Although it’s hard to believe, Rafa Nadal has participated in the Ciudad de Albacete International Trophy twice. In 2002, at the age of 16, he won a few matches against Jorge García Marín and Tati Rascón before losing in the quarterfinals to Juan Alberto Viloca, while in 2003 he outlasted Ferrán Ventura in the semifinals and won the title by beating Feliciano Lopez. . This is the story of the best Spanish athlete of all time, so just a promise of tennis, on the clay of La Mancha.
Julián García, who continues to be the tournament director, “knew Rafa since he was 12 or 13 years old. “We knew he was going to be a great player, but we couldn’t imagine that he would win 22 tournaments Grand Slam.” “He was super professional and super competitive; “He fought for all the balls,” remembers García, for whom “the key to his success was playing the important points well.”
Juan Alberto Viloca (Barcelona, 1973) was 29 years old when he faced Nadal, who was almost twice his age. “He was very shy and, on the other hand, his uncle Toni talked a lot. It was clear that I was different from the others and my father told me later that day, I told him: ‘I played against someone who will be number one’; but, in truth, I don’t remember much about the game,” he admits.
Even if Viloca won (doubles 6-4), “I didn’t brag about it either because it wasn’t an ATP tournament.” Furthermore, we are ultimately talking about a top tennis player who reached 47th place in the world rankings; he entered the main draw of the big four; He finished in tournaments of a certain prestige (Gstaad and Mexico) and above all, throughout his career he had already beaten rivals who had also reached first place, such as the Chilean Marcelo Ríos or the Brazilian Guga Kuerten .
So he didn’t give more importance to winning against a 16-year-old boy, regardless of his potential, says Viloca, who currently works as a coach at TEC Carles Ferrer Salat, a top center that thrives on private sponsorship.
Ferrán Ventura (Salt, 1978) is also a coach; in his case at the Hoop Tennis Club, on the Costa Brava. His career “was nothing special”, lost beyond 400th place in the ATP rankings and with at least 30 national tennis players above him. Of course, he played against Nadal five times. He learned of its existence during a Spanish championship in Menorca. “He was 14 and I was 22. At that time, Rafa was a kid who ran a lot, with a very good attitude and a physique beyond his age, but he just served, he flew normally, the backhand was difficult for him and, in the end, no one thought he would win everything he won. “Whoever says it now is too smart,” he said.
Ventura will witness how the Balearic genius “evolved very quickly”. He won the first two matches and lost the others. The memory of the Albacete meeting in 2003 remains “fresh”. And it shows press clippings from ABC whose chronicles detail that “this will be recorded in the history of the tournament because there is no qualifier to define what Rafael Nadal and Ferrán Ventura fought for three and a half hours “. It was decided in the tie-break of the third set, where Ferrán had four balls to win. However, “I became very, very nervous, my left leg was shaking when I bounced the ball”, and he found himself on his knees facing a 17-year-old opponent who “was already about 40th in the world”.
In this regard, Julián García reveals an anecdote: “When we went to dinner, Rafa was driving in my car and received a call from his uncle Toni. “He told him he had played very badly, but for us it had been a great match and he fought it like it was Roland Garros.”
