King Rafa inaugurates Nadal Tennis School in India

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal arrived in India late on Saturday night and inaugurated the Nadal Tennis School at the Anantapur Sports Village in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. The tennis star quietly slipped in to the country unnoticed. The Spaniard was supposed to be in India for three days but had to cut short his trip after missing a flight and spent only a day at his newly-inaugurated academy set up in collaboration with Fundacion Vincente Ferrer (FVF), the Spanish arm of the Rural Development Trust (RDT), an Anantapur-based NGO.

He arrived in Bangalore late on Saturday night and drove down to Anantapur. The center court was inaugurated at 9.30am following which he interacted with a few children from the school and played tennis with them.

District collector of Anantapur Dr B Janardhan Reddy told DNA, “I had a chance meeting with him as I was close to the stadium and I even got to hit a few balls with him.”

The academy currently has three clay courts while plans are on to expand the place. He was accompanied by his mother Ana Maria Parera. Rafa will return home and get some much needed rest before the season-ending London Masters starting November 21.