The Rafa Nadal Academy announced on Tuesday the launch of a training center in Hong Kong, the first opened by the Spanish tennis player since the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The project was born with the aim of “becoming one of the most prestigious sports centers in the region and from which, hopefully, good players can come out in the future,” the academy’s head of international projects, former Spanish tennis player Carlos, told AFP. Coast.
Located in Sai Kung, a bucolic peninsula far from the frenzy of the center of this Asian city, the facilities have seven outdoor courts and one indoors and currently accommodate around 350 players.
The center has sent two coaches from its Mallorca team and has trained the rest of the technical team at the original academy.
Opened in 2016 in Mallorca, the project has expanded with a new academy in Kuwait and tennis centers in Mexico, Greece and Hong Kong.
Unlike the academies, these centers do not assume the school education of the students, but are only in charge of sports training.
However, “part of the project is intended for good players from Hong Kong to come to Mallorca for a few weeks,” explained Carlos Costa, who also points out the organization of a local tournament to grant scholarships to two young people for a high-performance program .
“Asia is a continent with tremendous potential at a sporting level and in which tennis is becoming more and more important (…) Hopefully we can help this sport grow in Hong Kong and that in the future we can see it come out of very good players here,” he said.
In fact, the Mallorca academy is already home to one of the promises of local tennis, the teenager Coleman Wong, winner of two Junior Grand Slams in doubles and a member of the Davis Cup team in this territory.
“Since the opening of the academy in Mallorca 5 years ago, we have always found it very interesting to be able to expand our methodology to more countries to reach as many people as possible,” said Rafael Nadal himself, quoted in a statement.
“I am convinced that it will be a success and that little by little we can continue to increase our international expansion,” added the tennis player, who is in London playing the Wimbledon tournament.
