Rafael Nadal joins Twitter and attracts huge fanbase overnight

Rafael Nadal has joined Twitter and within hours has become one of the most followed tennis players on the social networking website.

Nadal joined Twitter on Tuesday, with @rafaelnadal attracting over 170,000 followers by Thursday morning.

The Spaniard, who will play his first match since Wimbledon next week at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, is already one of the most-followed tennis players on Twitter. Andy Roddick’s insight and dry humour sees him top the list of active players with 671,000 followers, ahead of British number one Andy Murray (541,000), Juan Martin del Potro (364,000) and Novak Djokovic (254,000).

Nadal's first tweet tentatively read: "Hi all! I have Twitter profile! I am thrilled to have your support here! You’ll hear more from me ;) Rafa."

He later tweeted following a practice session.

Nadal currently follows 18 Twitter accounts, including those of NBA star Pau Gasol, Janko Tipsarevic and Cristiano Ronaldo.

With Robin Soderling also an active tweeter, Roger Federer is now the lone Twitter holdout among the Top 5. Federer, however, is still the Facebook king among tennis players, with more than 8.5million fans.

A post during Wimbledon of Federer with Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar received more than 70,000 likes and more than 14,000 comments.

Nadal has over 7.8m Facebook fans.