"Rafael Nadal is intense as a coach" - says US Open girls champion Alexandra Eala
The 2022 US Open girls' champion, Alex Eala, had all praise for Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam victor whom she met at his academy.
The Filipina talked about meeting the tennis legend at the Rafa Nadal Academy and how she found him to be humble and giving, understanding how hard he worked in his early years. In a talk with Olympics.com Eala said:
"He's really nice. I told him, I'm sure a 15,000 that I won wasn't as big as his achievements and he said that, you know, once upon a time a 15k was everything to him as well. So you can see that he really came from humble beginnings and he started from the bottom and he really worked his way up."
Eala made a revelation that should excite fans as she said that he enjoys coaching, suggesting that we may see him in that role in the future, even if only at his academy.
"He's on the court a lot. He loves the work, you can tell. He really loves to coach. And he's very intense when he coaches, of course, he's someone with so much knowledge and so much experience on the tour so I've learned a lot from him."
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