Despite having a troublesome year on the tour, Rafael Nadal have maintained his huge popularity in his home country according to figures provided by Yahoo.
Yahoo has published figures regarding the most searched athlete on their website (yahoo.es). The 9-time French Open champion has beaten the likes to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to top the list.
Nadal has endured a testing season with three titles on the tour this year, but no semi-final appearances at any Grand Slam tournaments for the first time since 2004. The 29-year-old closed his year out positively by reaching the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
Nadal wasn’t the only player ranked in Yahoo’s top 10, Garbine Muguruza also crept in at 10th. Muguruza has enjoyed a breakthrough year on the tour where she reached her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon. The 22-year-old won the biggest title of her career so far in October. She defeated Timea Bacsinszky in Beijing, China, to claim her first WTA Premier title.
The only other tennis related term to reach the top 10 was ‘Roland Garros’, the venue of the French Open. Surprisingly, that term came ahead of Barcelona FC players Iker Casillas and Lionel Messi.
Earlier this year Spanish research company personality media listed Nadal No.1 in their list of the most popular people in Spain. It is the tenth consecutive year that the world No.5 have been listed in their top 10 most popular media personalities.
Top ten searches of yahoo.es (via mundodeportivo.es)
1) Rafael Nadal
2) Formula one
3) Cristiano Ronaldo
4) Fernando Alonso
5) Champions League
6) Roland Garros
7) Moto GP
8) Lionel Messi
9) Iker Casillas
10) Garbine Muguruza
