Washington Director Makes Incredible Confession About Rafael Nadal Upon his Visit in 2021

The 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open concluded on Sunday, with Alex De Minaur and Leylah Fernandez being crowned as the men’s and women’s singles champions, respectively. For both players, it marked their first title of the season. The tournament was also in headlines for another reason, as it marked the comeback of seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams to tour after a 16-month hiatus.

In seasons gone by, other legends have graced the courts in the US capital, including Rafael Nadal, about whom tournament director Mark Ein recently shared an interesting anecdote. Ein, who has been chairing the Washington Open since 2019, joined in as a guest in the 87th episode of the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast. Speaking about Nadal’s first appearance in D.C., Ein remarked:

I will tell you the thing about Rafa and he’s retired, so I think I can say this now. His team called and said he wants to play ‘DC—’Tell us what’s fair and we’ll take it’… It was honestly in the middle of COVID, at the time we could only have half the stands full. He said, just tell us what’s fair, and so we gave them a number. They said great…

Ein, who also owns the Washington City Paper and is a limited partner of the NFL team the Washington Commanders, further added about Nadal’s 2021 appearance:

It was a good number. It was definitely not what he would have gotten if the stands could be full… But then it was so successful after he came that I literally called and just said, ‘I’m going to give you a meaningful amount more just cause I wan to keep in the spirit of being fair.’ Like that never happens, but honestly, I just felt like they had trusted us, and when it worked out so well, I wanted to reciprocate. And it was amazing.

Nadal’s presence was a huge boost for the tournament. Ein also mentioned that 16,000 people were on a waiting list for tickets when the Spaniard came to town. The Washington Open that year was won by present World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who became the youngest player to win an ATP 500 title.

Mark Ein recalls a funny anecdote

In 2021, Rafael Nadal came into the Washington Open after his semifinal defeat to Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros, which was just the third loss of his career at the tournament. Nadal’s opening match in D.C. was against home hope Jack Sock, who is also now a co-host of the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast.