MANACOR, July 26, 2018

The first edition of the Rafa Nadal Open Banc Sabadell was officially presented at the Rafa Nadal Academy on Wednesday. The ATP Challenger event with a total prize money of €43,000 will be held from August 25 to September 2, 2018.

In the press conference Rafael Nadal was joined by the President of the Superior Council of Sports María José Rienda, the President of the Royal Tennis Federation Mr. Miguel Díaz, the tournament director Joan Suasi and the Regional Director of Banco Sabadell in the Balearic Islands D. Pedro Ballester.

The World No. 1 emphasized the importance of this event for the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar: “I believe that the tournament is important for the Academy and for Manacor itself. I think we’ve made a good progress for a couple of years now and we’ve been growing in every way: at the level of attendance of young tennis players in the Academy and at the level of organization of events. We have already organized Spanish National Championships, ITF Futures tournaments as well as senior tournaments … but the organization of a Challenger is one more step towards the growth that we want to take from the Academy. I am obviously very pleased to see that things are going the way we wanted.”

🎙@RafaelNadal valora la apuesta de la RFET por los torneos @ATPChallenger para facilitar el acceso de los jóvenes tenistas españoles a la competición de primer nivel… pic.twitter.com/cQBMDLrdgx

— Tenis España (@spaintenis) 26. Juli 2018

15 years ago Nadal captured two ATP Challenger title of his own at the El Espinar hard-court event in Segovia as well as on the clay-courts in Barletta, Italy.

“Challengers are important, they are the second highest level of our sport. We all have gone through Challengers. It is a special event in which you can see young guys, who probably in a short time we can see on television and who will become future stars or good players, who come back from injuries. My own experience at Challenger-level was good: I was lucky enough to play for half a year and then I became professional. They are tournaments of high level and I enjoyed them,” Nadal said.

There will be free admission for spectators throughout the week.