The Warrior

Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay

Christopher Clarey

$49.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

John Murray Publishers Ltd
15 May 2025

Biography: sport; Sports & outdoor recreation; Tennis

From the bestselling author of The Master, longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.

An intimate, original biography of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, and the first to cover his entire career.

After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world's pre-eminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Nadal, the Spanish force of nature. When he arrived on the scene in 2005, the record for men's singles titles at the French Open stood at six. Nadal more than doubled that total to a mind-blowing fourteen titles: one of the greatest sporting achievements in history.

Nadal won big and won often on all of tennis's surfaces: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and six on the

US Open and Australian Open hard courts. But clay, the grittiest of the game's playgrounds, is where it all came together best for his whipping forehand and warrior mindset.

Clarey, who has covered Nadal since he was seventeen, draws on interviews over twenty years with Nadal, his team and rivals like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Brimming with behind-the-scenes insight, The Warrior tells the story of a global sporting icon, interlacing man and place in a unique, must-read account of the evolution of excellence.

By: Christopher Clarey
Imprint: John Murray Publishers Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781399811507
ISBN 10: 1399811509
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 15 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Christopher Clarey was the long-time tennis correspondent for the New York Times and covered international sports for more than thirty years for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, where he was chief sports correspondent and columnist. He is the author of The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer which was a New York Times bestseller.