Rafael Nadal, shown here practicing at the Citi Open tennis tournament on July 31, 2021 in D.C., seems to be delighted by his first trip to the District.

Nick Wass / AP Photo

D.C. was meant to be a mere stop along the way for tennis superstar Rafael Nadal as he prepares for the U.S. Open with his first-ever participation in the Citi Open. But love happens when we least expect it, and Nadal is head over heels.

Enter: our main character, the King of Clay, fresh off an announcement earlier this summer that he’d be skipping Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics. (He made the decision after listening to his body.) Instead, the player tied for the most Grand Slam wins of any male athlete is seeking another U.S. Open title at the end of the summer. That win would break the Spaniard’s tie with longtime rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. He already has them beat when it comes to playing at the Citi Open — he’s the first of the “Big Three” to do so.

“Playing in Washington allows me to be on the tour one week before than what I do usually for this part of the season,” Nadal told reporters over the weekend. “Super happy to be here.”

He had said in a statement last month announcing his plans to play at the Citi Open that he was “very excited” to come to D.C. for the first time: “I have never been there, and it’s one more place I wanted to come and play.”

Those were not just words to him. Jetlagged on Saturday morning, he took a 90-minute amble around the District. That appears to be when he happened upon a dog in Georgetown. The dog’s name? Also Rafa — named after the tennis star himself.

https://twitter.com/rafaIicious/status/1421457863516377088

A video of him in which he looks somewhat unpracticed at holding the four-legged Rafa’s leash (plus a selection of baked goods) makes a lot more sense knowing his feelings about animals, canines very much included. “I doubt their intentions,” he wrote in his 2011 autobiography Rafa. Going out of his comfort zone while holding a baguette? Folks, we have our protagonist.

He’s saving the games for the hard court, and making his feelings about the District known, dropping the “L” word faster than a Bachelorette contestant.

“I love to be here in Washington,” he said at the pre-tournament press conference. “I am able to visit one of the most important cities in the world. And honestly, it’s a very beautiful city. I have been able to walk around a bit the past couple of days. I am very impressed. I hope to have a chance to visit a bit more [of] the city during the next couple of days.

“What I saw, so beautiful. A very green city, lower buildings than most of the American big cities. I am enjoying the city, I am enjoying the people.” (Put Nadal in the “no” column when it comes to debates over changing the city’s building height restrictions, I guess.)

And visit a bit more of the city he has! He posted a photo of himself on his Instagram story on Tuesday posing with a bike in front of the Lincoln Memorial, with the text “Yeah, it’s me with a helmet …” As if we needed the clarification — he may have traded his once-trademark capris for shorts of literally the perfect length, but the Rafa-branded neon hat underneath that helmet is a clear sign it’s everyone’s favorite lefty.

https://twitter.com/sharrowsDC/status/1422695147230441476

And what would a rom-com be without a little farce? After a slight mishap in which he tagged a selfie in front of the U.S. Capitol as the White House, he quickly fixed the error and started responding to people commenting their corrections (as if any of you could name a single building in Mallorca). “Isn’t that the US Capitol ? Lol” someone wrote, and he replied “yes it is 😂”, and referred to the mistake as a “typo” in another response.

Normally rom-coms involve some kind of hurdle to overcome, but this burgeoning relationship feels pretty straightforward. (Well, he is married, but there’s no reason that should get in the way.) D.C. has its fair share of Rafa fans, and the athlete hasn’t been shy about his own feelings about the District.

You can also check the whole waiting-in-the-pouring-rain-for-your-beloved scene off the list, as fans did over the weekend for him.

As of Wednesday afternoon, his Instagram account has been quiet. Nadal’s first Citi Open match, against American Jack Sock, starts at 7 p.m. It’ll be his first time playing competitively since his semi-final defeat at the French Open in June. Nadal has played Sock five times before and won every one of those matches.

Nadal told CBS that “the most important thing in this life in my opinion is, be happy.” Get ready for a chase through an airport where the city convinces him that’s all D.C. has ever wanted, too.

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