Rafael Nadal

Nadal

Nadal is my favourite player and I have always admired him for his stamina and determination. 


Also have a look at his advent calendar post

Fact file

Nadal was born on the 4th of June in Majorca, Spain. Nadal is known for his incredible stamina and quick ground strokes, being the first to break 200 km/ph with a ground stroke. Nadal was ranked world number 2 behind Federer for 160 consecutive weeks until finally taking number one spot for 46 weeks before Federer took Number 1 again after Nadal missed a few months of the 2009 season because of tenditis in his knees. He regained his number 1 position after winning the 2010 Roland Garos and holds the position to this day. He became the first man to win titles on hard, clay and grass courts in 2009. He has won 9 grand slam titles and an olympic gold medal. In grand slams he has a record of 124-18: 29-6 in the Australian Open, 38-1 in the French Open, 29-4 in Wimbledon and 28-7 in the US Open. 


He is nicknamed the 'king of clay' because of his large success on clay. Like Federer he has broken numerous records. These are a 31 win streak in the French Open, 4 consecutive French Open victories, 81 consecutive matches won in clay, to have won the Olympic gold, Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year, 7th player to take a career grand slam, 2nd player to win the career golden grand slam, holds 18 ATP 1000 masters titles, a record, he is the first player to win 3 ATP masters titles in a row, also he is the first to take the clay slam, which means winning all three ATP 1000 masters and Roland Garos on clay in one season,  he is the only player to have won Roland Garos twice without dropping a set, he is also the only player to win a title 6 consecutive times at the Monte Carlos masters, he is the only player to win at least one ATP 1000 masters title every year for 6 years, he has also been in the last 21 quarter finals of ATP 1000 masters events, he has also won at least 3 ATP masters 1000 titles in the last 4 years and finally he is the first player in history to have won 400 singles matches in less than 500 matches. He has been Number one for 83 weeks, the eighth most in open era. 

Here is a table of all of his grand slams, includes when he went out, then a table of the grand slams he has won with the player he beat and the scoreline and finally a table with the grand slam finals he has lost with the player he lost to and the scoreline.

Nadal Grand Slam titles

year	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Australian Open	A	3R	4R	A	QF	SF	W	QF	QF
French Open	A	A	W	W	W	W	4R	W	W
Wimbledon	3R	A	2R	F	F	W	A	W	F
US Open	2R	2R	3R	QF	4R	SF	SF	W

Nadal Grand Slam finals wins

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2005	Mariano Puerta	French Open	6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
2006	Roger Federer	French Open	1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4)
2007	Roger Federer	French Open	6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
2008	Roger Federer	French Open	6-1, 6-3, 6-0
2008	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7
2009	Roger Federer	Australian Open	7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2
2010	Robin Soderling	French Open	6-4, 6-2, 6-4
2010	Tomas Berdych	Wimbledon	6-3, 7-5, 6-4
2010	Novak Djokovic	US Open	6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
2011	Roger Federer	French Open	7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1

Nadal Grand Slam finals losses

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2006	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3
2007	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	7-6(7), 4-6, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2
2011	Novak Djokovic	Wimbledon	6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3