How Rafael Nadal practiced on wet grass before winning his first Wimbledon title in 2008
ATP
In 2008, Rafael Nadal managed to win the most matches in a season during his career when he triumphed 82 times, and that included seven wins at Wimbledon.
The Spaniard won his first Wimbledon title that year, but that was preceded by his very interesting choices. Nadal started the year in Chennai, where he reached the final and suffered one of the biggest losses in his career, losing 0-6, 1-6 to Mikhail Youzhny.
Then, he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and didn't win any tournament before the clay-court season started. He then won the tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Hamburg and finished it off with a triumph at the Roland Garros without dropping a set.
Then, Nadal switched focus to grass-court season. At taht point in his career, he had yet to win any other Grand Slam title than Roland Garros.
He started his preparations for the Wimbledon Championships at the Queen's Club, where he surprised Graham Kimpton, who was the Queen's Club's head groundsman.
It was raining in London, but the Spaniard headed towards the practice courts when he met Kimpton, who asked whether he wanted to play on the wet courts.
"You don't want to play, do you?"
Nadal said he wanted to practice, so Kimpton told his team to put the nets back on the courts so the Spaniard could practice. Then, the Spaniard went on to win the tournament, beating the likes of Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic on his way to the title.
Thanks to that, he entered the 2008 Wimbledon Championships confident and eventually won the tournament. After defeating players like Mikhail Youzhny, Andy Murray, and Roger Federer, he lifted his first of two Wimbledon trophies.
Now, 14 years later, he will try to add his third triumph at the All England Club despite fighting an injury.
