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Rafa Nadal is the greatest clay court player in history. This statement is universally made by all, but die-hard Rafa fans often get upset saying that it indirectly hints at Rafa being a one-court player.
Well, nothing could be far from the truth, and Rafa’s exploits both on hard courts as well as grass courts have showcased him as one of the greatest all court champions who have graced the wonderful game of tennis.
Rafa is the first player in history to win 400 plus matches on both clay and hard courts. He has as many as six Grand Slam titles on non-clay courts. He was the first to win Wimbledon and French Open in the same year since Bjorn Borg.
No one except Rafa has won three consecutive Grand Slam tournaments on clay, grass and hard-court in the same year, a feat Rafa achieved in 2010.
The French Open (clay) and the US Open (Hard-court) is a tough double which Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl have done twice – however the great Rafa has done it thrice.
Strangely though, there is one very intriguing fact about Rafa’s wins on non-clay courts. This includes his wins both on hard courts and on grass. He has never successfully defended a non-clay court title.
Let’s take a look at his wins over the years and how he fared in the succeeding year when he was to defend the title.
Grand Slam Titles
On grass, Rafa has won the Wimbledon Championships twice, in 2008 and 2010. However in 2009, he first withdrew from the Aegon Championships where it was confirmed that he was suffering from tendinitis in both knees. He also stated that he would try to be fit for Wimbledon.
Unfortunately the knee problem let to his being the first defending champion since Goran Ivanisevic opting out. He returned the next year to win, but in 2011 he lost to Novak Djokovic, who not only stopped the eight-year Federer-Rafa streak at Wimbledon, but also became world No.1 for the first time as well, which also stopped a seven-year Federer-Rafa streak.
Rafa won the 2009 Australian Open in an epic win over Federer. However the next year in the Quarter-final he had to retire midway in the 3rd set against Andy Murray. It was his first ever retirement in a Grand Slam match.
At the US Open, Rafa has won thrice. In 2010 he became the first Spaniard to win the US Open in 45 years since Manuel Santana in 1965. He also completed the career Grand Slam with this win over Djokovic. However in 2011, in a repeat final between the two, it was Djokovic who prevailed.
Rafa’s second US Open title was in 2013 once again with Rafa defeating Djokovic. Unfortunately he withdrew from the 2014 tournament due to a right wrist injury.
The third win was in 2017. Can he win in 2018? We will know soon.
(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Masters 1000 tournaments
Rafa’s first Masters 1000 win was at the Rogers Cup in 2005 when he defeated the great Andre Agassi. However in 2006 the Number 2 seed lost to Berdych in the third round.
He also won at the Madrid Open in 2005 with a five-set win over Ivan Ljubicic but lost to Tomas Berdych once again in the 2006 QF.
At that point of time Berdych had a 3-1 head to head lead over Rafa who has since then won 18 of their next 19 matches.
Rafa then won the 2007 Indian Wells Masters with a straight-sets win over Djokovic but lost in 2008 to him only in the semi-finals.
In 2008 Rogers Cup he defeated Nicolas Keifer but lost to DelPo next year in the quarter-finals. He crushed Murray 6-1 6-2 in the 2009 Indian Wells but had a semi-finals loss to Ljubicic the next year.
In 2013 he won three Masters. Indian Wells, Rogers Cup and Cincinnati. However he lost to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the 3rd round of the 2014 Indian Wells and opted out of both Rogers Cup and Cincinnati.
This year he has won the Rogers Cup as well and it remains to be seen if he retains/defends it in 2019.
Olympics
Rafa is a double gold medallist at the Olympics. He won the 2008 Beijing singles gold by defeating Fernando Gonzalez but the 2012 Olympics was on grass and he did not participate.
He also won the 2016 Rio Olympics Gold by defeating Kei Nishikori. We will have to wait to see if he wins at Japan, where once again tennis will be on hard courts.
Other tournaments
Other non-clay tennis tournaments where Rafa has won are 2005-China, 2006-Dubai, 2009-Queens, 2010-Japan and 2014 Qatar.
However he did not play in the 2006 China and the 2010 Queens events. At 2007 Dubai, he lost to Mikhail Youzhny in the quarter-finals.
Murray got the better of him at Japan in 2011 while David Ferrer ousted him in a rare 1st round defeat at Qatar in 2015.
It is indeed surprising that Rafa has not defended a non-clay tournament is his illustrious career. There are three tournaments in near future in which he can correct this anomaly.
The first will be the 2018 US Open, second the China Open and third will be the 2018 Rogers Cup. Of these, the one he will be most keen will be the 2018 US Open, not so much as to defend a non-clay tournament, but as it will give him his 4th US Open and overall 18th Grand Slam title.
He certainly is one of the favourites to win and we will know soon if he does or not.
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