By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Picture credit score: Rafa Nadal Academy
Diploma day acquired champions’ commendation on the Rafa Nadal Academy.
Ana Ivanovic joined fellow former world No. 1 Rafa Nadal to preside over the commencement ceremony for the tenth class of the Rafa Nadal College on the Spanish famous person’s native Mallorca. Forty-seven college students from a number of totally different international locations world wide comprised the 2026 graduating class.
The 2008 Roland Garros champion and holder of 15 WTA titles, Ivanovic is the most recent sports activities champion to talk on the commencement ceremony. Ivanovic, one of the common WTA champions of her period, follows within the footsteps of famend sports activities figures equivalent to Toni Kroos, Pau Gasol, David Ferrer, Ona Carbonell, Ricky Rubio, Iga Świątek, and Carlos Moyá, who’ve accompanied Academy graduates in recent times.
In 2020, Nadal buddies and fellow former Grand Slam champions Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova participated just about within the ceremony.
Picture credit score: Rafa Nadal Academy
Ivanovic instructed graduating college students success stems extra from dedication and every day dedication than sheer expertise.
“Individuals usually assume that champions are outlined by expertise, and expertise does matter,” Ivanovic stated in her speech. “However after spending so a few years in sports activities, I can say with full confidence that it isn’t solely about expertise.
“It’s about dedication. It’s about laborious work. It’s about consistency. It’s about exhibiting up each single day. The true purpose shouldn’t be merely to change into probably the most profitable individual, however to change into somebody who’s sort, who stays grounded in each troublesome and profitable moments, and who approaches failure, strain, and alternative with the identical grace and composure.”
Picture credit score: Rafa Nadal Academy
Throughout his speech, Rafa Nadal highlighted the function that schooling has performed because the Academy’s founding and conveyed a message of gratitude and confidence to the scholars as they embark on a brand new chapter.
“Tennis has at all times been a elementary a part of my life, and it’s also a part of the DNA of this academy. It has taught us values that we think about important: effort, self-discipline, respect, resilience, and the power to get again up after each setback,” Nadal instructed graduates. “If there’s one factor that has guided this venture from the start, it’s the conviction that schooling opens doorways for a lifetime.
“That’s the reason, from the very begin, we needed to construct a college we could possibly be pleased with. A college able to creating not solely nice athletes, however above all good folks and excellent college students, ready to pursue no matter path they select sooner or later.”
Rafa additionally addressed the graduates immediately with an emotional farewell message: We’ll at all times be your prolonged household.
“As you allow the Academy at the moment and start a brand new stage in your lives, I would love you to recollect one factor: regardless of the place your future takes you, you’ll at all times be a part of the Rafa Nadal Academy household.” Rafa Nadal stated. “From at the moment onward, you’ll face new challenges and new alternatives. A few of chances are you’ll have already got a transparent path forward, whereas others are nonetheless discovering it.
“What issues is that you just at all times preserve your curiosity, your want to be taught, and your dedication to steady enchancment.”
Picture credit score: Rafa Nadal Academy
The 47 graduates have now accomplished an essential stage of their schooling on the Rafa Nadal College, a global American-English faculty positioned throughout the Rafa Nadal Academy.
Since its creation, the college has set its mission assertion in creating “an instructional mannequin based mostly on instructional excellence, important considering, independence, and the cultivation of values equivalent to effort, humility, self-discipline, resilience, and respect—rules that type a part of college students’ every day lives and are embodied by Rafa Nadal himself.”
