A recent poll in the Spanish magazine El Mundo announced that Spain’s most loved personality is tennis player and hometown hero Rafael Nadal. Fresh off of wins at Wimbledon and the French Open this summer, world No. 1 Nadal surpassed the entire World Cup-winning national soccer team and the royal family with an overwhelming 70 percent of the vote.

Bam. If you’ve ever met me, you can probably picture me marking one more tally under “Reasons to never come back to America.”

With the US Open starting this week in New York, it’s a good time to take a closer look at Nadal, whose face has become an icon of the Spanish people (and also graced a wall in my freshman dorm room). He’s far and away my favorite celebrity: Not only does the guy never give up, but he also glows in the dark. If that doesn’t make you a hero, I don’t know what does.

Five Reasons España and I Love Rafael Nadal

5. I first loved Rafael Nadal because he could beat Roger Federer. I started following tennis in the summer of 2004, when we’d just moved into a new house and one of the three TV stations we could get without a cable package was NBC’s coverage of Wimbledon. Even back then, I couldn’t understand why this boring, smarmy ponytailed jerk had to be such a trophy hog. And such a blubbering one, at that: He would win, and then cry, and then win, and then cry. I hated him.

Then, in 2005, along came this scrappy teenager from Mallorca who the invincible Fed Express simply couldn’t figure out. “Nadal’s like the kryptonite that cripples Superman,” one analyst remarked — and just like that, I was sold.

4. He’s sorta nerdy. Watch Nadal warm up and it’s painfully obvious: He’s a dork. He’s got a whole collection of odd, borderline-OCD rituals and superstitions that are less like quirky and more like just weird. Not to mention he seems to always have a wedgie. He’s shy, he wears obnoxious pants (OK, to be fair, those are cool in Spain), and he’s a 24-year-old who lives at home with his parents. Kind of uncool, by American standards. But even so, hand him a tennis racket and whatever’s across the net — be it Roger Federer, a pack of grizzly bears, or cancer — wilts out of sheer intimidation. Guys like Nadal are an inspiration to geeks everywhere.

3. He’s the rare athlete who lets his performance do the talking. In 2009, Nadal suffered his first-ever loss at the French Open; he was bidding for his fifth title in five years when he suffered a shocking fourth-round upset at the hands of one Robin Soderling. Later, it was revealed that the loss was the first sign that his knees were in trouble; he would sit out from defending his Wimbledon title just a month later. Still, after the loss, Nadal said nothing of his injuries, offering the press only a solemn “He did well; he did very, very well.”

One year later, the two met again, this time in the French Open final. It was billed as the grudge match of the year, and Nadal sent a clear message (something distinctly like “Suck it”) when he handed Soderling a resounding straight-sets punishment, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. The next morning’s headlines read “Nadal avenges loss to Soderling” and “Order restored at the French Open.” But Nadal himself stayed tight-lipped about his “revenge” victory: “I played an extremely tough opponent,” he said. “We played at a high level, and now I’m very happy.”

2. Okay, seriously? I’m impressed with myself that I held out this long. What I love second-most about Rafa can be summed up in three words: Guns and buns. Oh, yes. Nadal is the undisputed master of exercising the right to bare arms. As for the buns part, well… there’s a Google search for that, too. And if that doesn’t convince you, please watch, as I have thousands of times once or twice in the recent past, this Shakira video.

1. I love Rafael Nadal because Lil Wayne says I should. In “Banned From TV,” everyone’s (latest) favorite incarcerated rapper spits a decisive “I go hard like Rafael Nadal” — and he recently wrote this letter to Sports Illustrated about why his homeboy in capri pants is his pick for the US Open this year. No competing with the guy who waxes poetic about tennis from prison, is there? And after all, we all know how I feel about the Lil Wayne vote of confidence: If Lil Wayne endorses it, I’m there.