As the King of Clay hangs up his racquet, B&T reflects on some of El Matador’s finest performances off the tennis court.
Rafael Nadal will retire from tennis at the end of the 2024 season, drawing to a close one of the greatest careers in tennis history.
The popular Spaniard – famous for his court speed, a never say die attitude and mastery of a heavy topspin forehand – was unstoppable on clay and won evry other major going, notching up 22 grand slam titles – a mark only bettered by Novak Djokovic in the men’s game.
Rafa was a wizard on the court, racking up career prize money of $135 million. His off-court game was also strong as one of the world’s most marketable athletes making an estimated $425 million in career endorsements and appearances, according to Sportico.
Throughout his career, Nadal has been an ambassador for the likes Nike, Kia, Babolet, Santander, Telefonica, Infosys, Tommy Hilfiger and even Subway.
It turns out that Nadal’s acting skills aren’t too shabby, either.
In honour of Nadal’s illustrious career on and off the court, B&T has compiled some of his finest work in front of the camera with special guest appearances from X-Men, Cristiano Ronaldo, xx and more. B&T believes there are a few clean winners (and some foot fouls) among this lot.
Kia
Rafa has done more Kia ads than most other brands and most of them. This is his final one, running earlier this year, in which El Matador (with retirement in mind) thanks tennis.
Nike
In 2012, Nike ran an ad in which Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Rafa faced off in a match of half soccer half tennis, in which both players wear Nike’s new Mercurial Vapor VIII.
It’s in Spanish, so B&T isn’t quite sure what the pair are saying but is pretty confident it probably doesn’t matter.
Just enjoy the party tricks between these two (much younger) superstars.
Tommy Hilfiger
In this spot, Rafa shills Tommy Hilfiger underwear. It is what it is and B&T make no apologies for including it in this list.
Nintendo Switch
It is a little known fact that the hardest opponent Rafa wasn’t the likes of Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic, it was actually the Nintendo character Mario.
In this 2018 spot, Rafa and Mario duke it out to promote Mario Tennis Aces for Nintendo Switch.
Santander
The Spanish bank has been a long-standing partner to Rafa and in this ad they ask “what would Rafa do?” Spoiler alert: the answer is never give up and keep winning stuff.
Subway
It’s quite remarkable that sandwich shop Subway can afford not just Rafa Nadal, but also NBA legend Steph Curry to plug their ham subs, but it was 2023 when anything was possible.
Theoretically these two ingredients should make any ad better, but B&T reckons sometimes you can have too much of a good thing in 15 seconds.
Uber Eats
In this 2019 spot, Rafa orders some food courtside from Uber Eats and receives a dinner code violation from the umpire.
Movistar
One of Rafa’s most recent pieces of work, this ad is a montage of Rafa playing tennis on a clay court with imagery of mother nature and wild animals.
As it is in Spanish, B&T isn’t quite sure what is going on but reckons the point of the ad must be that if you play more tennis on clay, society can overcome climate change.
Not sure what the ACCC would make of this potentially ‘greenwashing’ claim, but as it is broadcast in Spain, it probably doesn’t matter.
Kia
In 2016, Rafa teamed up with Kia and X-Men to run this action packed spot during the Australian Open.
When Rafa’s uncle and coach Tony Nadal noticed the supernatural power of Rafa’s right hand, he urged the young prodigy to play tennis with his left arm “unless the world truly needs your courage”.
It turns out that in 2016 that moment arrived when Professor X summoned Rafa. Powerful! Gifted! Ready for action!
It is rather hard to understand what is going on for most of the spot but it’s a wonderful piece of work. It makes B&T want to get behind the wheel of a Kia Sportage, but does not make B&T want to sit through two hours of X-Men Apocalypse.
Louis Vuitton
In this video, the luxury brand brings together two icons of tennis and mates in Rafa and Roger Federer.
They get asked a series of vanilla questions like: what is your greatest sporting achievement, and what would you say to your younger self – gripping stuff.
What isn’t questioned or explained is why they’ve hauled two tennis greats to film this on top of the Dolomites during a snowstorm or why they are awkwardly sitting on a large (and rather uncomfortable) Louis Vuitton trunk.
Nike
Few ads sum up what made Rafa so great than this 2019 spot by Nike. It shows the Mallorcan’s full range of weaponry, relentless court speed and why he will be sorely missed by tennis fans the world.
While this Nike ad would probably be the pick of the bunch for true tennis fans, B&T can’t go pass Rafa as one of the X-Men and the brilliant story about why he plays tennis with his left hand.