Report: Rafael Nadal continues to reign on Google searches in Spain

Former world number one Rafael Nadal remains one of the most searched athletes in Spain. The 38-year-old is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category, having won as many as 22 Grand Slam titles.

Nadal, who retired from professional tennis recently after struggling with fitness concerns, remains one of the most searched athletes on Google in his country. As per the latest report, the former world number one is the second-most non-football athlete searched in Spain. He was closely followed by young Carlos Alcaraz, who was in third place. Interestingly, a similar trend has not been followed in Switzerland and Serbia when it comes to searching for other Big Three rivals such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Nadal finished his career recently after representing his country in the Davis Cup. The legendary tennis star struggled with fitness concerns throughout his career, especially towards the latter stages, which forced him to miss a lot of major competitions. The 22-time Grand Slam winner stayed out of action for nearly 12 months before returning to action earlier this year. He missed six out of last eight Grand Slams.

His only appearance in a mega-event in 2024 was in the French Open, where he was knocked out after losing in the first round to Germany’s Alexander Zverev in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Overall, Nadal played just 19 matches in his final season,n where he won 12 matches and suffered seven defeats.

Nadal is also renowned as the ‘King of Clay’, that is because he won the Roland Garros title 14 times, which is also a record in the competition’s history. His last major event interestingly was also the French Open in 2022 where he defeated Norway’s Casper Ruud in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.