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WATCH: Nadal sprays Tsitsipas, others with champagne

ByJonathan Scott

Published May 06, 2018

At last week's Barcelona Open, 11-time tournament champion Rafael Nadal proved himself yet again as a champagne supernova of sorts on clay. Witness the wonderfully amusing footage of him slinging bubbly at Stefanos Tsitsipas, and the young woman seeking to help the 19-year-old finalist open his own bottle:

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Here was Rafa at his most playful, joyful, boyish – and that feeling was infectious, as seen in the assembled ballkids' reaction shots.

It has to be said (and who hasn't?): Nadal's 2018 clay-court campaign is bubbling up to what seems an almost-sure 11th Roland Garros title. It would be the continuation of his record after 2017's historic victory, La Decima. Operative question as Paris awaits: Who, really, stands to beat him in a best-of-5-sets affair on the surface? Not the current crop of pretenders to the throne of crushed brick.

Follow Jon on Twitter: @jonscott9

WATCH: Nadal sprays Tsitsipas, others with champagne

WATCH: Nadal sprays Tsitsipas, others with champagne

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