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NADAL

Tennis star Rafa Nadal to sue former French sports minister

Rafael Nadal stepped up his attack on Sunday on those who label him a drugs cheat, threatening to sue the French ex-sports minister who said the Spanish tennis star failed a drug test.

Tennis star Rafa Nadal to sue former French sports minister
All photos: AFP

Nadal said he is seeking “justice” and will have his day in court to silence critics like former French minister Roselyne Bachelot (see photo below).

“I gonna sue her, and I gonna sue everyone who gonna comment something similar in the future, because I am tired of that,” Nadal said Sunday night at the Indian Wells hardcourt tournament.

Bachelot, who served as sports minister between 2007 and 2010, has said that Nadal faked an injury in 2012, when he missed the final six months of the season due to knee problems, in order to hide a positive drug test.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion first told AFP on Saturday night that he was going to seek “justice” and use the courts to put a stop to speculation he ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

“I am tired about these things. I let it go a few times in the past. No more,” Nadal said, adding that he expected better of person who was “minister of a big country and a great country like France.”

Nadal has never failed a drug test in his many years on the ATP Tour and has always vehemently denied ever using a banned substance.

Nadal said he had been reluctant to take people who accused him of using illegal drugs to court in the past, but has now changed his mind. Nadal, the world number five, beat Gilles Muller 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the second round at Indian Wells on Sunday.

The former three-time Indian Wells champion moves on to face fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the hardcourt tournament, one of the biggest events on the ATP Tour calendar outside of the four Grand Slams.

The draw sets up a possible semi-final showdown between world number one Novak Djokovic and Nadal. They're nearly even in their 47 head-to-head meetings, with Djokovic owning a 24-23 edge.

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TENNIS

IN PICS: Rafa Nadal weds childhood sweetheart in Mallorca

Rafael Nadal married his partner of 14 years, Xisca Perello, at a castle in Mallorca on Saturday.

IN PICS: Rafa Nadal weds childhood sweetheart in Mallorca
Photo: Fundacion Rafa Nadal

Nadal, the 19-time grand slam champion, tied the knot with 31-year-old Perello at La Fortaleza, with a reported 350 guests invited to a private ceremony.

Juan Carlos I, the king of Spain from 1975 to 2014, was believed to be among those in attendance while the Michelin-star chef, Quique Dacosta, was reportedly in charge of catering.

The newlyweds shared some official photos of the day through the Fundacion Rafa Nadal, the NGO the tennis player set up on Mallorca

Photo: Fundacion Rafa Nadal

 

Nadal, 33, met his wife through his younger sister Maribel, a childhood friend of Perello.

They started dating in 2005 when they were both teenagers after meeting several years before.


Photo: Fundacion Rafa Nadal

The couple announced their engagement in January and revealed that the tennis ace had proposed on a romantic trip to Rome last May but chose to  keep the news private.

 

Perello, has always shunned the media spotlight although she has been pictured courtside at some of Nadal’s biggest matches.


Nadal kisses Perello after winning against France's Gael Monfils in the final tennis match at the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament in Monaco on April 17, 2016. 

But she isn't always there. In a 2011 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Perello explained: “He needs his space when he is competing, and just the idea of me hanging around and waiting on his needs all day tires me out.

“It would asphyxiate me. And then he would have to be worrying about me… No. If I followed him everywhere, I think there's a risk we might stop getting along.”

She works in insurance and is a business graduate but also serves as project director for the Rafa Nadal Foundation, the charity which Nadal launched almost ten years ago.

In an interview with sports newspaper Marca last year, the world number 2 hinted that he wouldn't be ready to start a family until he had retired from tennis. 

'I keep my commitment with tennis and my happiness', Nadal told Marca. 'I enjoy both in tennis and outside it. I have a girlfriend too and I am not alone to take decisions.

“Having family? I don't know, things are not easy to be predict. At this age, I thought that I would have already been a former player and that I would have started a family.”

READ ALSO: Rafa Nadal donates €1million to help victims of Mallorca floods 

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