His portrait will forever be displayed on court no. 4: Rafael Nadal is the greatest pride of the Auray Super 12 Open, the unofficial under-12 world championships. He arrived in 1998, accompanied by his uncle, Toni, and spent ten days in the small town of Morbihan, at the age of 11, staying with a host family, whose dog, a boxer, he was afraid of. He had cried to his parents one Friday evening, for fear of abandonment, while he was playing the first tournament of his life outside of Spain.
In 2010, the Spaniard even sent a letter, written in French, to the organizers of the tournament, situating his final victory as a turning point in his career, while he was still hesitant with football at the time: “There is already 12 years old by winning the Auray Super 12 Open, I made the decision to opt for tennis, to try an international career. Happy birthday for this 25th edition, kind regards,” he greeted with great class.
Rafael Nadal won this edition of the tournament, which included Yoann Gourcuff, who became a successful footballer, or Richard Gasquet who, by chance, announced the date of his retirement from sports on the same day as Nadal, or even Jamie Murray, brother of another iconic player, Andy Murray. Other current tennis stars have revealed themselves there over the years, such as Andy Murray, Carlos Alcaraz, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Clara Burel and Alizé Cornet.
“It’s a great event and I have fantastic memories of this tournament. It will remain engraved in my mind, I came there when I was 11 years old and I particularly wanted to congratulate Xavier Liéval (organizer) for all the superb work,” Nadal confided for the 30th anniversary of the tournament, in 2015, in video.
This Thursday, October 10, 2024, the 38-year-old Spaniard announced that he would end his immense career as a professional tennis player after the Davos Cup final, from November 19 to 24, in Malaga (Spain). News which inevitably resonated differently in Brittany, particularly in Auray.
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