Rafael Nadal
The year 2004 was the last time Rafael Nadal wasn’t a fixture in the minds of tennis experts, or even casual sports fans, everywhere.
It was also the first time he played in the Australian Open—20 years to the day, to be precise.
Just 17, Nadal made his Melbourne debut on January 20 after a third-round showing at Wimbledon, and a second-round result at the US Open, the year prior. Two notes on this:
* Nadal didn’t play Roland Garros until 2005; the rest is history.
* Keep in mind that January 20 in Melbourne is January 19 in New York.
His opponent on the old Rebound Ace? 215th-ranked Michal Tabara. The 41st-ranked Nadal took down the Czech with ease, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Perhaps too easily, even—there is scant online evidence that the match even took place. Just three Getty Images exist from the short showdown (The only photo of Rafa from it is below), and a “nadal tabara” search on X yields just 12 total results. There is no YouTube highlight from the match at all.
Evidence of the remainder of Rafa’s Australian Open debut can be found, though. Such is the case when your third-round opponent is none other than Lleyton Hewitt. Ranked 11th, the beloved Aussie faced Nadal after the Spaniard took out Thierry Ascione, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Hewitt needed just three sets to end Nadal’s first trip Down Under, but the first two set came down to tiebreaks.
“I seen a little bit of his second-round match. He played a lot better tonight than he did in that second-round match, I tell you,” said Hewitt after his 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-2 win.
“He really went up another couple of levels tonight. Yeah, he’s a great player. As I said before, you know, all the good stuff you’ve heard and seen in the past, you know, he’s going to be very good in a couple of years.”
(Hewitt’s reward for beating Nadal? A fourth-round match against Roger Federer—which the Swiss won 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4.)
The Australian Open is the major Nadal has won the least amount of times, but he’s only taken four losses there before the quarterfinals. You can’t say that about any other major for Nadal except Roland Garros.
After taking another loss to Hewitt in fourth round the following year, this time in five sets, Nadal reached the quarterfinal stage or better in his next eight appearances Down Under (from 2007 to 2015, excluding the tournament he skipped in 2013). That included a memorable, five-set, final-round win over Federer in 2009.
Compatriot Fernando Verdasco snapped Nadal’s streak of deep runs with a first-round upset in 2016—avenging his marathon loss to Rafa in the 2009 semis—before another run of brilliance. From 2017 to 2022, Nadal reached three more AO quarterfinals, two more finals, and won his second Australian Open with a five-set comeback against Daniil Medvedev.
Want to relive that match? I can assure you there’s no shortage of highlights available.
