By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, August 17, 2025
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Facing Rafael Nadal in a match could an excruciating experience for even top pros.
Playing Nadal in practice was even worse, say two former American stars.
In the new episode of their Nothing Major podcast, Sam Querrey and Stevie Johnson shared the two “worst practice partners” they ever encountered: Rafael Nadal and Reilly Opelka.
Querrey, who beat Nadal 6-3, 7-6(3) to in the 2017 Acapulco final, said the King of Clay’s sheer power on his vaunted lefty forehand and his hard-core competitiveness made him a nightmare practice partner.
“Rafa’s pretty bad, we’ve talked about this before,” said Querrey, who was 1-5 lifetime vs. Nadal. “Rafa just hits every ball as hard as he can.”
“Rafa’s bad,” Johnson concurred.
Former No. 1 Nadal is second only to massive server Reilly Opelka among worst practice partners, according to Querrey and Johnson.
That’s because Opelka chooses the nuclear option on serve and strokes in practice and the result is no rhythm and few rallies for the opposing player.
“Reilly is a bad one,” Johnson said. “He’s great fellowship out there, but unlike John [Isner], [Opelka] would go full Bot-mode in practice. John, I’ll reiterate this one again, good practice partner. He wasn’t gonna go full out on his serve, great rhythm from the ground. Like you would get a really good rhythm with John, no questions asked.
“But Reilly, he does it the right way for him. He’ll go like two first serves, hit 74 unforced errors and 80 winners in a practice. Like you just have no idea what you’re gonna get. So sometimes Reilly was a tough one, but he practice the right way for him, for sure. But it was a tough practice for an hour. You never really felt like you got your side out of it.”
See the pair crown Nadal and Opelka worst of the worst here:
Rafael Nadal was known for hitting his ferocious forehand as much as 6 to 8 mph faster in practice than in match play.
In a past interview with Tennis Now, Toni Nadal, Rafa Nadal’s original coach and uncle, cited his nephew’s passion for practice and unmatched intensity during practice as primary factors for his Grand Slam greatness.
“I was lucky enough to coach a guy who was as excited for every single practice as he was to play each match,” Uncle Toni Nadal told Tennis Now in an interview at the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre in Costa Mujeres, Mexico.
Interestingly, Querrey cited one of three men to defeat the King of Clay at Roland Garros, Robin Soderling, as one of the two all-time worst warm-up practice partners he ever faced.
“I know who the two worst warm up partners were. If you’re gonna warm up for a match for 30 minutes. It was Robin Soderling or Lukas Rosol [as worst]—they just hit every ball as hard as they could,” Querrey said. “You come to the net they just rip it at you like super intense not like relaxed for the first two minutes. It was not fun.”
