Ramón Delgado

is 43 years old, he is the captain of the Davis Cup in Paraguay and works in a company that imports medical products.

In the spring of 2002 he became the first victim of

Rafael Nadal

, who, at the age of 15, beat him 6-4 at the Palma de Mallorca tournament.

"He was a

wild card

[guest of the organization], a boy

Carlos Moyà

had been talking about on the circuit: he told us that he had a different head and a lot of future. In the game I was able to verify it: the attitude

d, the desire, the intensity, were not those of a normal boy of that age, "he recalls from Asunción in a telephone dialogue with this newspaper. Nadal began to move in tournaments

futures

Y

challengers

, without rubbing shoulders with the important tennis players yet.

In fact, after losing in the second round to Olivier Rochus, he did not appear again in a higher-ranking competition until the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 the following year, where he beat

Karol Kucera

already

Albert Costa

That season he would start to do his thing, also beating Carlos Moyà, fourth seeded, in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Hamburg.

The intrepid teenager had already claimed the head of two Roland Garros champions.

Moyà, today a coach and always a friend, soon learned of his competitive and irreverent nature.

He debuted at Wimbledon with two wins before being stopped by

Paradorn Srichapan

and passed a round at the US Open, then relented against

Younes El Aynaoui

.

Surprised by its consistency

"I had just lost some first rounds and when the draw came out I thought it would be a good opportunity to gain confidence with a view to Roland Garros. 'If I get solid, a 15-year-old boy is not going to hold me,' he told me. But soon enough , from the beginning, the consistency of his blows caught my attention ", says Delgado, then 80th in the world and with the credit of having won four years before to

Pete sampras

at the start of Roland Garros.

That same season he defeated

Jim Courier

in Bogota.

And a course later, to

Michael Chang

, in Washington.

"Against Sampras I got the best victory of my career. In principle, it was a routine game for him, who started 4-1 up with two

breaks

.

The game was stopped for two hours due to the rain and when he returned he looked annoyed with the conditions: muddy ground, heavy balls, the service was not running.

It was a bit the other way around what happened to me with Nadal.

Sampras was losing confidence as I held on to the court. "The first of Nadal's 999 victories was suggestive, but the Spaniard, still without merits acquired to enter qualified tournaments, continued to make his way in lower competitions. That 2002 won two

futures

in Barcelona, ​​another two in Gran Canaria, one in Vigo and one in Alicante.

He took a leap when a year later he took the title in El Espinar, considered the best

challenger

.

Then he could be seen already in the almost newborn tournament in Madrid, neutralized again by Corretja, another of the references of Spanish tennis, a double finalist at Roland Garros who reached number two in the world.

Precocious, Nadal had barely gone through the small categories. Delgado was 23 years old and had a tour with some headlines in sports pages when he measured with him in Palma.

"When I met Rafa and

Benedict

[

Perez Barbadillo

, press officer for el español], who is a friend of mine, I usually joke asking for compensation, because I was the first to give him confidence in his tennis. "He has three daughters as a result of his relationship with his wife,

Alexandra

:

Maria Fernanda

, 11 years old;

Maria Paula

, nine, and

Maria Cecilia

, of three.

"The two older girls play tennis with me, but I don't demand them. If they feel like it, we'll rally for a while, if not, no."

Ramón does not mind being asked to evoke the only meeting of his life against Nadal, an afternoon that he would rather have left in oblivion.

"Imagine the frustration of losing to a 15-year-old back then."

Breakthrough in Davis

The outbreak was at the end of 2004, with the victory against

Andy Roddick

in the Davis Cup final.

Injured, he had not been able to go to Roland Garros, when his name already sounded very serious.

In 2005, in his debut in the tournament, he won the first of his 13 titles.

Delgado has a hard time finding analogies between Nadal's game and that of other great tennis players he faced, including Andre Agassi.

"He didn't look like anyone in particular, but he already had the foundation of his game: very heavy shots and an impressive ability to defend himself on clay. From there he has won 13 titles at Roland Garros and maybe he can get more depending on his physique. "Account of the boy observed by a large group in his corner, where Carlos Moyà was also, how" the public was turned on as they saw that Rafa had chances. "

"I imagine that everyone's idea was for the kid to play a decent role in his first weapons, but when they saw that he could win they knew how to push him, people got more involved in the game and helped him."

Delgado saw in him a player with potentials, but he couldn't imagine what was going to happen in the next five years.

"It was evident that it was going to be very good, but nobody can say that he predicted his 20 Grand Slam titles. Whoever says that is lying."

Among the sum of strengths, the mental difference stands out. "He was a child, but he looked different. He had intensity, attitude, he was always active and encouraged himself all the time. Only phenomena have different heads, and I know that. I saw him being so young. "

After retiring, our interlocutor trained the Colombian for two years

Alexander Falla

and for four seasons to the Paraguayan

Veronica Cepeda

.

As Davis Cup captain, who knows if, imbued with the spirit of the first Nadal, he has successfully debuted two 15-year-olds:

Martin Vergara

Y

Daniel Vallejo

, who is already awarded a scholarship by IMG in Bradenton (Florida).

Never played against

Federer

neither

Djokovic

, although he coincided in a challenger tournament with the Serbian when he was 17 years old.

He continues to watch tennis, for his new professional responsibility and for his hobby. Value the three members of the

Big three

, with their different personalities, without forgetting the weight in the history of men like

Rod Laver

,

Bjorn borg

, Sampras or

Agassi

.

"If Djokovic continues healthy and with the desire that he now has, I think he can overcome Nadal and Federer," he points out when asked who will end his career with more Grand Slam titles.

For now, three weeks after equaling Federer's 20 greats against the Serbian's 17, Nadal can join the select club of players who have won more than 1,000 games in the professional era.

One of them is the Swiss.

The most fertile,

Jimmy connors

, who, however, stayed in eight greats.

The third,

Ivan Lendl

, with the same number of

majors

.

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