Garcia pals around with amigo Rafael Nadal

In case you were thinking Sergio Garcia was sitting around a hotel room someplace, pouting over his recent sudden-death playoff loss to Vijay Singh at the Barclays, think again.

He was hard at work Tuesday morning hitting balls in New York City. Only this time, they were tennis balls, and the opponent was fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Garcia, racket in hand and hat on backwards, exchanged shots with Nadal and observed Nadal's workout on Practice Court 1 at Flushing Meadows, site of that other U.S. Open.

Garcia has long been a tennis lover, and in his younger days even dated Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis.

According to Michael Barkann of the USA network, Nadal is an 11-handicap golfer who plays every day when he is home.

Now let's think about this for a minute....

After about three years of living in the shadow of Roger Federer — arguably the best tennis player ever — Nadal has become the world's No. 1 after winning his fourth-consecutive French Open and first Wimbledon title.

This season, Sergio won the Players and nearly won the PGA Championship. In both events, as well as last week at the Barclays, Garcia showed more poise, determination and grit than we had come to expect from him. He seemed to take the good bounces and the bad in stride. Those are all qualities that Nadal exudes. Coincidence?

If Sergio is going to make a serious run at Tiger Woods, and finally lose the title of Best Player to Have Never Won a Major, he could learn a lot from Nadal.  Who knows — maybe he already has.

(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Comments

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Maybe Sergio could try swinging lefty?