Rafael Nadal Series Nets Emmy Nomination For Director Zach Heinzerling.

Rafa director Zach Heinzerling got word his Netflix series about tennis great Rafael Nadal had earned an Emmy nomination while in a most appropriate locale – Centre Court at Wimbledon.

The filmmaker was attending a men’s quarterfinal match (between Flavio Cobolli and Arthur Fery) at the All England Club Wednesday when his cell phone began to ping.

“Interesting place to learn a piece of good news, while you’re watching tennis in the church of the game,” Heinzerling tells Deadline. “I was sitting next to Rafa’s publicist who had kindly invited me to come to Wimbledon, and I got a text from someone at Netflix… We were sitting with, obviously, a lot of tennis fans. And so the group that we were in caught word of it and then they were congratulating me and the news was kind of spreading at Wimbledon.”

Nadal won Wimbledon twice – in 2008 and 2010 – part of his incredible haul of 22 Grand Slam titles. The four-part Rafa follows him at the tail end of his career as the aging champ (well, aging for a pro tennis player) tried to win one more French Open crown to add to his incredible tally of 14 titles at Roland-Garros. The native of Mallorca, Spain became known as the King of Clay for his complete domination of that surface – though he also won trophies on the grass of Wimbledon and hard courts of the U.S. and Australian opens.

The nomination for Rafa comes in the marquee Emmy category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, where it will go up against The American Revolution (PBS), Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV), The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max), and a fellow Netflix series – Sean Combs: The Reckoning. It’s a very rare sports-themed documentary to earn a Primetime Emmy nomination. Yes, Beckham — the Netflix series about former British soccer star David Beckham — won the Emmy for nonfiction series in 2024, but that documentary leaned into Becks’ celebrity lifestyle and marriage to Victoria Beckham, the ex-Spice Girl. Rafa derives its drama from the court.

“It is very much about competition,” Heinzerling avers, “but in a way that people in whatever field they’re in can find some inspiration from the Tao of Rafa, the ‘never quit,’ the pushing and the ‘my 100 percent is not something that I’m just saying, but I’m really breathing [it] in action’ and living proof of an exemplary competitor that he is.”

Rafa explores how Nadal’s pro career almost came to an end following his first Roland-Garros title. After he suffered a broken foot for a second time, doctors discovered Rafa had a congenital condition known as Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a malformation of the navicular bone in the midfoot. Undergoing surgery on it probably would have killed his chance to stay at the highest levels of his sport; as an alternative, Rafa’s team devised a custom-made insert for his shoe. It kept him playing, though in constant pain, and led to injuries to other parts of his body, including a hip put out of proper alignment by the insert.

As he crafted the series, Heinzerling could seek advice from his brother-in-life, who happens to have a lot of experience in the entertainment field. That would be Seth Meyers, the Emmy-winning host of Late Night with Seth Meyers and former head writer at Saturday Night Live.

“He was very kind as always, and really watched cuts and gave notes,” Heinzerling explains. “He’s in the ‘special thanks’ credits. Maybe he should have had more of a title.”

Nadal made an appearance on Meyers’ NBC late-night show on June 4, just after the series premiered on Netflix (the tennis great, now retired, is the protagonist of Rafa, but he’s not a producer on it). Meyers also supported his bro’-in-law’s project by flying to Madrid in May to attend the series’ world premiere. Deadline caught up with him there.

“For the last two years, I’ve watched Zach sort of fall in love with Rafa, the man,” Meyers told us. “He obviously started the way I started, a huge fan of the way [Rafa] plays on the court. It’s a great documentary about who Rafa is as a person and it’s also a great sports documentary.”

Perhaps the closest parallel to Rafa in terms of sports-themed Emmy contenders is The Last Dance, the 2020 ESPN/Netflix series about the final run at an NBA title by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Dance danced away with the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

Leading into the Creative Arts Emmys, where the documentary categories will be presented in September, Rafa has apparently already made its mark in the record books.

“I actually read that it’s the first non-English primary language series ever nominated for a Primetime Emmy,” the filmmaker shares. “It’s more than half Spanish… Rafa speaks English, but it’s limited in the depth of the conversation and storytelling. So, we chose to do it in Spanish. And I think it just shows that that choice was probably the right one.”

Andale, pues. Hasta los premios Emmy.