Rafael Nadal Parera (born June 3, 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since August 18, 2008. He has won five Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. He has captured the last four French Open singles titles, joining Björn Borg in 2008 as the only man to have won four consecutive singles titles there. In 2008, Nadal became the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. Nadal is the only player in the open era to have won the French Open, the London Queen's club, and Wimbledon in the same year.

For much of his career, Nadal has had a rivalry with Roger Federer, which many critics consider to be the greatest rivalry in tennis history. They are the only men in the open era who have played each other in six Grand Slam finals, with Nadal winning four of those matches. Nadal was ranked World No. 2 behind Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot. Nadal has won 12 of their 18 singles matches.

He has been especially successful on clay courts. He has a 22–1 record in clay court tournament finals and is undefeated in 43 best-of-five-set matches on clay. In each of the last four years, he has won both the French Open and two clay court Masters Series tournaments. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007. As a result, some tennis critics and top players already regard him as the greatest clay-court player of all time.

On October 18, 2008, Nadal clinched the year-end World No. 1 ranking for 2008. The same year, he was given the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for his achievements in sports. (via Wikipedia)