María Francisca Perelló, the wife of Rafael Nadal, was the historical and longtime friend before she became the wife of the Spaniard. They started dating in December 2005 and were married on December 19.
October 2019 in Mallorca. Xisca Perello is a notoriously reserved person off the pitch: a woman who, with her discretion and confidentiality, has given Rafael Nadal’s professional life great stability.
Nadal has guarded his personal life very well over the years considering how much he has become a champion. Perello has known Nadal since his youth and came into contact with him through her friend, his sister Maribel Nadal.
The couple started dating in 2005 when they went to the University of the Balearic Islands. She was 17 and Rafa was 19. Xisca is currently the Project Leader for Strategy and Relations with Institutions for the Rafa Nadal Foundation.
Her first job after graduation was as a sports marketer in London. Many stars were present at their wedding, such as Olivia Colman, Tom Hiddleston, David Ferrer, Hugh Laurie and many others. They got married in La Fortaleza Castle on Mallorca, in a very stylish wedding with 350 guests, although neither Federer nor Djokovic were present.
Rafa’s career with Xisca by his side
Rafael Nadal is considered to be one of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport, along with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the greatest tennis player of all time.
His numerous victories on clay (record 62 titles) earned him the nickname King of Sand, on which he is considered the strongest player in tennis history. In his career, Rafa has also won Olympic gold in singles in 2008 and Olympic gold in doubles in 2016, 5 Davis Cups with the Spanish national team (2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019), 36 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (shared record with Novak Djokovic ), 22 ATP 500 tournaments and 9 ATP 250 tournaments.
Nadal was number one in the ATP world rankings for a total of 209 weeks and finished in first place in the rankings for 5 seasons. He is the only player in history to have reached number 1 on the ATP rankings over three different decades (2000-2009, 2010-2019, 2020-2029).
He is also the only player in history who has never been relegated from the top 10 of the rankings, as well as the absolute record holder for several weeks in a row (822: from April 25, 2005 to today). At Roland Garros he is the only player to have won the same tournament 13 times, with a record of 105 wins (an absolute record in slam tournaments) and only three defeats, one of the greatest sporting successes of all time.
–
