Rafael Nadal’s playing career may be coming to an end in 2024, but while there may be time to add more to his extraordinary resume, his current statistics already speak for themselves.
Nadal is currently sharing the record for most Major titles in men’s singles with Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard has more Slam trophies in total than Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Boris Becker’s hauls combined.
Nadal is the only man in tennis history to have won 14 titles at a singular event. His record at Roland Garros is his greatest achievement, and arguably the greatest individual sporting statistic in history.
Nadal has as many French Open titles as Pete Sampras has total Slam wins. Only Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have more mens singles Major trophies than Nadal’s Paris haul alone.
Djokovic and Federer both boast stunning records at the Australian Open and Wimbledon respectively. However, their records do not come close to Nadal’s in Paris, who has six more titles there than Federer has at SW19. He also holds four more Roland Garros trophies than Djokovic’s ten Australian Open crowns.
Nadal has an utterly ridiculous 38-3 record in Paris against top 10 players at the time of the match (93%). His overall record there is an absurd 97%. His percentage win rate combined at the other three is still an incredible 84%.
The 36-year-old is undefeated in Paris finals, with a 14-0 record. In all of those finals, he was never even taken to a deciding set. 23% of the 370 completed sets Nadal played at the tournament were won either 6-0 or 6-1 by the Spaniard. He also won 20% of the sets he played in the finals by a 6-0 or 6-1 scoreline.
Nadal also holds the longest surface streak of any male player in tennis history. He went on a run of 81 consecutive clay court wins between 2006 and 2007. He also has a record of 50 consecutive sets won on a single surface (clay).
Since the Open Era began in 1968, there have been 55 mens singles events in Paris. Nadal has been victorious at 25% of them.
Nadal has more career titles on clay (63) than the likes of Agassi (60) and Becker (49) have total ATP singles titles. Nadal also has over double the number of Roland Garros main draw wins as the next most successful player at the tournament, Bjorn Borg, who was a six time champion.
Despite having lost three matches in Paris, Nadal holds a winning record there over every player he faced, having won eight of ten meetings against Novak Djokovic, and three of four against Robin Soderling, the first player to have beaten him there in 2009.
Nadal has missed 9 Majors since becoming a first-time champion in 2005. He has retired from three matches at this level. He also withdrew before a third round match at Roland Garros in 2016, and before a Wimbledon semi-final in 2022, because of injuries.
Nadal has won 22 out of 67 main draw Slams that he has entered. On average, he was victorious in 1 of every 3 events. Hypothetically, had Nadal been healthy enough to finish all of those fourteen tournaments he suffered injuries in, he would have added another four or five Majors to his tally.
Nadal has over 1,100 main tour level victories in singles and doubles overall. He has therefore won a tennis match every 11 days of his life, without even accounting for his junior days.
