There is a gesture that millions of viewers know by heart: Rafael Nadal adjusts his shirt, lines up the water bottles side by side, and touches his nose, his ear, and the back of his neck. A ritual that lasted twenty years and was always dismissed as superstition or eccentricity. Zach Heinzerling, director of the docuseries Rafa, which Netflix is releasing today, reached the conclusion after months of filming the tennis star that those tics are the outward manifestation of a psychology built on insecurity and Nadal’s way of managing it. This is how deeply the documentary dives into the engine room of a champion.
The series, produced by Skydance Sports, consists of four episodes and offers access to Nadal, his family, and his inner circle during his final year on the ATP tour, in 2024. It isn’t a documentary about the 22 Grand Slams, though they appear, but a portrait of the wear and tear that made winning them possible. At the helm is Heinzerling, an Emmy winner and Oscar nominee.
The docuseries traces Nadal’s journey from his beginnings at barely three years old to his return to competition in 2024, showing not only the evolution of a champion but also the physical and emotional strain that marked his career, turning his own body into his principal rival. Injuries prevented him from taking part in 18 Grand Slams over the course of his career, and the series focuses on the last of those events.
One of the axes of the series is the player’s relationship with Toni Nadal, an unusual presence in an athlete’s career, since most elite players change coaches every three or four years. Rafa Nadal kept the same coach for twenty years, and that coach was a family member who also lived in the same town on Mallorca. It is these kinds of details that make you think the series will be very different from the usual sports documentary.
On Xataka | Stephen King bluntly recommends Netflix’s new number one: it’s “an absolute pleasure.”