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Statisfaction: Nadal’s Insane Roland Garros Numbers


The day after Rafael Nadal’s latest French Open triumph, we are sifting through the strewn-about wreckage to try and make sense of some of the garish numbers that the king of clay has produced at the event since his first appearance in 2005.

Statisfaction: Maria Sharapova's Three-Set Clay-Court Winning Streak

Here’s a look at a few statistical gems that we found most interesting. We’ll start simple and dig a little deeper down the page, so be patient if you consider yourself a Nadal expert:

Nine Roland Garros Titles

Only two players (Roger Federer and Pete Sampras) have managed to seven titles at the same major in the Open Era. Nadal distanced himself from those two on Sunday when he took down Djokovic in the final for his ninth French Open title. Will he make it a near-perfect 10 in 2015? We dare you to bet against him.

Oh, by the way, Nadal also became the first player to ever win Roland Garros five consecutive times with his Paris performance.

66-1 French Open record

Nadal distanced himself from Roger Federer (61-15) and the rest of the pack (Vilas 58-17, Lendl, 53-12) as the event’s all-time win leader. Even more ridiculous is the winning percentage, which sits at .985, and is absolutely, mind-blowingly ridiculous.

35-match Roland Garros Winning Streak

Apparently Rafa didn’t take kindly to losing to Robin Soderling at Roland Garros in 2009, because since then he’s won 35 matches consecutively. It’s currently the fourth-longest winning streak at a Grand Slam, but if he wins the French next year, he’ll surpass Federer (40 matches at U.S. Open and Wimbledon) and Borg (41 at Wimbledon) for the longest winning streak at a major in men’s tennis history.

50 Straight-Sets Victories in Paris

Of the king of clay's 66 victories in Paris, 50 have come in straight sets. Nadal has won the title without dropping a set twice (2008 and 2010), and he has won the first two sets in 53 of his 67 matches at Roland Garros. Only Novak Djokovic (2012 final) and Roger Federer (2011 final) have rebounded from dropping the first two sets to win the third.

Novak Djokovic retired against Nadal after dropping the first two sets of their 2006 quarterfinal.

Dropped 20 Sets in Ten Years of French Open Play

Nadal has dropped only 20 sets in 10 years, an average of two a year, and he has never dropped more than four sets in a single season. The Spaniard has dropped four sets only once (2013) and has dropped three sets four times (2005, 2006, 2009, 2011).

Only Federer, Djokovic Have Won Four Sets against Nadal

Only two players have managed to take four sets from Nadal: Roger Federer, who is 0-5 against Nadal in Paris, has taken four different sets, and Novak Djokovic, who is 0-6 vs. Nadal in Paris, has also taken four. Robin Soderling, still the only player to have ever defeated the Spaniard at clay-court Mecca, owns three sets vs. Nadal.

Here are the other eight players (besides Federer, Djokovic and Soderling) who have managed to take a set off the Spaniard on the terre battue:

Grosjean, 2005, R16
Puerta, 2005, Final
Mathieu, 2006, R32
Hewitt, 2006, R16
Isner, 2011, R128 (2 sets)
Brands, 2013, R128
Klizan, 2013, R64
Ferrer, 2014, QF

13 Bagels for, Zero against

Nadal has bageled players on 13 different occasions, and he has never lost a 6-0 set to anyone at the French Open.

34 Breadsticks for, 1 against

In his career, Nadal has taken a 6-1 set 34 times from his opponent, while only dropping one “breadstick” set. The player to do it? Roger Federer took the first set of the 2006 final 6-1, before losing in four sets to Nadal.

Sets Won: 197-20

Nadal has won 47 of his 197 successful sets by either a 6-0 or a 6-1 score, nearly 25 percent of them.

Undefeated vs. Top 10, Top 5, No. 1

Nadal is 6-0 vs. world No. 1’s at Roland Garros, 14-0 vs. the top five, and 19-0 vs. the top ten. Impressed yet???

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