Top five unbreakable records of Rafael Nadal

On October 10, the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal announced that he would retire in November 2024. Nadal made his decision to formally retire after the Davis Cup Finals in 2024 to be held in Malaga, Spain. It marked the end of a two-decade career that left his fans and the sport with innumerable memories. 

After two years of trying everything to get his bad hip fixed and go back on tour, the Spaniard reconciled himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to succeed. After recovering from a career-threatening injury in 2005, Nadal went on to win 36 ATP 1000 titles and two Olympic gold medals. 

The former World No. 1 stated that it has been a difficult two years, and he hasn’t been able to “play without limitations.” 

Among Nadal’s other achievements are 209 weeks ranked as ATP World No. #1, finishing five times as the year-end No. #1 and a further five times as ATP Player of the Year. The Spaniard has won four Laureus World Sports Awards off the tennis court.

Along with Federer and Djokovic, Nadal is one of just three players in the history of the sport to have earned $100 million in prize money.

Like any player who has played on the ATP Tour consistently, Rafael Nadal leaves behind a long list of accomplishments and records that are unlikely to be broken anytime soon. 

Having said that, let’s look at the top five unbreakable records of Rafael Nadal

5. Player with most wins at a single Grand Slam 

In 2005, Rafael Nadal began his successful run at Roland Garros on debut. He quickly won the following three competitions, completing a four-game winning streak. The Spaniard's run of victories from 2005 to 2008 was his first four-game winning streak; the next one occurred in 2017–2020.

In between, he added a five-win streak from 2010 to 2014.  In 2022, he achieved his last victory there. Nadal’s first and last Grand Slam wins have been on the clay courts of Paris. 

The Spaniard holds the record for most victories in a single major with 14 Roland Garros trophies. With seven titles, Chris Evert is behind Rafael Nadal, while Bjorn Borg is third with six titles. 

4. Youngest male in the Open Era to complete a Career Slam

Nadal became the youngest man in the Open Era to complete a career slam when he won the 2010 US Open at the age of 24. He became the youngest person to complete a career golden slam after winning the gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  

Only two other men have reached the career golden slam: Novak Djokovic, who won the gold at the Paris Olympics this year at the age of 37, and Andre Agassi, who did so in 1999 in Paris at the age of 29.

Nadal received his career slam with victories over Novak Djokovic at Flushing Meadows, Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon, and Robin Soderling at Roland Garros.

3. Most matches won in the singles draw of a Grand Slam event in the Open Era 

During his 18 Roland Garros visits from 2005 to 2024, Nadal recorded 112 victories and four defeats. With 112 victories, he holds the record for most match victories at the same location in the Open Era singles draw of a Grand Slam competition.

Apart from 2024, only twice did the Spaniard exit the quarter-final stage. The first was losing to Robin Soderling in four sets during the 2009 tournament's fourth round. The second time was in round three of 2016, when he was forced to withdraw due to a wrist injury prior to his bout with Marcel Granollers, another Spaniard. It was the only time Nadal had to withdraw from the clay-court major due to an injury.

In addition to having an 81-match winning streak on clay from 2005 to 2007, Rafael Nadal has a 90% (484-51) winning percentage on the surface.

2. Only male player to win at least one Grand Slam for 10 straight seasons 

Nadal has won at least one Grand Slam title in ten straight seasons, making him the only player on the ATP Tour to do so. The Spaniard accomplished this feat in the decade between 2005 and 2014. During that time, Nadal faced the other two "Big 3" players, Federer and Djokovic, in a number of memorable matches.

The Wimbledon 2008 final against Federer is acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time. After losing the first two sets, Federer lost control of the match, which lasted for almost five hours.

Bjorn Borg described the match as the greatest he had ever witnessed. Just as they were ready to end the match because of poor light, Nadal ultimately won the last set 9–7.

Nadal and Djokovic's 2012 Australian Open match was the longest Grand Slam final. It took five exhausting sets, totaling five hours and 53 minutes, for Djokovic to defeat Nadal. After winning two of the first three sets and taking a 4-2 lead in the final, the Spaniard appeared to have the victory locked in.

Djokovic then produced a spectacular comeback, demonstrating why he is dangerous when cornered. The Serb broke Nadal’s serve and won five of the last six games for the title.

When the match ended at close to 2 AM on Monday, the exhausted duo needed to sit on chairs for most of the duration of the award ceremony.

1. Most consecutive weeks in the top 10

Nadal's debut in the ATP Top 10 in 2005 marked the start of his 912-match run in the prestigious club. At the age of 18, Nadal climbed into the top 10 of the ATP Rankings in April 2005, one month before he took home his first French Open trophy. He had 14 trophies as the clay-court major when he fell out of the top 10 in March 2023. 

Nadal nearly dropped out of the top 10 in 2015, finishing at No. 10, despite spending the majority of those 18 years ranked No. 1 or No. 2. He finished the 2016 season at No. #9 but was back as No. #1 by August 2017. The Spaniard is also the only player to enjoy the top position on the ATP Tour across three decades.

Cover Credits - Tennis.com