By Chris Oddo | Thursday May 10, 2018
Keeping up with the game of tennis, by the numbers. Each day at Tennis Now we’ll give you a fresh set—without any further ado, here’s what’s happening ahead of Friday’s big matches in Madrid.
50
Rafael Nadal extends his run of consecutive sets won on clay to 50, pulling him past John McEnroe’s all-time surface specific record of 49 sets on carpet in 1984. Just another category in which the King of Clay stands alone. And if you ask him he’ll say he doesn’t really care—all he wants to do is win the tournament. Nadal will face Dominic Thiem on Friday in Madrid.
19
The age of Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, who has become the youngest player to reach the quarterfinals in Mutua Madrid history. He’ll face Kyle Edmund on Friday.
0-10
Kevin Anderson’s record in Masters 1000 quarterfinals. He’ll try again tomorrow when he meets Dusan Lajovic for a spot in the last eight. Lajovic upset Juan Martin del Potro to reach his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal on Thursday. It was Lajovic’s first Top 10 win in 11 tries.
74-31
The lifetime record of Kiki Bertens on clay after she defeated Maria Sharapova in three sets on Thursday. Clay is most definitely her best surface. The Dutchwoman will face Caroline Garcia for a spot in the final on Friday. She’s also assured of reaching her previous career-high ranking of No.18 in the world and could go higher with a trip to the final.
9
Karolina Pliskova has now won nine straight matches after taking out top-seeded Simona Halep to reach the semis on Thursday. The Czech snapped a three-match losing streak against Halep and improved to 2-6 against her lifetime. She’ll face Petra Kvitova, who also won her ninth match in a row, in semifinal action on Friday.
Kvitova has now reeled off streaks of 14 wins and 9 wins this season.
30
Nadal’s current winning streak is 14 matches and has also won 30 consecutive sets overall, matching his previous career high, which was set in 2012. He’ll try to break that record tomorrow against Dominic Thiem.
0
Number of break points that John Isner has earned during his run to the quarterfinals in Madrid. Guess it doesn’t matter when you are at altitude and can serve like John.