Rafael Nadal wins hearts despite Australian Open failure after featuring in ad: WATCH

After a dreamy end to the season saw him win his 13th Roland Garros — and 20th Grand Slam — last year, Rafael Nadal was aiming for even greater things this time around. The Spaniard was one of the first big names to explicitly confirm his participation at the Australian Open, which, had it ended in a title run, would have made Nadal a 21-time Slam champion and the world's third male double career Grand Slam champion. However, Rafael Nadal's Australian Open 2021 run was cut short by a charged up Stefanos Tsitsipas who downed the Bull in a tremendous five-setter in the quarter-finals.

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Rafael Nadal Australian Open 2021 video with KIA wins hearts

Despite his slightly short stay at Melbourne Park, Nadal has left quite the mark on the Australian Open. Through the pandemic, Nadal, along with his longtime sponsors, KIA, has been trying to help fans feel more involved in his training and matches by creating interactive videos with them or asking them to send some encouragement his way from their homes. For the Australian Open, Nadal and KIA (which is also one of the major partners of the Australian Open) teamed up to make a video compilation titled 'the world's most creative rally'. 

The video was created by stitching together user-generated clips of fans 'returning' some of Rafa's serves from the tournament in the most creative ways possible, including while dancing, underwater, in a bath and many others. The campaign was designed to go with KIA's tagline 'Movement that Inspires'. It is the latest in a series of creative and innovative efforts by the brand which also began the fan art series called #TakeOn20 at the French Open 2020 to motivate Rafa in the absence of fans.

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Rafael Nadal Grand Slams record

Winning his 20th Slam last year, Rafael Nadal joined long-time rival Roger Federer on the top of the Grand Slam winners list. At just 33, the Spaniard has many playing years remaining and will aim not just to top Federer but also to do enough to prevent a takeover from current No.1 Novak Djokovic. He should mount his French Open title defence in May this year.

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Rafael Nadal net worth

According to celebritynetworth.com, Rafael Nadal's net worth is estimated to be around $180 million. This figure includes Rafa's immense career prize money total of $123,843,596 (figures from the ATP website) as well as his earnings from his many endorsement deals and other assets. As a 20-time Grand Slam champion and a 13-time winner at the French Open, Nadal has inked a number of prestigious deals with luxury brands like Emporio Armani, Babolat, Telefonica, Banco Sabadell, Tommy Hilfiger Cantabria Labs, Richard Mille, KIA, Nike etc. He also owns his own tennis academy in his hometown of Mallorca, Spain.

Disclaimer: The above Rafael Nadal net worth information has been sourced from various websites and media reports. The website does not guarantee a 100% accuracy of the figures.

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Image credits: AP