Alcaraz, Symbol of the Rafa Nadal Academy's Success

Under the Majorcan sun, the Rafa Nadal Academy doesn't just train players: it forges destinies. Behind the walls of this tennis temple, young prodigies learn to walk in the footsteps of the Bull of Manacor.

© AFP

Adrien Guyot

le 18/12/2025 à 15h58

3 min to read

Alcaraz Carlos Eala Alexandra Extraits de Dossiers Ivanov Ivan Korneeva Alina Landaluce Martin Nadal Rafael

Alcaraz, Symbol of the Rafa Nadal Academy's Success

World number 1 at the end of the 2025 season, Carlos Alcaraz was a student at the Rafa Nadal Academy. The young Spaniard, whose early career strangely resembles that of his illustrious predecessor, attended the academy in 2019. At the time, he was 16 years old and playing on the Challenger Circuit.

Considered a young prodigy, Alcaraz quickly climbed the ranks. In February 2020, he played his first professional tournament at the ATP 500 in Rio. In Brazil, he eliminated clay-court specialist Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the first round. Federico Coria then narrowly defeated him in the round of 16.

Since then, the great hope of world tennis has only confirmed all the promises placed in him. He won his first title on the main tour against Richard Gasquet in Umag in 2021. Then, he triumphed at the Next Gen ATP Finals that same year. It was in 2022 that Alcaraz truly changed dimensions.

That year, he won his first Masters 1000 titles (Miami, Madrid) as well as the US Open. After his victory at Flushing Meadows, he took the opportunity to become the youngest world number 1 in history, a sign of his incredible progress in just a few months.

Eala, Landaluce, Ivanov, Korneeva: Grand Slam Winners Among Juniors

Considered the future of the ATP and WTA tours, Alexandra Eala, Martin Landaluce, and Ivan Ivanov are also students of the Rafa Nadal Academy. 2025 was actually the breakthrough year for the Philippine player on the main tour, who had won the US Open Juniors in 2022.

Invited by the organizers of the WTA 1000 in Miami, the 20-year-old left-hander reached the semifinals after victories over Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, Paula Badosa, and Iga Swiatek. It was then Jessica Pegula who ended her run at the gates of the final.

Martin Landaluce is a Spanish player destined for a great career. Ranked 134th in the world as of December 15, 2025, he won the US Open Juniors in 2022 and qualified at age 19 for the Next Gen ATP Finals held in Saudi Arabia for the first time in his career in 2025.

While perhaps awaiting entry into the top 100 soon, the Madrid native can certainly follow the example of Carlos Alcaraz. As explained earlier, the Spaniard had attended the Rafa Nadal Academy at the same age as Landaluce.

For his part, Ivan Ivanov has been training at the Spanish champion's academy since 2021. The Bulgarian may already be the heir to Grigor Dimitrov, who also won Major tournaments in the junior categories. The player born in 2008 won Wimbledon and the US Open Juniors in 2025.

Finally, Alina Korneeva was seen training with Rafael Nadal himself in December 2025. The young Russian won two Junior Grand Slams: the Australian Open (against Mirra Andreeva) and Roland-Garros in 2023. In any case, the Rafa Nadal Academy identifies and trains some of the likely future icons of tennis.

Read the Full Investigation

Read the full investigation "The Rafa Nadal Academy: A Model of Expertise and Professionalism for Future Tennis Stars," which will be available in full the weekend of December 20 on TennisTemple.