Adios to the King of Clay: Rafael Nadal’s Legendary Career in Numbers
23/10/2024 17:40:58
Novak Djokovic is now the sole member of tennis’ Big Three after Rafael Nadal announced he will retire from the game after the Davis Cup Finals in November. Nadal joins long-time rival Roger Federer who announced his retirement from tennis in 2022, in revealing he is leaving the sport on which he leaves such a lasting impact, after 23 years as a professional.
Saying goodbye at the 2024 Davis Cup seems a fitting way for the 22 times Grand Slam champion to bid farewell to the game he has contributed so much to over those 23 seasons. Representing his country, in a competition where he announced himself to a lot of tennis fans back in 2004, when he helped Spain win the Davis Cup by defeating the then world No2 Andy Roddick in a Singles match, becoming the youngest man in history to win a Davis Cup Final Singles match for a winning nation.
Breaking records and setting new ones became a hallmark of the King of Clay’s 23 years as a professional, so let’s toast the career of one of sport’s greatest ever athletes with a look at some of his greatest achievements.
Nadal in Numbers: His ATP Tour Achievements
The Spaniard was the top ranked player in the world for 209 weeks of his storied career, placing him 6th on the list of players with the most weeks as World No 1. He was also the year-end World No 1 on five occasions, with only Pete Sampras on six, and Novak Djokovic on eight achieving the feat more often. Nadal has the record for most clay court titles in the Open Era with 63, well ahead of Guillermo Vilas in 2nd place with 49. He also captured an ATP Tour title for nineteen consecutive seasons from 2004-2022, and maintained a place in the world’s Top 10 for 912 weeks, from April 2005 up until March 2023. He won 81 consecutive matches on clay between 2005 and 2007. That is the most by any player on a single surface in the history of the sport.
Nadal won two Olympic Gold Medals, a Singles Gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and a Doubles Gold at Rio in 2016. Nadal won 92 titles at tour level, which ranks him fifth on that list, behind Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Ivan Lendl, while his 1,080 match victories on tour rank him fourth behind only Connors with 1,274, Federer on 1,251and Djokovic on 1,122. His 36 ATP Masters 1000 tournament victories rank him as the second most successful player at that level since 1990, behind only Novak Djokovic with 40 wins.
The King of Clay: Nadal’s Grand Slam Feats
As a collective, the ‘Big 3’ of men’s tennis, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic won 66 Grand Slam titles between them, with Nadal winning 22 of them. They are also the only three men in the Open Era to have won over 300 matches at Grand Slam level, with Nadal’s record at the highest level standing at 314 wins and 44 losses.
Rafa Nadal is the only player in the Open Era to win at least 1 Grand Slam title every year for 10 years from 2005 until 2015. Nadal has won a Grand Slam title without dropping a set on 4 occasions, at Roland Garros in 2008, 2010, 2017 and 2020, the most of any player. His 14 French Open titles are the most wins of any player at a single Grand Slam. Margaret Court is next with 11 at the Australian Open. In fact, his 14 French Open titles alone would actually have given him more Grand Slams than all but three other men, Djokovic, Federer and Sampras.
His overall record at the French Open stands at 112 wins and just 4 losses, one of the most dominant spells at any tournament in any sport. He is the only player to have defeated Roger Federer in Finals at three different Grand Slams, Wimbledon, The Australian Open and The French Open, as well as on three different Grand Slam surfaces. Nadal is the only player to have defeated Novak Djokovic in multiple Finals at two different Grand Slams, beating the Serb in the 2012, 2014 and 2020 French Open Finals, while also beating him in two US Open deciders in 2010 and 2013.
Rafa Nadal played 32 Grand Slam matches against the other two members of the ‘Big 3’ during his career. His record is 21-11, 10-4 against Federer, and 11-7 vs Djokovic.
'He won 81 consecutive matches on clay between 2005 and 2007. That is the most by any player on a single surface in the history of the sport.'
Conclusion
On a tennis court few could match Nadal’s athleticism, his heart and his will to win. Those that could are the other legendary figures of the last two decades of an unrivalled era of tennis greatness that Nadal, Djokovic and Federer made their own, and one that is more than likely not going to be seen again for a very long time, if ever.
Two of the three have now waved goodbye to the game, along with Andy Murray and how long Djokovic continues is anyone’s guess.
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Liam Lacey, a sportswriter hailing from County Laois, Ireland, focuses on GAA and football, though he also considers himself quite the tennis enthusiast. Liam has covered everything from the All Ireland Gaelic Football and Hurling Championships to the Premier League, Champions League, and international football, providing expert analysis, match previews, and predictions—sometimes even hitting the mark!
