"Rafael Nadal, you put me on tennis!" - Arthur Cazaux, Andy Murray's Nottingham final opponent, recalls falling in love with the Spaniard

Rafael Nadal has inspired a whole generation of young tennis players, and Arthur Cazaux, a rising star in French tennis, is one of them.

Cazaux, 20, has been making rapid progress on the ATP tour and won his first two Challenger titles --Challenger Nonthaburi (in September 2022) and Challenger Nonthaburi 2 (in January 2023) in Thailand. The Frenchman recently opened up on his admiration for Nadal, calling him an inspiration.

Arthur Cazaux recalled his first memory of a tennis match, where he watched the-then 19-year-old Rafael Nadal play at the 2005 French Open. Cazaux, who was three at the time, said he fell in love with the Spanish legend and cited that moment as an inspiration for him to pick up the racket himself.

"My first tennis memory was when I was three years old and I watched Roland Garros on TV. Nobody in my family played tennis, but I watched Roland Garros with my father and I saw a Rafael Nadal match,” Cazaux told the ATP Challenger Tour media team.

“I don’t know why but I was shocked. I fell in love with tennis and Rafael Nadal. Since that day, I’ve played tennis and I’ll never give up."

Cazaux had a chance to meet his icon at the 2018 French Open, his first junior Grand Slam tournament. He remembered asking Rafael Nadal for a photograph during a gym session together.

“I met [Rafa] in 2018 at the Roland Garros gym, I took a picture with him," he recalled. "It was my first junior Grand Slam, and I saw him. I was like, ‘I must take a picture with him!’ It was a big memory. Rafa, you put me on tennis!”

Besides Nadal, Cazaux named basketball stars Stephen Curry and the late Kobe Bryant as his idols.

“Kobe was one of my first idols, I was a big fan of his mentality in everything," he said. "I tattooed a black mamba on my arm because [of his] ‘black mamba’ mentality.”

Arthur Cazaux recently gained fame when he played British legend Andy Murray in the final of the 2023 Nottingham Challenger on June 18. While the youngster lost the match to his much-experienced rival, playing against a grasscourt specialist like Murray was indeed a big moment in his career.

Cazaux, ranked World No. 147, is part of a young cohort of French players who are making waves in men's tennis. He is currently No. 7 in the ATP Live Next Gen Race 2023, with his fellow French players, Arthur Fils at No. 4 and Luca Van Assche at No. 6.

Rafael Nadal coaches kids at his academy in Spain

Rafael Nadal at his academy

Rafael Nadal is not only inspiring current players on the ATP tour but is also readying the next generation of tennis stars at his academy in Spain.

The 37-year-old recently spent a day at the Rafa Nadal International School, which is a part of his tennis academy, in Mallorca, Spain, assisting young kids on their School Sports Day on May 26.

In the videos shared by the academy on social media, the 22-time Major winner can be seen spending time with the pupils and even playing tennis with them.