Rafael Nadal: Antukový kráľ

by Dominic Bliss, Nikola Betková (Translator)

Pútavá biografia jedného z najlepších tenistov na svete

Rafael Nadal je jeden z najlepších tenistov všetkých čias s miliónmi fanúšikov na celom svete. Táto biografia zachytáva obdivuhodnú cestu od hanblivého chlapca z Malorky až po hviezdu medzinárodného tenisu.

V knihe sa prelínajú obrazy Rafaelovej milujúcej rodiny a stredozemného ostrova, ku ktorým ho viaže pevné puto, s desiatimi kľúčovými zápasmi jeho kariéry.

Príbeh sprevádza pútavá galéria fotografií, ktoré zachytávajú športové i osobné okamihy Rafovho života, ako aj názorné grafy poskytujúce hlbší pohľad na jeho štýl hry a nekompromisnú kombináciu sily, rýchlosti a zručností.

Autor Dominic Bliss, bývalý redaktor časopisu Ace Tennis, pracoval ako tenisový spravodajca pre noviny Financial Times. O tenise píše už 25 rokov. Počas nich urobil s Rafaelom Nadalom niekoľko rozhovorov, z ktorých čerpá aj v tejto knihe. Pravdaže, nevyhýba sa ani citlivým témam, ako je obvinenie z dopingu.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Biography

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 12, 2022

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no question that Rafael Nadal is the shining star of tennis at a great time for the sport, being one of the Holy Triumvirate of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.

This book should have been perfect for me. I like tennis, and I love watching Nadal play — his insanely athletic game, his hilarious on-court ticks* (hey Rafa, stop picking at your underwear just for a second, man!) — but I don’t quite know much about him besides that. And this book recaps Rafa’s life and sports wins from childhood through Grand Slam # 21, illustrated by tons of lovely photographs and punctuated by recaps of his most memorable matches.

* “There are some further things to be done before the serve: adjust sweatbands, adjust headband, adjust shirt, tuck hair behind ears, bounce ball a precise number of times. A familiar sequence after he reaches the baseline and receives tennis balls would be: a quick tug at the underpants through his shorts with his right hand, pull the left shoulder of his shirt up, the right shoulder of his shirt up, touch his nose, tuck hair behind each ear then start bouncing the ball.”

“He has said he’s not even aware that, live in front of thousands of spectators, and millions more worldwide on TV, he attempts to pull his underpants up through his shorts before every service; often a second time between first serve and second serve.”

(Nadal and Federer at Wimbledon 2008 - photo from wimbledon.com)

But sadly, it just did not quite click with me.

The author clearly admires Rafael Nadal, so we know he has good taste. But the book felt more of what I’d expect from a series of online articles rather than a biography, with the feel of not much more than a recap with that persistent feel of a distance remaining. I was expecting something more, something that would transcend the sports article style, something with better writing, something more engaging. But it just didn’t happen, and ultimately the photos were my favorite part, not the words on page.

But the plus side is that it inspired me to YouTube quite a few Rafa videos. Which was fun. More fun than the book, unfortunately.

2.5 stars.

——————
Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

——————
Also posted on my blog.

[Dumbledore11214 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the complete guide to one of the greatest tennis players of the 21st century, winner of 21 grand slam men's singles titles, and undisputed King of the tennis court, Spain's raging bull, Rafael Nadal.

This fully illustrated biography charts his journey to the top, from his early days being coached by his uncle Toni in Mallorca and dreaming of being a professional footballer, through his early tournament career, turning professional, his first senior ATP win, first grand slam win at Roland Garros, first Wimbledon win and first Olympic gold medal and record breaking 21st Grand Slam win.

Written by Dominic Bliss, a veteran tennis journalist who has followed Nadal’s career closely both on and off the court, this biography tracks Rafa’s journey from painfully shy pin-up boy to senior statesman on the ATP Tour.

Structured around 10 key matches in his long career, it takes readers from his first national junior championship win at age 14 (when he played with the pain of a broken finger on his racquet hand) through to his 21st Grand Slam title in January 2022, where he came back from two sets down to defeat Daniil Medvedev in an epic 5-set match.

From his need for water bottles to be arranged 'a certain way' on the court, to his charity work raising $17 million to help the Red Cross’ efforts to support those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, this book examines every angle of Rafa as a human being, a model athlete, a serial winner. This definitive work on one of tennis' all time greats is not to be missed!


I KNOW IT HAS THE PUBLICATION DATE OF JULY 5 2022, BUT THE BOOK IS ALREADY AVAILABLE ON KINDLE AND THATS THE EDITION I BOUGHT
Review:

So I would say that overall this more of a disappointing read for me. If this book will be your first introduction to Rafa Nadal's life and his achievements on the tennis field, then I would recommend it. But I already read many articles and three books about this man ( in addition to watching him playing of course ) and I am sorry, this book for me did not contain any new insights about him and his views.

It is a nice, sympathetic recap, but nothing more for any seasoned fan IMO. I bought it because I wanted a biography which would be complete as of today. Rafa is still competing so theoretically he can add few pages to his awesome career run, but I wanted something more chronologically complete than his auto biography done in 2011. And the picture promised some mention of his win at AO tournament this year and it does mention the win, although very briefly, so that was something I liked.

I was worried about how the author would be discussing Rafa's pre match rituals because goodness gracious I have heard enough annoying comments by commentators over the years ( and I became a passionate fan of tennis in general and of this sportsman only four five years ago and man I already heard enough unkind comments). It was fine, I should not have worried, author talks about rituals being superstitions and part of his routine that can help him put his mind in the right mindset and he quoted Rafa :

““I’m not superstitious, otherwise I would change the rituals with each defeat. I’m not even a slave to routine. What people call tics or rituals are how I put my head in order, because my head is normally very messy. It’s a way to concentrate and silence the voices within. So I don’t have to listen to the voice that tells me I’m going to lose; nor to the voice that, even more dangerously, tells me I’m going to win.” This was Rafa in a recent interview with Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, explaining for perhaps the thousandth time why he observes so many strictly defined rituals before and during his matches.”.

Bottom line it was not unkind and I was glad for that as a fan.

Now I am always confused about how I should be reviewing any biography of any famous or not very famous person in any field. At least as a fan I can say that no significant piece of information is missing from this book. The writing is engaging enough, but I guess to me it could have been done more in depth. The author lists bibliography at the end, he also mentions that he spoke to Rafa in person ( not counting post match press conferences ) four times over the years of following his career. I wonder if he would have had a chance to talk to Rafa more, maybe book would have had more interesting details? Hard to say.

2.5 stars

[Teodora Nesheva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure if this is the translation into my native Bulgarian but the terminology was sooo wrong. There were factual errors. Rafa has 3 losses at Roland Garros, not 4 (he withdrew in 2016 due to a wrist injury). Also, calling Billie Jean King a 'he'?? And does the author even watch tennis? The semifinal against Zverev 'did not pose a threat because Zverev got injured'?? Seriously? The 2 played for 3 hours and had not finished the 2nd set, the quality was super high. Urghh.
Also, little to no linearity in the story. I am a die-hard Rafa fan so there were maybe 1 or 2 things I did not know and even for me it was hard to keep up with the 'story'. But I can't imagine someone who is not that familiar with tennis and/or Rafa, keeping their focus on the story. Or is this book for the Rafa fanatics? If so, get your facts straight, God damnit.
The data geek in me loved the visual representation of the statistics and the woman in me loved the pictures of the man, the myth, the legend lol. These are the only positives I take away from the book.
1/5 - looks good stylistically but once words enter the play it goes downwards really quickly.

[Linda Galella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really an amazing book. It looks like a textbook from the 60’s - heavy, well bound, varnished paper and replete with pictures. I found it interesting that the book was printed in Bosnia - Herzegovina and that Rafa did not endorse it. Over 20 years, author Dominic Bliss, had 4 face to face conversations with him but followed his career very closely and thus the resulting book.

Bliss shares Nadal’s story from his early teen years up thru early 2022. It’s a complete picture that includes his love for his home country of Mallorca, Spanish heritage, family and of course, tennis. Hard work, injures, victories, philanthropy and his place at the very top of almost every record in tennis; it’s all recorded here.

If you’re a Nadal fan or tennis lover this book will be a treasure. It’s also an excellent and unique biography for those who enjoy reading about extraordinary people.

All things considered, an highly giftable and enjoyable read in photography and prose📚

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book recaps much information previously written about Rafael Nadal. The photographs are stunning and glossy, with everything about Nadal presented gloriously: his wins, his losses, his arranging of his water bottles before a match, his tics, his family. Several key matches are broken down and explained but no new insights about the man.

[Andreabookstagram · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐✨

[Cat Strawberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great and interesting book about the tennis legend, with insights into his gameplay, and information on his past, phobias, and some of his most important tennis matches to date. I’ve enjoyed watching Rafael Nadal play tennis ever since the mid-2000s and this book does a good job of charting his successes and rise into the number one spot in tennis with some interesting information about him which I hadn’t read about before.

The book is split into chapters talking about Rafa’s early years, his life in Mallorca and all about his tennis, his left-handed playing, family, through to details on his legacy and beyond. Each chapter is interesting with lots of good information about Rafa Nadal which for someone like me who hasn’t read much about his past, was interesting from the start. His early life and how much Mallorca means to him was interesting to read. I especially found the information about his uncle Toni fascinating. I had no idea how tough he was on Rafa training him as Rafa grew up, and it was good to read all about his early life and how his family support helped to shape the man he is today.

The chapters are filled with lots of text but also lots of photographs displayed throughout the pages. I have only read the digital version of this book which unfortunately had a few issues with the formatting of the text, but I imagine a book with so many photos inside to be made of glossy pages which help the images to stand out. I like how we learn more about Rafa and how his unique playing style on the tennis court. There’s actual detail describing every aspect of his different strokes in tennis, and how they help him win so many matches. The chapters go into details about some of his most important and famous matches too, detailing what happened in each match and how Rafa managed to win despite sometimes facing some really tough opponents.

Throughout the book, there are also pages with some infographs. Charts and images helping us to understand some aspects of Rafa’s game play or some interesting tennis stats when compared to other players. I found some of these interesting on the whole, although I have to say that in the digital copy I read, a couple of these were left without key information on what I was looking at making a couple of the charts confusing to look at for me.

While I enjoyed reading about Nadal’s matches what I loved more is learning about his personal life off the courit, things like his life in Mallorca, how down to earth he is, and even his phobias and rituals which have been a famous part of him every time he takes to the court. I like how we find out about more of the rituals he does rather than just the way he has to touch certain parts of his clothes of face and hair or the famous water bottles being lined up. There is also some interesting insight into a few other famous sport stars and what rituals they do too. This chapter was interesting for me as I didn’t know Rafa was so worried about so many things.

As the book draws to an end we find out more about his family, girlfriend ( now wife) and some final speculation on Rafa’s future in the game. I have to say that I did enjoy reading this book as I hadn’t read anything about Rafa before, however I don’t know if this would be such an insightful or interesting book for someone who maybe has read lots of interviews about him or read his autobiography, as some reviewers have pointed out. However this book does well in showing you the life of the sports star and why he is so much loved today! There are interesting things to learn for those who, like me, haven’t read too much about Nadal before. There are also some lovely photographs throughout which help break up the text and I found the writing style to be really interesting, in fact so interesting I read this book all in one day!

Overall it’s an interesting biography about this tennis legend and it’s a book I’d certainly recommend to those who don’t know that much about Rafa’s life or his tennis. It’s a good book and one I wouldn’t mind owning in physical format, especially as the digital pre-publication version I read clearly had some issues with the text which I doubt is in the final version of this book. Overall a nice read and one for anyone interested in knowing more about Rafa, especially if you haven’t read his autobiography before!
-Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a free copy for review.

[Bruce McCombs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I judge any book by is how easy and entertaining it is to read. Rafa Nadal: The King of the Court fits that criteria very nicely. I liked how Dominic uses common language to articulate the encounters and experiences in the publication.

The next piece I look for is what am I learning from the book. The Kind of the Court reveals why Rafa is humble and has terrific work ethic. His parents made sure that he grew up normal. I remember my mother's mantra, "Stay Humble and Outwork Others."

The author described a series of inside baseball stories about Rafa and his advantages of going to the backhand of his opponents.

Dominic also mentors us that clay courts allow top spin that makes the ball rise to the torso of the opponent. Slices keep the tennis ball low. Read the book, it will elaborate further why these tactics are important

The author also explains all the rituals Nadal goes through and his reasons for doing them. Ultimately, they all enable Rafa to _________.

For all of those who would like to read an entertaining book that's easy to read and learn inside information about the humble Rafa who outworks others, I recommend this book to all of you!

[Peta Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not normally attracted to non-fiction books, but let's face it, this is Rafa Nadal. This books gives us such a compete insight into the life of this tennis legend, from a young age until present time.

We learn about his family, his life growing up, the methods his Coach used and that everything he was achieving didn't come easy. We read about his insecurities, his flaws and so much more. The pictures that accompany the stories are amazing and give you a look into the life of this exceptional man. We get a look at statistics in many forms, his rituals and the man himself.

Such an interesting read and I am so glad that I was offered the book for review. He is definitely The King of the Court to me.

Thanks to Netgalley, Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Press and Dominic Bliss for the opportunity to read and give an hinest review of this book.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Bliss is a tennis journalist., and that shows in this delightful biography of Rafa Nadal.
As a tennis fan, I was thrilled to reread about these ten important matches ( most of which I had watched ), but I am also very impressed with the detail about everything from early life , family life , training , idiosyncrasies that Mr. Nadal has.
There is also much discussion and examination of the many titles , wins , rankings and so on to more than serve as a good case for GOAT status.
And the pictures are GREAT
And we learned a bit about this humble, polite young man and his views on life , and his home, and his fame.
Wonderful book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC

[Vikki Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Rafael Nadal, I admire his humble approach to life and watching his athletic ability!
Anyone wanting to know more about Nadal’s game and his upbringing, should definitely read this book! I particularly enjoyed the superb array of photos.
Rafael Nadal is the ultimate athlete, his game playing is a joy to watch, a truly inspirational sportsman!
All of Rafa’s quirks and the down to earth manner in which he conducts himself, make his relationship with his fans special! On and off the tennis court Rafael Nadal is an exceptional person.

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Press, NetGalley and the author for the wonderful opportunity of reading this book.

[Annamaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

"somewhere there is a Planet Nadal, where babies don't play with dolls but with rackets; where muscle grows before bone, where courage is learned before speech and the heart beats faster. Rafa is an adolescent who has transformed himself into a superman."

Un'ottima guida per chi vuole conoscere la vita di una leggenda dello sport, un po' meno per chi magari quella leggenda la conosce da sempre. Resta comunque una bellissima storia da continuare a raccontare.

[Syd Exton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rafa4ever!

I too have watched his whole career and always routing for him. He is a great ambassador for tennis and for hard work and determination. His closeness to his family and friends is awesome and heart warming. He will, like Roger, be sorely missed when he retires. End of an era.

[Lora Grigorova · Rating 2 out of 5]

As Rafael Nadal's biggest fan (yes, I am), I read everything and anything about him I can get hold of. I have been to numerous Roland Garros finals, one Australian Open final (where he sadly lost) and several more clay 1000 tournaments. I know a lot of his stats and can name all of his Grand Slam titles and who he won against.

All of this is to testify that when I talk about Rafael Nadal information, I know what I am talking about. I have obviously read his biography that came out several years ago but when I randomly saw this new book about him I bought it immediately. Even though it said on the back page that it's not approved by Rafa Nadal himself.

Dominic Bliss is a journalist that has followed and covered most of Rafa's career so I had high expectations of this but unfortunately this book did not work for me. Maybe if you don't know anything about Rafael Nadal and you want a quick and simple introduction, this would be a good place to start. However, for seasoned fans, this is just a repetition of everything we know and have read in numerous articles and interviews. It's clear Dominic Bliss admires Rafa but he takes a rather superficial approach without dwelling on what makes him the great athlete he is today.

The focus on 10 important matches in Rafa's career was indeed a nice touch but I would have expected a bit more focus and analysis on the two of the most important matches (in this selection and in his career) - the 2008 Wimbledon final and 2022 Australian Open final.

I still enjoyed it because I enjoy everything that is associated with Rafael Nadal but expected much more.

[Wil Chava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buen compendio de datos interesantes de este deportista a quien muchos admiramos. El balance de prosa y fotos es bien bueno y deja ver facetas del tenista, empresario, persona de familia y valores incuestionables.

[Renae Bourke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new or ground breaking but a decent compilation of images and basic information.

[Annie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy enjoyable read.

[Riad Benguella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un joli livre, bon résumé de la carrière et de la vie de Rafa Nadal. De belles photos. Cependant, je reste sur ma faim, ce livre ne va pas assez en détail pour les connaisseurs et les fans de Rafa.

[Lukáš Richter · Rating 3 out of 5]

O životě a kariéře nejlepšího antukového hráče v historii.

[Carlos Pampillon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Manifiestamente mejorable

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to learn more about Rafa. He’s awesome. I wasn’t as much of a fan of the style of writing.

[Paola · Rating 3 out of 5]

nothing new

There was nothing new about rafa in this book. Just statistics everyone that follows rafa already knows and games we all saw.

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book - I loved reading about this tennis legend as he nears the end of his pro / open career. A great athlete with a great attitude on life too.

[Ronnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note to the publisher. Poor legibility of text. The very pale font in a non-uniform typeface makes this very hard to read. I gave up.