VIDEO: Rafael Nadal Gets Emotional Discussing Playing in Front of Tiger Woods
By Michael Luciano
Instead of idolizing the tennis greats of yesteryear like John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal always looked up to golf legend Tiger Woods. With his idol in the house at the 2019 US Open, Nadal, who claims he follows every single shot Woods takes in a given year, advanced to the quarterfinals after taking down Marin Cilic in four sets. He got the opportunity to thank his role model, and offered quite the touching soliloquy.
"I always say that I've never had big idols, but if I have to say one idol it's him."
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2019
—Rafael Nadal on playing in front of Tiger Woods pic.twitter.com/rqaObYFzD2
Game recognize game.
Tiger has been extremely invested in Nadal's performance at the Open, as he even broke out the trademark fist pump when the three-time US Open champion prevailed over Cilic in the Round of 16.
— Michael Schutte (@MikeSchutte) September 3, 2019
Much like Woods, Nadal is defying Father Time at the age of 33, and he has his eyes set squarely on the Open championship, which would give him the 19th Grand Slam win of his career-- more ammunition for his legacy which is so oft compared with that of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.