The Warrior

Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay

By: Christopher Clarey

Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Master comes an intimate biography of tennis’s enduring champion Rafael Nadal.

In The Warrior, Christopher Clarey, Rafael Nadal's most mind-blowing achievement: 14 French Open titles. Nadal has won big on tennis's many surfaces en route to becoming one of the greatest players of all time: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and four U.S. Open titles on cushioned acrylic hardcourts. But clay, the slowest and grittiest of the game’s playgrounds, is where it all comes together best for his tactical skills, whipping topspin forehand and gladiatorial mindset. Clay is to Rafael Nadal what water is to Michael Phelps, which helps explain one of the most impressive individual sports achievements of the 21st century.

Clarey draws on interviews over many years with Nadal and his team and with rivals like Roger Federer. Not just a book about tennis, The Warrior draws much wider lessons from Nadal’s approach to competition.

Critic reviews

“Though the narrative focuses on Nadal, Roland-Garros’s clay courts become a character in their own right as Clarey provides rich background on the event’s history... It’s a meticulous recap of one of tennis’s great achievements.”—Publishers Weekly

Rafa King

This book is great when it's focused on Rafa and his inner circle. But about 1/3 of it is farther afield, like coffee talk with Christopher Clarey.

Clay history and surface level Nadal

I enjoyed much of this book but it did not contain as many eye-opening facts or behind the scenes Nadal info that I would hope. I am a big tennis fan and a big Nadal fan so there is potential the somebody who does not start reading with a high base level of Nadal knowledge would find it a better read. Additionally a large portion of the book is dedicated to clay court history and French Tennis history which was interesting enough but not the reason I picked up the book. Overall a good read but simply goes deep in the wrong areas for me.

Incredible writing and journalism with patchy narration

An incredible work to follow up The Master. I actually liked Warrior more, for its tracking of the history of clay tennis and Roland Garros. My only frustration were the frequent total mispronunciations of player names by the narrator.

Not a biography of Rafa

Jump around many topics, some of which are not really related to Nadal. Way too much Djokovic: some parts felt like his biography

Awful storytelling, boring and disappointing

I love tennis, I love Nadal but this book is just a collection o moments with no storytelling whatsoever, fact after fact after fact, jumps in time for no reason, hard to follow. I thought the same about Fedrer’s book. The subject is incredible but the author manages to make it boring because he lacks storytelling