDIOBOOK)
Audible - John Murray

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars

Audible writes, "An intimate, original biography of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, and the first to cover his entire career. After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world's pre-eminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Nadal, the Spanish force of nature. When he arrived on the scene in 2005, the record for men's singles titles at the French Open stood at six. Nadal more than doubled that total to a mind-blowing fourteen titles: one of the greatest sporting achievements in history. Nadal won big and won often on all of tennis's surfaces: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and six on the US Open and Australian Open hard courts. But clay, the grittiest of the game's playgrounds, is where it all came together best for his whipping forehand and warrior mindset. Clarey, who has covered Nadal since he was seventeen, draws on interviews over twenty years with Nadal, his team and rivals like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Brimming with behind-the-scenes insight, The Warrior tells the story of a global sporting icon, interlacing man and place in a unique, must-read account of the evolution of excellence."
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¡VAMOS!
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[Oscar Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be taken as a template for all other tennis books. Covering the main plot points of the athlete's career, excellent background research, and not a single score-line or year out of place (I have read many that get the years wrong on famous finals, when a cursory Google search would get it right). Clarey writes with precision and depth, and this project covers Rafa's stellar career as well as he did Roger's. A timely nostalgic trip, released shortly after Rafa's retirement.

Where this book stood out for me was that it covered not just the main man, but also the history of various clay tournaments, the game of tennis, historic champions, controversy, and tactics. There is an unrelenting quest for deeper knowledge, and context to set as backdrop for Rafa's achievements, denying us the chance to take him for granted.

The tournaments picked out are well chosen (Clarey clearly had to be selective to make this book of reasonable length), and the ones that missed the cut are generally mentioned in passing, such that it feels that very little was skated over.

There was even a substantial amount of new info to be swallowed here, not much of it on Rafa, but this is still impressive in a sport so obsessed with its own history.

[Mark Levine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, not worth my time.

I am a huge sports fan, avid tennis player, follow the four majors pretty closely. I had heard Christopher Clarey interviewed by Mad Dog Russo on Sirius radio, and although I normally don’t like reading sports books, this one seemed worthwhile. It was not.

It was a chore to get through much of it. I learned a little bit about Nadal that I hadn’t known before. There were some decent “behind the scenes” anecdotes, including with Djokovic and Federer. But there were also a ton of things that seemed completely pointless that forced me to skip through them. I have no interest in hearing about the history of the clay at Roland Garros, among other things. Also, there was not a lot of flow, and although there was no “plot” in what is essentially a biography, it was a little disorganized for me in terms of how things came together.

Overall, I would not recommend it at all. If you’re a big fan of Rafa and can’t get enough stories about him, maybe you’ll enjoy it, but whether you’re a major or casual tennis fan, it was too long, not interesting enough and more reason for me to skip a sports book the next time I’m looking for something to read.

[Richard L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded down. On another day, might easily have rounded up.

Deeply researched and insightful, this books vividly captures the indomitable spirit of its subject.

Arguably could have done with more detailed descriptions of additional/pivotal matches, and shorter chapters on relevant but nevertheless somewhat distracting side topics like the history of clay court tennis and the French Open (sorry, Roland-Garros) itself.

But ultimately we're here to celebrate the King of Clay. Devoted tennis fans will be familar with many if not most of the story told here, but it's still a pleasure to re-live the moments, and to appreciate the person and his team.

Perhaps most importantly, this is a reminder that the greatest athletes are (and should be) decent people first, and the most decent people are (and should be) the most revered athletes. They perform for themselves, not us.

It's easy to love the ones who win the most. It's more meaningful to respect the ones who tried their best, regardless of outcomes.

[Matt Cambridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not love this one. There is a full chapter on the history of the clay at Rolland Garros, the process for getting the court ready for the annual tournament meticulously described. There are long sequences of historical references which I found to be very boring. There’s a full chapter about the French language and how some tennis terms are used differently than English. The highlights for me were the scenes from some of Nadal’s most important matches, some of which I remember watching live, and others I was too young for. It does give you a better view into his championship mindset, battle with injuries, and relationships with his team throughout his career. But in general, there was way too much dull historical storytelling that felt clunky and unnecessary.

[Shayla Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 rating! I was very excited to read a biography about my favorite male tennis player and it did not disappoint! Unlike the author's previous book The Master, which focused on Roger Federer's grand slams on all surfaces and his worldliness, Nadal's was strictly tied to his time winning 14 French Open titles and his rise from a boy in Mallorca to one of the greatest players of all time. Like Rafa's game, this one was a slow, punishing effort to read because you had to understand where Nadal gets his work ethic, his game (Uncle Tony), and the person behind the star. A well done book!

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wasn’t quite the book I expected it to be when I first heard about it. Instead of being solely about Rafa’s life and career it also included the history of Rolland Garros where he made his biggest impact.

While I always found myself wanting more Rafa stories and facts it was interesting to learn more about the history of clay courts, the players who paved the way for making Rolland Garros the tournament it is today.

It’s been an enjoyable week reading this book in preparation for the tournament starting tomorrow and the tribute to Rafa on opening day. Vamos!

[LiA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, the sports talent and performance a person offers is much more interesting and exciting than the athlete’s life. Sometimes, biographers are too much focused on the nitty gritty than on the whole picture. Or on name dropping: „When I spoke xxx last, he told me...“ I admired Rafael Nadal for his great tennis, I am passionate about the sport myself, but Clarey’s book did not pick me up, as they say. However, I am not a real fan of biographies, anyway. Thus, other people might like „The warrior“ more than I did.