Australian Open: Nadal walks into the next round with victory against the actor

Rafael Nadal is present throughout Melbourne Park. The Spanish superstar also electrifies the crowd down under and, after a casual victory in the eighth-finals of the Australian Open.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

Tennis fans in Melbourne Park are hard-boiled, with temperatures up to 42 degrees Celsius? No problem! Just under two hours before the scheduled training of the great Rafael Nadal on Friday at noon local time, the first supporters of the Spanish superstar were standing at Court 16. You don’t do everything you can to catch a glimpse of your hero. The “Rafa”hype is no less pronounced at the other end of the world than elsewhere.

And because there were not enough seat shells in the shade around the outside seat right next to the S-Bahn line, some of them simply sat on the floor. Some of them are covered with towels, others equipped with umbrellas – but all of them are hot for their idol’s practice hour in the scorching sun.

Together with Roger Federer, his counterpart from Switzerland, Nadal continues to electrify the masses like few other athletes with world fame in their respective sports. And the man from Majorca is now present on all sides of the Yarra River facility. Together with Angelique Kerber, Nadal adorns the cover of the official Australian Open computer game 2018:”It’s really something special when you see yourself as a character and can play yourself,”said the 16-time Major Champion.

On Friday, Nadal continued to do justice to his role as the industry leader in 6-1,6-3,6-1 in 1-50 hours against Damir Dzumhur (No. 28) and entered the quarter-finals in Melbourne. Speaking of roles? The Bosnian Dzumhur has already appeared in two films. In the film “Murderous Peace” (2007) he portrayed an Albanian boy named Durcan. After his career as a professional tennis player, the 25-year-old Dzumhur wants to re-enter the movie industry.

Nadal, however, with its academy in Manacor, has already set the course for the future. His uncle and former coach Toni Nadel has been dedicating himself completely to the in-house talent factory since this year and therefore no longer travels around the world with his nephew. The Australian Open is the first major tournament without Toni in the box,”He’s home on Mallorca and he’s fine. If I have anything to ask, I’ll call him. And if he has something to tell me, he’ll call me. This is a very simple situation,”explained Rafael Nadal, who has been looked after by the former number one Carlos Moya for over a year.