Rafael Nadal is inarguably one of the greatest male tennis players of the past few years. The Spanish tennis legend and heartthrob has earned more than $50 million in career tennis earnings, not to mention much more than that through his many endorsements. You may recall that we reported in June of last year in this column that Nadal had joined forces with PokerStars as one of their high profile celebrities, and he even kept an online diary of his poker education and progress. Proof of his poker growth came quickly, during Nadal’s impressive run at the Spanish Championship of Online Poker (ESCOOP) €200 main event, before his A-K was out-flopped by an opponent’s pocket Jacks.

Back in June of 2012, Nadal admitted he was a newbie to the game, both online and off. But he expressed an interest the past several years, and was confident he could turn his legendary work ethic to good effect on the virtual tables. Just over half a year after announcing his deal with PokerStars, the online poker noob has taken down his first virtual title. While the amount of money he won is insignificant to say the least compared to his tennis income, a six-month progression from absolute rookie to online poker tournament winner is impressive at any level.

The young Spaniard recently entered a €10 freezeout poker tournament hosted by PokerStars.es, the Spanish version of parent company PokerStars. PokerStars.es only allows Spanish citizens and residents to play at their online poker room, and Nadal outlasted the rest of his 47 countrymen who entered the tournament in just two hours to capture the €152.40 first place prize. Certainly not providing enough money to quit his day job, the tournament win was extremely satisfying for the ultracompetitive 26-year-old nonetheless.

Raffy, affectionately nicknamed “The King of Clay” and widely recognized as the greatest clay court player of all time, will probably not value his first ever online poker tournament win above his record 7 French Opens or 36 ATP titles won on clay courts. But as Nadal explained after joining PokerStars last summer, his competitive streak is no secret, and when he decided to focus on internet poker as a hobby, he treated it just as seriously as he does the profession which has rewarded him so handsomely for all his hard work.

Still, online poker pros are probably not sitting nervously in their computer chairs at the news of Nadal’s tournament win. But what this should do is give the novice and intermediate level online poker player hope. If a poker newbie who did not even understand the rules of the game, much less an internet poker room user interface, can learn the game of poker playing part-time in 6 months and win a poker tournament online, anything is possible.