Toni Nadal: Excerpted from Strokes of Genius

Toni Nadal: Philosopher, ping pong champion, gardener, coach.

Toni Nadal, the cerebral Nadal brother with a fierce non-conformist streak, was a Balearic Islands Ping Pong champion and a fine tennis player. Toni had too many other interests–history, philosophy, gardening, friends, day-to-day curiosity–to devote himself fully to the sport, but he achieved a top-30 ranking in Spain and played cagey, tactical tennis at the level of, say, a strong college player in the United States.

When Rafa was three or four (accounts vary, and the subject himself pleads ignorance), Uncle Toni, then a pro at the local tennis club, equipped him with a racket. With shaggy hair moving with each stroke and a complexion matching that of the nitrate-colored clay underfoot, Rafa used his entire body to bat the ball over the net.

Toni was struck by his nephew’s organic talent. Like a kid fiercely scribbling in a coloring book yet managing to stay inside the lines, Rafa could slug the ball with accuracy. But Toni was “probably more impressed,” he says, with the kid’s intensity.

When Rafa was on the court, time became elastic. “Other boys, even much older, would hit the ball around and then get bored. Rafa would…