2010 Thailand Open: Not all about tennis for Nadal
Ranked no. 1 in the World and seeded no. 1 at the tournament, apart from focusing on the 2010 PTT Thailand Open, Nadal took a long break right before he hit the courts for his training sessions.
Rafael Nadal took part in an anti-global warming project called "One Million Trees for the King," in honor of the Thai King, Bhumibol Adulyadej. The charity program featured a tree planting ceremony held in in Hua Hin, Thailand. Apart from which, a day later,
Nadal visited the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Government House.
That however, certainly was not all. Rafa visited the monks, in the Prachuap Khiri Khan Province of h*i Hin, in a special ceremony on a beach. Nadal comes across as a rather private person when it comes to speaking about his spirituality.
However, as communicated by the Spaniard to Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim, "It's hard to say, 'I don't believe in God'" said Rafa. "I would love to know if God exists. But it's a very difficult thing for me to believe. I don't know. It's private and
I don't want to speak about it, but I say, "If God exists, you don't need [to cross yourself] or pray." If God exists, he's intelligent enough to [do] the important things, the right things."
Amongst Nadal’s extracurricular activities, is the forthcoming ‘Match for Africa’ to be played between the professional himself and Switzerland’s legendary Roger Federer, to raise money for the Roger Federer Foundation.
The top two seeds will face each other in an exhibition match which is going to be held on the 21st of December 2010, at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland. The Swiss stadium holds up to 13,000 spectators in boxing.
Prior to which, an exhibition match that went by the name ‘Hit for Haiti,’ featured Nadal, amongst Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams and the like. The professionals entertained the audiences by forgoing their final day for preparation of the
2010 Australian Open.
Additionally, in recent times, The Association of Tennis Professionals appointed Nadal and Federer, to create customized self portraits of themselves for the Barclays ATP World Tour finals, to celebrate their qualification.
As stated by Rafa, “Making the artwork was fun and something I've never done before. It's a great way to celebrate the World Tour Finals coming back to London. It was a little bit of a challenge to put the balls on the silhouette.”
However, as noble a man as Nadal is, one would hope that apart from making such contributions, the professional will fare well at the 2010 PTT Thailand Open this year.
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