Kia-sponsored Nadal wins Benz, wants to repaint it

Rafael Nadal won the grass-court tournament in Stuttgart on Sunday and was promptly presented with an awkward situation: A shiny Mercedes-Benz car. The Spaniard, if you didn't know, endorses Kia motor vehicles.

It made for some quotes that read as if they hailed from The Onion:

"It's not a Kia, but it's still good," Nadal said diplomatically after a brief inspection inside the garish yellow vehicle, winning huge laughs from the crowd.

"I don't know if I can change the color, because the color is a little bit too much for me," demurred the man well known for his politeness.

Nadal was promptly presented with the keys to a tennis ball-yellow Mercedes V8 ride upon claiming his third career Stuttgart title (and first on grass after the tournament switched from his preferred clay), winning over Viktor Troicki, who remains on the comeback trail. The scene was just as stilted as you might expect, given the aforementioned details:

But I hear you, Rafa. It was just last weekend I told friends that I've yet to meet someone who owns a yellow vehicle who I seemed to get on with swimmingly.

Of course I stand to be corrected. So might Nadal.

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