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Rafael Nadal's historic achievements |
Nadal captured four straight French Open singles titles from 2005 to 2008, joining Björn Borg in 2008 as the only other man to have won four consecutive singles titles there; Nadal's 2010 French Open title made him the only person to win five French Open titles in 6 years. In 2008, Nadal became the second Spanish man to win Wimbledon. Nadal is only the third male player in the open era to have won the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, and the first since Borg in 1980. In 2009, Nadal became the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open, and the first player to simultaneously hold Grand Slams on clay, grass and hardcourt.
He is also the first, and only player to date, to win three consecutive Grand Slam Tournaments in three different surfaces (clay, grass and hardcourt) in the same year.
Nadal has won 19 ATP Masters titles, which is the most number of Masters titles won by a male player. By winning the 2010 US Open, Nadal completed a men's singles Career Grand Slam. He is the 7th male player in history to achieve this. In addition, Nadal has accomplished the Career Golden Slam and is the 2nd male player in history to attain this. Nadal has won ATP tournaments in 19 different countries.
Nadal has been especially successful on clay courts. He has a 31–3 record in clay court tournament finals and a 57–1 record in best-of-five-set matches on clay.
He won four consecutive French Open titles from 2005–2008 and has won at least two of the three clay court Masters Series tournaments every year since 2005. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007.
As a result, some tennis critics and top players already regard him as the greatest clay-court player of all time.
MUHAMMAD USMAN AWAN
Posted in: Tennis