Rafa Nadal (Classic)

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.