![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rincon-manacorch-2025.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Challenger
\n With Rafa watching, Rincon completes full-circle triumph at Nadal Academy<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old reflects on second Challenger title<\/p>\n
September 22, 2025<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alvaro Diaz\/Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar<\/p>\n
Daniel Rincon celebrates winning the Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar.
\n By Grant Thompson<\/p>\n
Daniel Rincon<\/a> glanced up from the baseline and suddenly froze. Leading 2-0 in his second-round match at the ATP Challenger Tour event held at Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, the Spaniard spotted Rafael Nadal<\/a> himself watching from the stands.<\/p>\n \n\u201cI saw him looking and I lost six games in a row,\u201d Rincon said with a laugh, speaking with ATPTour.com. \u201cI got a bit tight there.\u201d<\/p>\n \nThe nerves did not derail Rincon for long. The 22-year-old regrouped, won the match and went on to capture the trophy at the very place where he trained and graduated from in 2021.<\/p>\n \nWhile competing in the final, Rincon again spotted the former World No. 1 Nadal watching, although the match was almost halfway over, so Rincon \u201cdidn\u2019t have too much time to think about it\u201d.<\/p>\n \nRincon\u2019s triumph at his stomping grounds \u2014 with friends, family and other supporters (like Rafa!) in attendance \u2014 completed a full-circle moment for him.<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt was the best week of my life, by far. I really cannot compare it to anything else,\u201d said the No. 209 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. \u201cI thought about how it could be before the final, or the feelings of winning there, but it was even more than I imagined. It was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n You May Also Like: Following the birth of his second child, Nadal enjoys the Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar<\/a><\/p>\n \nBoth of Rincon’s Challenger triumphs have featured memorable moments. When he won his first Challenger title last year in Tampere, Finland, his luggage was lost. He battled through the opening rounds with only three racquets, borrowed strings and grips.<\/p>\n \n\u201cI was going with a little bag on court, I was looking like an amateur player going to practise on a Sunday,\u201d Rincon said at the time<\/a>. \u201cJust with three t-shirts and going to do laundry every day.\u201d<\/p>\n \nIn Manacor, the 22-year-old rallied from 2-5 in the third set of his first two matches and also needed a decider in his quarter-final and semi-final matches.<\/p>\n \nNadal\u2019s presence added to the storybook week, even though Rincon did not have the chance to speak with the 92-time tour-level titlist during the tournament.<\/p>\n \n\u201cIn the second round, I knew he was coming,\u201d Rincon said. \u201cI have some people who are close to him and they knew he had to come do some media things and he was going to stay a little bit for the match, so I was trying not to look, but at the same time looking like, \u2018When is he going to come?\u2019 So the first day, I was basically looking for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \nRincon\u2019s connection to the Rafa Nadal Academy runs deep. He first arrived at the state-of-the-art facility as a 16-year-old in September 2019. The Manacor Challenger final was being played on his first day, so it is fitting he would one day claim a special victory at the same event.<\/p>\n Rincon reflected on his journey: “Now that I actually played the final, who would have thought when I was just 16 and working with my two suitcases that I would play there?”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Challenger With Rafa watching, Rincon completes full-circle triumph at Nadal Academy The 22-year-old reflects on second Challenger title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-174756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758575167_85_it-all-adds-up-banner.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\nDaniel Rincon triumphs at the Manacor Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/-\/media\/images\/news\/2025\/09\/01\/02\/29\/rincon-mallorcach-2025.jpg”>
Credit: Alvaro Diaz\/Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar<\/a><\/p>\n