Rafael Nadal celebrates 20 years of his 1st ATP Challenger Tour title

Rafael Nadal recently stirred up "beautiful" memories of his first-ever ATP Challenger Tour title at the 2003 Open Citta della Disfida in Italy's Barletta.

At the age of just 16 years and 10 months, the Spaniard defeated his 30-year-old compatriot Albert Portas 6-2, 7-6(2) in the final to win the seventh edition of the tournament on the clay courts of the Tennis Club Hugo Simmen on April 12, 2003. Twenty years later, Nadal holds as many as 92 tour-level titles, including 22 Grand Slams, and is still in love with the sport.

The only six players other than him to have won a Challenger trophy before turning 17 are Michael Chang, Richard Gasquet, Bernard Tomic, Kent Carlsson, Marcos Ondruska, and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

As he continues his recovery from a hip injury that he picked up at the 2023 Australian Open, the former World No. 1 recorded a video from the Rafa Nadal Academy in his hometown of Manacor. He sat next to his first trophy to reflect on his two-decade-old victory and sent across his best wishes for the ongoing 23rd edition of the event.

"Twenty years ago, I won this title and it is a beautiful memory. I embrace the whole city of Barletta, good luck to everyone for the tournament. I hope to come back soon," Nadal said.

He made his Masters 1000 debut as a qualifier in Monte Carlo a few weeks after winning at Barletta. In 2018, the current 14th-ranked player recalled how he felt about the Challenger tournaments and described his experience from 2003.

"Challengers are some of the biggest tournaments too and it's important to have this step before coming to the ATP World Tour. Everything was new for me in that moment. Then Monte-Carlo was the first big tournament that I played. I started to play Challengers at the time and won the title in Barletta. So I had a lot of confidence. I played against players that I knew very well from those Challengers," Nadal said.

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Rafael Nadal was being talked about the world over in 2003: Former player

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal's first victim at the 2003 Open Citta della Disfida in Barletta was fellow Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, who was the first player to win 400 matches on the ATP Challenger Tour.

A few years ago, Hidalgo recalled his 2003 match against Nadal and lauded his mentality at the time.

"He was already playing very well and the whole world was talking about him," Hidalgo said. "I said to myself, ‘OK let's see how the kid plays’. During the match, he played really good and above all had an incredible mentality. You could already see it."

Nadal, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters and is expected to return at the Barcelona Open, which begins on April 17.