Spanish native Rafael Nadal is undoubtedly one of the top two or three male tennis players currently, and also one of the most recognized sports stars worldwide. Known as a competitor in everything he does, Nadal recently gave his endorsement of online poker in general, and one online poker site specifically. Obviously, this is a paid endorsement, but having such a recognizable and universally admired athlete playing at the top of his game come forward and endorse online poker is great for the Internet poker community at large.

Rafa inked a deal with PokerStars, who made the announcement Thursday, June 20. There have been rumors for the last couple of months that PokerStars was courting Rafael Nadal and other tennis stars, but the official announcement is still nice to hear. This is not the first time that PokerStars has netted a win with a professional tennis player, as the site currently sponsors retired tennis player Boris Becker, who won 6 Grand Slam titles before he retired in 1999. The company also had a deal at one time with active professional tennis player Gaël Monfils. Actual terms of the deal were not discussed.

Winning his first professional tennis match on the ATP at 15 years of age in 2002, Nadal has been annually present in the upper echelon of men’s tennis ever since. With a career grand slam on three different surfaces, 11 career grand slam titles and an amazing 7 men’s singles championships in the French Open out of the last 8 years, he is undeniably one of the best tennis players in the Open Era. Rafa even has a gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Having such a successful athlete in their fold earns PokerStars a salute, and while they may certainly benefit, they are helping the entire pro-online poker cause as well.

Commenting on the deal, Rafa pointed out that it is no secret he is incredibly competitive, trying his best to win at everything. He mentioned it matters not whether it is “tennis, golf or video games,” he wants to be his best, and he wants to win. He went on to point out that when he first discovered the game of online poker, he wasn’t very good, but his competitive nature keeps him playing, and he hopes one day to “become a good player.” It is no coincident that PokerStars recently launched a subsidiary product in Nadal’s home country of Spain, after obtaining one of the online operating licenses that country was offering earlier this summer.

PokerStars was one of the big name online poker rooms that the United States Department of Justice shut down in April of 2011, known as Black Friday in the online poker community. PokerStars has since settled with the government, and in the wake of states like Nevada now offering legal online poker licenses thanks to an about-face ruling by the US DOJ, the return in the US of such previous big names in the online poker world is almost guaranteed, and probably just a matter of time.  In the meantime, any of these high quality USA online poker sites can provide you with an exceptional online poker gaming experience, and you can get detailed data about each of them in thepokergrind.com poker reviews.