The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay

by Christopher Clarey

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Master comes an intimate biography of tennis’s enduring champion Rafael Nadal. 

In The Warrior, Christopher Clarey illuminates the skill and determination it took to accomplish Rafael Nadal’s most mind-blowing achievement: 14 French Open titles. Nadal has won big  on tennis's many surfaces en route to becoming one of the greatest players of all time: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and four U.S. Open titles on cushioned acrylic hardcourts. But clay, the slowest and grittiest of the game’s playgrounds, is where it all comes together best for his tactical skills, whipping topspin forehand and gladiatorial mindset. Clay is to Rafael Nadal what water is to Michael Phelps, which helps explain one of the most impressive individual sports achievements of the 21st century. 

Clarey draws on interviews over many years with Nadal and his team and with rivals like Roger Federer. Not just a book about tennis, The Warrior draws much wider lessons from Nadal’s approach to competition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538759134
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Christopher Clarey was the longtime tennis columnist and global sports correspondent for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, covering more than 100 Grand Slam tournaments and 15 Olympics.

Editorial Reviews

A scintillating account of the elastic Spaniard’s epic run to the pinnacle of men’s professional tennis.”—Wall Street Journal Book Review

"The definitive volume on the definitive clay court player of all time."—Vogue

“Christopher Clarey wrote what is widely regarded as the definitive book on Roger Federer: The Master. Now he has produced a similarly authoritative book on Federer’s longtime rival and friend, Rafael Nadal: The Warrior. The book tells the story of both Nadal and clay-court tennis, using the Spanish great’s relationship with Roland Garros, the French Open, as its frame."—The New York Times

"A wonderful addition to the canon of great tennis books... offers new insight into Nadal's unprecedented dominance on clay courts."—Town & Country

"Shrewd and informative."—The Times

"[Christopher Clarey] is well positioned to write Nadal’s biography, having already penned The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer. Clarey can thus be called the Walter Isaacson of sports biographers - and we now await his verdict on Djokovic." 
 —The Federal

“Though the narrative focuses on Nadal, Roland-Garros’s clay courts become a character in their own right as Clarey provides rich background on the event’s history... It’s a meticulous recap of one of tennis’s great achievements.”—Publishers Weekly

“This insightful, wide-ranging book could serve as a model for other sports biographers.... An inspired portrait of an unusually dominant athlete.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2025-04-04
A Spaniard takes Paris.

After Björn Borg won his unprecedented sixth French Open in 1981, some observers considered it an unbreakable record. Not quite. In 2022, Rafael Nadal won his 14th French title. The Spanish lefty’s “deep and singular connection” to the red clay courts at Roland-Garros provides Clarey, who has covered the tournament for 30 years, with a foundation for this shrewdly constructed biography. In Spain, where most courts are clay, 6-year-old Nadal rallied with adults. His facility for hitting topspin forehands with “next-level racket-head speed” would set him apart, Clarey writes. High-speed cameras show that his rival Roger Federer’s forehand generated about 2,500 revolutions per minute. Nadal’s ball did 3,200 rpm, forcing opponents to contend with higher bounces on “slippery clay.” At various points, Clarey steps back from Nadal to focus on lesser-known aspects of the tournament. These include the material composition and maintenance of the playing surface, the resentment some French fans felt when Nadal was winning nearly every year, and the fascinating history of the tournament venue, in which wartime France interned foreign nationals. The hallmark of Nadal’s career was competitiveness, “playing every point like it was match point,” said a fellow player. His doggedness was fueled by his uncle and coach Toni Nadal’s training program, which prized “volume and intensity,” Clarey writes. But the regimen might also have damaged his body. Injuries forced Nadal out of 15 major tournaments, nine more than Federer, whose supposed lack of grit was once derided by Nadal’s team. Clarey occasionally clogs up the narrative with uninformative quotes, but he convincingly depicts Nadal as largely unchanged by success, the rare player who personally thanks tournament staffers and media-room stenographers. This insightful, wide-ranging book could serve as a model for other sports biographers.

An inspired portrait of an unusually dominant athlete.

Kirkus Reviews