The 4 matches where I knew Nadal was something special.

[Zardoz7/12]

Here he beats a player who is literally playing out of his mind (for reasons we found out later on) and Nadal still beat him.

 

[BVSlam]

Those were definitely great examples of his hype coming through.

For me I'd say a little earlier even; beating Moya at 16 years of age on clay, strong performance vs. Hewitt at AO 2004 where he was hitting amazing forehands already, beating a red-hot Fed at Miami 2004 already showing brilliant tactics and then his great win against Roddick at Davis Cup 2004, even if it was on clay. From there it was a matter of time. And that time was very short as it turned out.

Heck, he was really close winning his first HC title in Auckland at 17 years of age that year, dominated to win his first ATP title at Sopot on the clay...

 

[TheGoldenEra1990’s]

I knew he was going to be juggernaut on clay but I didn’t think he would end his career with a double career slam and Fed without one. That’s crazy

 

[RSJfan]

I knew he was something special when at age 17 he bounced all around the court like a jumping bean and beat the #1 player in the world 63 63.

 

[InsuranceMan]

Around Roland Garros 2022 I intuitively deduced that this guy was something special