New Rafael Nadal Book Captures the Tennis Legend’s Life and Legacy

Rafael Nadal’s career has been measured in Grand Slam trophies, marathon matches and enough red clay to fill a library.  

Now it gets the coffee-table treatment.

Luxury publisher Assouline is releasing Rafa Nadal, a large-scale visual biography created in collaboration with the 22-time Grand Slam champion and built around three decades of photography, including images from the private collections of Nadal, his family and his inner circle.

The 336-page book is written by longtime tennis journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim, whose previous work includes Strokes of Genius, his account of Nadal’s celebrated 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer.

For tennis fans, the attraction goes well beyond another collection of Nadal’s greatest hits. The book moves from Roland-Garros and the locker room to his hometown of Manacor, the Rafa Nadal Academy and quieter moments away from competition. Assouline says many of its 353 images have never previously been published.

Source: Assouline

Federer contributes reflections, along with Nadal’s wife Mery Perelló, his father Sebastián Nadal, King Felipe VI of Spain and longtime coaches Toni Nadal and Carlos Moyá.

Nadal himself supplies perhaps the clearest statement of what the book is trying to capture beyond the trophies.

“The titles, the numbers, are there, so people probably know that. But the way that I would like to be remembered more is like a good person from a small village in Mallorca…just a kid that followed his dreams.”

Assouline is offering the book at three distinctly Nadal-sized levels.

The Classic Edition is priced at $120. The oversized Ultimate Edition is $1,200 and arrives in a hand-bound linen clamshell inspired by the clay of Court Philippe-Chatrier. A limited signed Ultimate Edition is priced at $3,000.

Source: Assouline

The Ultimate version opens with Corinne Dubreuil’s photograph of Nadal’s taped and blistered hands holding his seventh Roland-Garros trophy in 2012. The Classic Edition opens with Clive Mason’s portrait of the teenage Nadal at his first French Open title run in 2005.

All three editions are available for pre-order, with Assouline listing an estimated October 13 release and shipping date.

For a player whose physicality could sometimes overshadow everything else, the photographs offer another way into Nadal’s story: the hands, the clay, the rituals, Mallorca, family and the extraordinary amount of work behind one of tennis’ defining careers.

The book is available for pre-order now.

Sources: Assouline | Assouline

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