Rafael Nadal is regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time, and is known as The King of Clay because of his peerless dominance on clay courts. The 26-year-old Spanish tennis pro recently joined Team PokerStars, and is hoping that the physical skills and instant decision-making he has used to become a Career Grand Slam title holder will help him in the not so physical online poker world. Nadal has a record 21 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament titles, is the youngest to ever win a Career Grand Slam, and owns a record 7 Open Era French Open titles. Rafa, as he is affectionately known in tennis circles, recently registered for the Spanish Championship of Online Poker main event on December 9, hoping to add an online poker tournament title to his impressive trophy case.

Recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him since this summer, the fourth-ranked ATP men’s tennis player in the world will be headed to the virtual felt before returning to his familiar clay-court environment. PokerStars signed the good-looking young tennis master more than five months ago, and now that Nadal’s knee is recovering he has time for online poker play. The tournament is known as “ESCOOP” and is the first of its kind. PokerStars.ES will host the tournament in their new regulated Spanish online poker room that went live in June of this year.

All US and other non-Spanish players might be disappointed, because only Spanish residents are allowed to participate. That means you will not have a chance to test Rafa personally in an online poker game where your skills may just be better than the tennis pro’s. The tournament series began this past Sunday, December 2, and culminates in the €200 buy-in main event the following week. Former and fellow tennis champ Boris Becker is also a Team PokerStars member, one of four athletes that have received the PokerStars Team SportsStars designation.

Gregarious and good-looking, the talented tennis pro has been documenting his poker playing training online. Several videos have been released featuring how he learned to play on a mobile app, recording his growth as an online poker player, and also revealing a couple of weaknesses that ESCOOP sharks will certainly be attempting to exploit. Nadal is undeniably one of the most globally recognized sports pros at the height of his profession, and his signing at PokerStars is considered by many as the biggest ever in the online poker industry.

A Dutch hockey player and Swedish ski pro join Becker and Nadal on Team SportsStars, but no word if those two PokerStars representatives are going to be playing in any major online poker tournaments soon. One interesting documentation of Nadal’s education in learning how to bluff took place on a golf course in Mallorca, where the widely recognizable Rafa successfully passed himself off as an incognito employee. If those bluffing skills are any sign of The King of Clay’s overall ability at online poker, Nadal may soon be recognized as The King of ESCOOP 2012 as well.