I was tournament director in Stuttgart, and one of the players I took for the tournament for three years was Rafael Nadal. He was 16. At this point he hadn’t won Roland Garros. The first year he played he fought like unbelievable.

After the tournament I asked one of the Board Members from Mercedes about which of all the players he would like to see back the upcoming year. He said, I don’t know the name, but there was a young guy playing Friday. He was fighting so well; I would like to have him back. I said don’t worry, he is coming back.

The following year Rafael came back and was now a well-known player to all. We had a charity for kids’ hospital that we did each year and some of the top players signed some items like handbags, caps and t-shirts. I asked Toni “Could Rafa please sign me 10 t-shirts?”

Toni said: “No problem”.

He then came back later that same afternoon and asked: “What do you need the t-shirts for?”.

I told him about the charity, and he said: “Okay”.

The next day Toni came back to me and said: “Rafa, will go himself”

My response was: “No, no sorry but Rafa is playing at 4 o’clock and this is from 11am to 1pm”.

Toni responded to my surprise “Rafa will never make somebody else do his job — he will be there”.

This is one of many stories I have about Rafa and to me it shows that he is a person with very high values. I really respect Rafa and have a lot of respect for him as a person.

(Inspired by the podcast episode #74: “Managing a Top 100 Player” w. Dirk Hordorff on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)

Want to listen to the full episode: http://shorturl.at/jktA8