Rafael Nadal on His Super-Sexy Underwear Ads: 'We Had Some Fun!'

If you are still recovering from yesterday’s Rafael Nadal–led game of strip tennis, well, crank up the a.c. and get ready for a whole lotta handsome. The tennis superstar, who has posed for Tommy Hilfiger’s line of underwear, spoke to us in N.Y.C. yesterday after a super-steamy match against supermodels including Hannah Davis, Chanel Iman and Noah Mills.

David X Prutting/BFA/Sipa USA

Nadal started the game (on a sizzling 90° day in N.Y.C.) clad in a wool suit, which he doffed piece by piece as he lost points in a Jane Lynch–refereed exhibition match. Given that he’s, you know, one of the best players in the universe, he didn’t shed too much of his ensemble, but fortunately his TommyxNadal ads show what we were missing.

We caught up with the Spanish tennis sensation (and new Tommy Hilfiger global brand ambassador) after the game to talk about shooting a sexy campaign such as this one. And it turns out, when you’ve performed under pressure in a silent stadium against other high-level tennis stars, you don’t sweat little things like taking your shirt off for a room full of people. “We had some fun!” Nadal tells PEOPLE of the shoot, which took place in his hometown of Mallorca. “I felt very comfortable from the beginning and I enjoyed it. When you are doing these kinds of things, you have confidence in the people around you. If I am too shy to do something in front of a lot of people, I take people out and just stay with the camera.”

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He also enlisted some friends to visit the shoot and keep things light. “For me it was very important, with all the traveling, to have the chance to do this in my hometown,” he says, adding that while his parents haven’t weighed in on the sexy shots, his sister was supportive: “My sister sent me a message that she saw it and she liked it!”

So what does it take to get your abs in strip-tennis-worthy fashion? Well, it helps to have a pro athlete’s workout regimen. “I spend hours on the tennis court every day. Two to three hours, four, it depends on the day, and I keep working at the gym to stay fit and prevent injuries,” he says. Any other preparation — a spray tan, perhaps? “No! Nothing crazy,” he says, laughing. (Between that and him offering to grow his hair longer again for us — oh, and the commercial below — we were pretty much ready to move to Mallorca with him.)

Hilfiger himself is just as amused by the whole campaign as we were — “I said, I don’t think Rafa’s going to take off his underpants, especially in front of a big camera crew, I just don’t think it’s going to happen. [But] he did it, and he liked it. It’s fun and funny. So I think it worked out well!” — but says we probably shouldn’t expect to see Nadal walking the runway this fall for the brand: “Our runway show is the same day as the [U.S. Open] final, so I don’t think so.”

So when you see Nadal biting his trophy this fall, just know he’s having as much fun as he did on the court in his skivvies on Tuesday. “Every one tastes better than the one before it,” he says. “You never know what’s going on, but I appreciate so much all the good things that have happened to me in my career. For me, it’s been very special.”

What do you think of the ads?

–Alex Apatoff, reporting by Jackie Fields

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