The figure of Rafa Nadal will remain forever at Roland Garros and not only in a figurative sense for having been, so far, 13 times champion of the tournament. And is that the tournament honored his current champion on Thursday by discovering an imposing statue of him in the new general public entrance, near the famous Garden of the Musketeers.
The steel sculpture, with a height of three meters, 4.89 wide and two deep, is work of the Spanish artist Jordi Díez Fernádez, and reflects in an avant-garde way the drive of the Balearic Islands, one of his hallmarks.
The Nadal statue at Roland Garros
Rafa Nadal, with Jordi Díez Fernández, Gilles Moretton and Guy Forget.
Photo:
/ Christophe Guibbaud / FFT
Nadal, next to his statue at Roland Garros.
Photo:
/ Christophe Guibbaud / FFT
Photo:
/ Christophe Guibbaud / FFT
Photo:
/ Christophe Guibbaud / FFT
Photo:
/ Christophe Guibbaud / FFT
Nadal was present at the time of the statue’s inauguration, along with the president of the French Tennis Federation and the tournament, Gilles Moretton and the sculptor himself, as part of a ceremony in which the placement of a statue of the aviator that gives the competition its name, Roland Garros (by the French Caroline Brisset), was also celebrated. it will form part of the landscape of the enclosure along with the silhouettes of the four musketeers of the Gallic tennis: Borotra, Brugnon, Cochet and Lacoste.
In a club of legends
Rafa Nadal joins a select club of sports legends that have statues in different locations, such as Rod Laver in Melbourne, Severiano Ballesteros in Ireland, Michael Jordan in Chicago, Cristiano Ronaldo in Madeira, Di Stefano in Madrid, Bahamontes in Toledo and Cruyff in Barcelona, among others.