Tennis career
2002–2004
Nadal helped his own country Spain to won 2004 Davis Cup Team Title
In April 2002, at 15 years and 10 months, the world No. 762 Nadal won his first ATP match, defeating Ramon Delgado, and became the ninth player in the Open Era to do so before the age of 16. The following year, Nadal won two Challenger titles and finished the year in the top 50. At his Wimbledon debut in 2003, Nadal became the youngest man to reach the third round since Boris Becker in 1984.
Nadal reached the third round of the 2004 Australian Open where he lost in three sets against AustralianLleyton Hewitt. Interestingly, had he won, he would have faced Roger Federer in the next round. Later that year, Nadal played his first match against world No. 1 Roger Federer at the 2004 Miami Masters, and won in straight sets. He is one of the six players that defeated Federer that year (along with Tim Henman, Alberta Costa, Gustavo Kuerten, Dominik Hrbaty and Tomas Berdych). He missed most of the clay court season, including the French Open, because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Nadal, at 18 years and six months, became the youngest player to register a singles victory in a Davis Cup final for a winning nation. By beating world No. 2 Andy Roddick, he helped Spain clinch the 2004 title over the United States in a 3–2 win. He finished the year ranked world No. 51.
2005: First Grand Slam title
At the 2005 Australian Open, Nadal lost in the 4th round to eventual runner-up Lleyton Hewitt. Two months later, Nadal reached the final of the 2005 Miami Masters, and despite being two points from a straight-sets victory, he was defeated in five sets by world No. 1 Roger Federer. Both performances were considered to be breakthroughs for Nadal.
He then dominated the spring clay court season. He won 24 consecutive singles matches, which broke AndrewAgassi's Open Era record of consecutive match wins for a male teenager. Nadal won the Torneo Conde de Godo in Barcelona and beat 2004 French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria in the finals of the 2005 Monte Carlo Masters and the 2005 Rome Masters. These victories raised his ranking to world No. 5 and made him one of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the 2005 French Open semifinals, being one of only four players who defeated the top-seeded player that year (along with Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, and David Nalbandian). Two days later, he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the second male player to win the French Open on his first attempt since Mats Wilander in 1982: He also became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Winning the French Open improved Nadal's ranking to world No. 3.
Three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal's 24-match winning streak was snapped in the first round of the grass court Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, where he lost to the German Alexander Waske. He then lost in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg.
Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments, bringing his ranking to world No. 2 on 25 July 2005.
Nadal started his North American summer hard-court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the 2005 Canada Masters, but lost in the first round of the 2005 Cincinnati Masters. Nadal was seeded second at the 2005 US Open, where he was upset in the third round by world No. 49 James Blake in four sets.
In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the 2005 Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup.
Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four ATP Masters Series titles in 2005. Nadal broke Mats Wilander's previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay, and the remainder were on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005, with eleven 6–0 sets during the year. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award
2006
2006 French Open - First player to defeat Roger Federer in a Grand Slam tournament final
Nadal missed the Australian Open due to a foot injury. In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of the year in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open (in 2006, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were the only two men who defeated Federer). To complete the spring hard-court season, Nadal was upset in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, by James Blake, and was upset in the second round of the 2006 Miami Masters.
On European clay, Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. He defeated Federer in the final of the Masters Series Monte Carlo in four sets. The following week, he defeated Tommy Robredo in the final of the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. After a one-week break, Nadal won the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the final, after saving two match points and equaling Björn Borg's tally of 16 ATP titles won as a teenager. Nadal broke Argentinian Guillermo Vilas's 29-year male record of 53 consecutive clay-court match victories by winning his first round match at the French Open. Vilas presented Nadal with a trophy, but commented later that Nadal's feat was less impressive than his own because Nadal's winning streak covered two years and was accomplished by adding easy tournaments to his schedule. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open. The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive, as the rivals traded 6–1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker. Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first player to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam tournament final.
Nadal injured his shoulder while playing a quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt at the Artois Championships, played on grass at the Queen's Club in London. Nadal was unable to complete the match, which ended his 26-match winning streak. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon, but was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets. In the third round, Nadal defeated world No. 20 Andre Agassi in straight sets at Agassi's last career match at Wimbledon. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up his first Wimbledon final, which was against Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years. Nadal was the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966, to reach the Wimbledon final, but Federer won the match in four sets to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.
During the lead up to the US Open, Nadal played the two Masters Series tournaments in North America. He was upset in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second at the US Open, but lost in the quarterfinals to world No. 54 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets.
Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. Joachim Johansson, ranked world No. 690, upset Nadal in the second round of the Stockholm Open. The following week, Nadal lost to Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals of the year's last Masters Series tournament, the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid. During the round-robin stage of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Robredo. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer. This was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer.
Nadal went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1994–95 to finish the year as the world No. 2 in consecutive years.
2007
Nadal started the year by playing in six hard-court tournaments. He lost in the semifinals and first round of his first two tournaments and then lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to eventual runner-up Fernando González. After another quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Tennis Championships, he won the 2007 Indian Wells Masters, before Novak Djoković defeated him in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Miami Masters.
He had comparatively more success after returning to Europe to play five clay-court tournaments. He won the titles at the Masters Series Monte Carlo, the Open Sabadell Atlántico in Barcelona, and the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, before losing to Roger Federer in the final of the Masters Series Hamburg. This defeat ended his 81-match winning streak on clay, which is the male Open Era record for consecutive wins on a single surface. He then rebounded to win the French Open for the third straight year, defeating Federer once again in the final.
Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Mallorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.
Nadal played the Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London for the second consecutive year. As in 2006, Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before being beaten by Federer in the five-set final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001.
In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which proved to be his last title of the year. He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was a semifinalist at the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal before losing his first match at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open, but was defeated in the fourth round by David Ferrer.
After a month-long break from tournament tennis, Nadal played the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid and the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him in straight sets.
During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. In addition, there were rumors at the end of the year that the foot injury he suffered during 2005, caused long-term damage, which were given credence by coach Toni Nadal's claim that the problem was "serious". Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".
2008: Ascent to No. 1 and Olympic gold
2008 - Nadal Won the Beijing Olympics Gold Medal in the Men Singles Championship
Nadal began the year in India, where he was comprehensively beaten by Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the Chennai Open. Nadal then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Nadal in the semifinal of 2008 Australian Open. Nadal also reached the final of the Miami Masters for the second time.
During the spring clay-court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his Open Era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer's holding a 4–0 lead in the second set. Nadal then won his fourth consecutive title at the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg, defeating Federer in the three-set final. He then won the French Open, becoming the fifth man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set.[40] He defeated Federer in the final for the third straight year, but this was the most lopsided of all their matches, as Nadal only lost four games and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999. This was Nadal's fourth consecutive French title, tying Björn Borg's all-time record. Nadal became the fourth male player during Open era to win the same Grand Slam singles tournament four consecutive years (the others being Borg, Pete Sampras, and Federer).
Nadal then played Federer in the final of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry. Nadal entered the final on a 23-match winning streak, including his first career grass-court title at the Artois Championships staged at the Queen's Club in London prior to Wimbledon. Federer had won his record fifth grass-court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win. They played the longest (in terms of time on court, not in terms of numbers of games) final in Wimbledon history, and because of rain delays, Nadal won the fifth set 9–7 in near-darkness. The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some tennis critics even calling it the greatest match in tennis history. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, after Rod Laver in 1969, and Borg in 1978–80, (Federer later accomplished this the following year) as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. He also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles and 65 straight wins on grass courts. This was also the first time that Nadal won two Grand Slam tournaments back-to-back.
After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Rogers Cup title in Toronto, and then made it into the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, Nadal clinched the US Open Series and, combined with Federer's early-round losses in both of those tournaments, finally earned the world No. 1 ranking on 18 August, officially ending Federer's record four-and-a-half-year reign at the top.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nadal defeated Novak Djoković in the semifinals and Fernando González of Chile in the final to win his first Olympic gold medal. Nadal became the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.
At the US Open, Nadal was the top-seeded player for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament. He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round. He then needed four sets to defeat both Sam Querrey in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual runner up, Andy Murray. Later in the year in Madrid, Nadal helped Spain defeat the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals.
At the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid, Nadal lost in the semifinals to Gilles Simon. However, his performance at the event guaranteed that he would become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year as the world No. 1.[50] On 24 October at the Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, Spain, Nadal was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, in recognition of his achievements in tennis. Two weeks after the Madrid Masters at the BNP Paribas Masters in France, Nadal reached the quarterfinals, where he faced Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal lost the first set 6–1, before retiring in the second with a knee injury. The following week, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, citing tendinitis of the knee. On 10 November, Nadal withdrew from Spain's Davis Cup final against Argentina, as his knee injury had not healed completely.
2009
2009 - Rafael Nadal won "Golden Bagel Award"
Nadal's first official ATP tour event for the year was the 250 series Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. After his first-round match with Fabrice Santoro, Nadal was awarded the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion trophy. Nadal eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Gaël Monfils. Nadal also entered and won the tournament's doubles event with partner Marc López, defeating the world No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in the final. As noted by statistician Greg Sharko, this was the first time since 1990 the world No. 1 singles player had played the world No. 1 doubles player in a final.
At the 2009 Australian Open, Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set, before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals in the second longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes. This win set up a championship match with Roger Federer, their first meeting ever in a hard-court Grand Slam tournament and their nineteenth meeting overall. Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard-court Grand Slam singles title, making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and the fourth male tennis player—after Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi—to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces. This win also made Nadal the first male tennis player to hold three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces at the same time. Nadal then played the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. In the final, he lost to second-seeded Murray in three sets. During the final, Nadal called a trainer to attend to a tendon problem with his right knee, which notably affected his play in the final set. Although this knee problem was not associated with Nadal's right knee tendonitis, it was serious enough to cause him to withdraw from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships a week later.
In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Serbia in a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on clay in Benidorm, Spain. Nadal defeated Janko Tipsarević and Novak Djokovic. The win over world No. 3 Djokovic was Nadal's twelfth consecutive Davis Cup singles match win and boosted his career win–loss record against Djokovic to 11–4, including 6–0 on clay.
At the 2009 Indian Wells Masters, Nadal won his thirteenth Masters 1000 series tournament. In the fourth round, Nadal saved five match points, before defeating David Nalbandian for the first time. Nadal defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semi-finals, before defeating Murray in the final. The next ATP tour event was the 2009 Miami Masters. Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match. This was the first time del Potro had defeated Nadal in five career matches.
Nadal began his European clay court season at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, where he won a record fifth consecutive singles title there. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final for his fifth consecutive win, a record in the open era. Nadal is the first male player to win the same ATP Master series event for five consecutive years.
Nadal then competed in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. He advanced to his fifth consecutive Barcelona final, where he faced David Ferrer. Nadal went on to beat Ferrer to record five consecutive Barcelona victories. At the Rome Masters, Nadal reached the final, where he defeated Novak Djokovic to improve his overall record to 13–4 and clay record to 8–0 against the Serb. He became the first player to win four Rome titles.
After winning two clay-court Masters, he participated in the Madrid Open. He lost to Roger Federer in the final. This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semifinals of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.
On 19 May, the ATP World Tour announced that Nadal was the first player out of eight to qualify for the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at the O2 Arena in London.
By beating Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of 2009 French Open, Nadal (2005–09 French Open) set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros, beating the previous record of 28 by Björn Borg (1978–81 French Open). Nadal had won 32 consecutive sets at Roland Garros (since winning the last 2 sets at the 2007 French Open final against Federer), the second-longest winning streak in the tournament's history behind Björn Borg's record of 41 consecutive sets. This run came to an end on 31 May 2009, when Nadal lost to eventual runner-up, Robin Söderling in the 4th round. This was Nadal's first and, thus far, only loss at the French Open.
After his surprise defeat at Roland Garros, Nadal withdrew from the AEGON Championships. It was confirmed that Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees. On 19 June, Nadal withdrew from the 2009 Wimbledon Championship, citing his recurring knee injury. He was the first champion to not defend the title since Goran Ivanišević in 2001. Roger Federer went on to win the title, and Nadal consequently dropped back to world No. 2 on 6 July 2009. Nadal later announced his withdrawal from the Davis Cup.
On 4 August, Nadal's uncle, Toni Nadal, confirmed that Nadal would return to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. There, in his first tournament since Roland Garros, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Juan Martín del Potro. With this loss, he relinquished the No. 2 spot to Andy Murray on 17 August 2009, ranking outside the top two for the first time since 25 July 2005.
In the quarterfinals of the US Open he defeated Fernando Gonzálezin a rain-delayed encounter. However, like his previous US Open campaign, he fell in the semifinals, this time losing to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro. Despite the loss, he regained the No. 2 ranking after Andy Murray's early exit.
At the World Tour Finals, Nadal lost all three of his matches against Robin Söderling, Nikolay Davydenko, and Novak Djokovic respectively without winning a set.
In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. He defeated Tomáš Berdych in his first singles rubber to give the Spanish Davis Cup Team their first point in the tie. After the Spanish Davis Cup team had secured its fourth Davis Cup victory, Nadal defeated Jan Hájek in the first Davis Cup dead rubber of his career. The win gave Nadal his 14th consecutive singles victory at Davis Cup (his 13th on clay).
Nadal finished the year as No. 2 for the fourth time in five years. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2009, with nine 6–0 sets during the year. Nadal has won the award three times (a tour record).
2010: Return to No. 1 and Career Grand Slam
2010 - Nadal with the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Title
Nadal began the year by participating in the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated compatriot David Ferrer to reach his second final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, Nadal defeated Robin Söderling in straight sets.
Nadal participated in an Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, where he lost in the finals to Nikolay Davydenko.
In the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Peter Luczak, Lukáš Lacko, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Ivo Karlović. In the quarterfinals, Nadal pulled out at 3–0 down in the third set against Andy Murray, having lost the first two sets. After examining Nadal's knees, doctors told him that he should take two weeks of rest, and then two weeks of rehabilitation.
Nadal reached the semifinals in singles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he was the defending champion; however, eventual champion Ivan Ljubičić defeated him in three sets. He and countryman López won the doubles title, though, as wildcard entrants against number one seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić. This boosted his doubles ranking 175 places to world number 66, whereas he was 241st before Indian Wells. After Indian Wells, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, where he lost to eventual champion Andy Roddick in three sets.
Nadal reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco, after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the semifinals. This was Nadal's first tour final since Doha earlier in the year. He won the final in straight sets over his compatriot Fernando Verdasco. He lost 14 games throughout all five matches, the fewest he had ever lost en route to a championship, and the final was the shortest Masters 1000 final in terms of games. With this win, Nadal became the first player in the open era to win a tournament title for six straight years.
Unlike in previous years, Nadal next chose to skip the Barcelona tournament (despite being that event's five-time defending champion), and his next tournament was the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. He defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber, Victor Hănescu, and Stanlias Wawrinka, all in straight sets, to win his 57th straight match in April. In the semis, he faced a resilient Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Roger Federer earlier in the tournament and took Nadal to three sets for the first time this clay-court season. Nadal eventually prevailed in 2 hours and 40minutes. He then defeated compatriot David Ferrer in the final for his fifth title at Rome to equal Andre Agassi's record of winning 17 ATP Masters titles.
Nadal then entered the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where he had finished runner-up the previous year. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, he defeated qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr in straight sets. He then played the six-foot-nine-inch American John Isner. Nadal comfortably came through in straight sets. He defeated Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals and his countryman Nicolás Almagro in the next round, who was playing in his first Masters 1000 semifinal. The first set of his match against Almagro would be just the second set he lost on clay up to this point in 2010. Nadal then defeated longtime rival Roger Federer, avenging his 2009 finals loss to Federer. The win gave him his 18th Masters title, breaking the all-time record. He became the first player to win all three clay-court Masters titles in a single year and the first player to win three consecutive Masters events. Nadal moved back to No. 2 the following day.
Entering the French Open, many were expecting another Nadal-Federer final. However, this became impossible when rival Robin Söderling defeated Federer in the quarterfinals. The failure of Federer to reach the semifinals allowed Nadal to regain the world No. 1 ranking if he were to win the tournament. Nadal advanced to the final and defeated Soderling. The win gave Nadal his seventh Grand Slam tournament title, tying him with John McEnroe, John Newcombe, and Mats Wilander on the all-time list, and allowed Nadal to reclaim the position of world No. 1, denying his biggest rival Roger Federer the all-time record for weeks at No. 1. By this win, Nadal became the first man to win the three Masters series on clay and the French Open. The victory at Roland Garros marked the second time (2008) that Nadal had won the French Open without dropping a single set (tying the record held by Björn Borg). With the win in Paris he also booked his place at the World Tour Finals in London and became the first player to win five French Open titles in six years.
In June, Nadal entered the AEGON Championships, which he had won in 2008, at the prestigious Queen's Club. He played singles and doubles at this grass court tournament as a warmup for Wimbledon. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, where he played his first match on grass since winning Wimbledon 2008, he defeated Marcos Daniel. In the third round, he played Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, whom he defeated to advance to the quarterfinals. However, he was defeated by compatriot Feliciano López.
At the Wimbledon Championships, Nadal beat Kei Nishikori and Robin Haase in the opening rounds. He defeated Philipp Petzschner in the third round, winning after five sets of play. During his match with Petzschner, Nadal was warned twice for allegedly receiving coaching from his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, resulting in a $2000 fine by Wimbledon officials. He met Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the round of 16 and comfortably beat Mathieu In the quarterfinals, he got past Robin Söderling of Sweden in four sets. He defeated Andy Murray in straight sets to reach his fourth Wimbledon final.
Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon men's title by defeating Tomáš Berdych in straight sets. After the win, Nadal said that winning Wimbledon was "more than a dream" for him, and thanked the crowd for being both kind and supportive to him and his adversary during the match and in the semifinal against Andy Murray. The win gave him a second Wimbledon title and an eighth career major title just past the age of 24. The win also gave Nadal his first "Old World Triple"; the last person to achieve this was Björn Borg in 1978 ("Old World Triple" is a term given to winning the Italian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in the same year).
In his first hard-court tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup, along with No. 2 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Roger Federer, and No. 4 Andy Murray, after coming back from a one-set deficit to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber. In the semifinal, defending champion Murray defeated Nadal, becoming the only player to triumph over the Spaniard twice in 2010. Nadal also competed in the doubles with Djokovic in a one-time, high-profile partnership of the world No. 1 and No. 2, the first such team since the Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe team in 1976. However, Nadal and Djokovic lost in the first round to Canadians Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil. The next week, Nadal was the top seed at the Cincinnati Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.
At the 2010 US Open, Nadal was the top seed for the second time in three years. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Denis Istomin, Gilles Simon, number 23 seed Feliciano López, number 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, and number 12 seed Mikhail Youzhny all without dropping a set, to reach his first US Open final, becoming only the eighth man in the Open Era to reach the final of all four majors, and at age 24 the second youngest ever to do so, behind only Jim Courier. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic, which completed the Career Grand Slam for Nadal; he also became the second male after Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam. Nadal also became the first man to win majors on clay, grass, and hard court in the same year, and the first to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969. Nadal and Mats Wilander are the only male players to win at least two Grand Slams each on clay, grass, and hardcourts in their careers. Nadal also became the first left-handed man to win the US Open since John McEnroe in 1984. Nadal's victory also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for 2010, making Nadal only the third player (after Ivan Lendl in 1989 and Roger Federer in 2009) to regain the year-end number one ranking after having lost it.
Nadal began his Asian tour at the 2010 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where he reached the semifinals, losing to compatriot Guillermo García López. Nadal was able to regroup, and at the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (debut), he defeated Santiago Giraldo, Milos Raonic, and Dmitry Tursunov. In the semifinals against Viktor Troicki, Nadal saved two match points in the deciding set tiebreaker to win it 9–7 in the end. In the final, Nadal comfortably defeated Gaël Monfils for his seventh title of the season.
Nadal next played in the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, where he was the top seed, but lost to world No. 12 Jürgen Melzer in the third round, snapping his record streak of 21 consecutive Masters quarterfinals. On 5 November, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters due to tendinitis in his left shoulder. On 21 November 2010, in London, Nadal won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the first time.
At the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nadal defeated Roddick in the first match, Djokovic in the second match, and Berdych in the third match, to advance to the semifinals for the third time in his career. This was the first time that Nadal achieved three wins in the round-robin stage. In the semifinal, he defeated Murray in a hard-fought match to reach his first final at the tournament. In only their second meeting of the year, Federer beat Nadal in the final. After the match, Nadal stated, "Roger is probably the more complete player of the world. I'm not going to say I lost that match because I was tired." This was a reference to his marathon victory over Murray on Saturday. "I tried my best this afternoon, but Roger was simply better than me."
Nadal ended the 2010 season having won three Grand Slams and three Masters 1000 tournaments, and having regained the No. 1 ranking.
Next up for Nadal was a two-match exhibition against Federer for the Roger Federer Foundation. The first match took place in Zürich on 21 December 2010, and the second in Madrid the next day.
2011
2011 - Nadal clinced the Barcelona Open title
Nadal started 2011, by participating in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated Tomáš Berdych to reach his third final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, he won over his main rival Roger Federer.
At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, Qatar, Nadal barely struggled past his first three opponents, Karol Beck, Lukáš Lacko, and Ernests Gulbis, citing fever as the primary reason for his poor performance. He fell in straight sets to a resurgent Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals. He and countryman López won the doubles title by defeating the Italian duo Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi.
Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open
In the first round of the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Marcos Daniel. In the second round, he beat upcoming qualifier Ryan Sweeting. In the third round, he was tested by emerging player Bernard Tomic of Australia, but Nadal was victorious in straight sets. He went on to defeat Marin Čilić of Croatia, in the fourth round. He suffered an apparent hamstring injury against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer early in the pair's quarterfinal match and ultimately lost in straight sets, thus ending his effort to win four major tournaments in a row.
On 7 February 2011, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nadal won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the first time, ahead of footballer Lionel Messi, Sebastian Vettel, Spain's Andres Iniesta, Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant, and Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.
In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Belgium in a 2011 Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on hard indoor courts in the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium. Nadal defeated Ruben Bemelmans. After Spain's victory in three matches, Nadal won a second dead rubber against Olivier Rochus.
At the 2011 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Nadal defeated upcoming qualifier Rik de Voest in his first match. In the third round, he beat qualifier Ryan Sweeting He then defeated qualifier Somdev Devvarman in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had a hard time against Croatian Ivo Karlovic, and in the semifinals he met Juan Martin del Potro. The last three confrontations between the players were in favor of del Potro, but despite some difficulties, Nadal won in straight sets. He reached his third final at Indian Wells, and lost against Novak Djokovic. The next day, Nadal and Djokovic played a friendly match in Bogota, Colombia, which Nadal won.
Nadal started the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open with a win over Kei Nishikori then met his compatriot Feliciano Lopez in the third round, whom he defeated. In the fourth round, he defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had the first real test of the tournament when he met the world No. 7 Tomas Berdych, who he defeated in three sets. In the semifinals, Nadal met his main rival Roger Federer, their first meeting in a semifinal since the 2007 Masters Cup. Nadal won in straight sets. For the second time in two weeks, Nadal faced Novak Djokovic in the final. As in the Indian Wells tournament, Nadal won the first set, and Djokovic the second. The third set ended in a tiebreak, with Djokovic winning. This was the first time Nadal reached the finals of Indian Wells and Miami in the same year.
Nadal began his clay-court season by winning the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with the loss of just one set. Nadal defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Richard Gasquet, Ivan Ljubičić, and Andy Murray to reach his seventh consecutive final in Monte Carlo. In the final, Nadal avenged his defeat by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open. He became the first man to win the same tournament seven times in a row at the ATP level in the open era. Nadal chalked up his 37th straight win at the clay-court event, where he has not lost since the 2003 Monte Carlo Masters. It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. It was his first title since winning the Japan Open. Nadal shares third place with Björn Borg and Manuel Orantes in the list of players with the most titles on clay.
Just a week later, Nadal won his sixth Barcelona Open crown, winning the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell final against Ferrer in straight sets. In doing so, Nadal became the first man in the open era to have won two tournaments at least six times each. Nadal was then the leader in terms of matches won in the year, with 29. He did not gain any points for this victory, however, as only four ATP 500 tournaments can be counted towards a players ranking at one time, but they will go into effect 8 August 2011, when the result of the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic expires.
At the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open in May, he defeated Marcos Baghdatis, had a walkover against Juan Martin del Potro, and defeated Michael Llodra and Roger Federer, before losing the final to Novak Djokovic in two sets.
Nadal again lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in the Rome Masters final. This marked the first time that Nadal has lost twice on clay to the same player in a single season. However, Nadal retained his No. 1 ranking during the clay-court season and won his sixth French Open title by defeating Roger Federer.
During the first three rounds of Wimbledon, Nadal beat Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting, and Gilles Muller. He then faced Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals, defeating both players in four sets. His semifinal opponent was world No. 4 Andy Murray. Nadal lost the first set, then won the next three. This set up a final against world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who had beaten Nadal in all four of their matches in 2011 (all in Masters finals). After dropping the third set, Djokovic defeated Nadal in the fourth. This was the first Grand Slam tournament final that Nadal had lost to someone other than Roger Federer and his first loss at Wimbledon since his five-set loss to Federer in the 2007 final. The loss ended Nadal's winning streak in Grand Slam finals at seven, preventing him from tying the Open-Era record of eight victories in a row set by Pete Sampras. Djokovic's success at the tournament also meant that the Serb ascended to world No. 1 for the first time, breaking the dominance of Federer and Nadal on the position, which one of them had held for every week since 2 February 2004. Nadal fell to world No. 2 in the rankings for the first time since June 2010.
After resting for a month from a foot injury sustained during Wimbledon, he contested the 2011 Rogers Cup, where he was shocked by Croatian Ivan Dodig in a third-set tiebreak. He next played in the 2011 Cincinnati Masters, where he lost to Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals.
At the 2011 US Open, Nadal defeated Andrey Golubev in straight sets and advanced to the third round after Frenchman Nicholas Mahut retired. After defeating David Nalbandian on 4 September, Nadal collapsed in his post-match press conference due to severe cramps. Nadal lost to Novak Djokovic in the final in four sets.
After the US Open, Nadal made the final of the Japan Open Tennis Championships. Nadal, who was the 2010 champion, was defeated by Andy Murray. At the Shanghai Masters, Nadal was top seed with the absence of Novak Djokovic, but was upset in the third round by No. 23 ranked Florian Mayer in straight sets. At the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals, Nadal was defeated by Roger Federer in the round-robin stage, in one of the quickest matches between the two, lasting just 60 minutes. In the following match, Nadal was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and was eliminated from the tournament.
In the Davis Cup final in December, Nadal had a quick straight-set win over Juan Monaco in his first match. In his second match against Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal did not win a single service game in the first set but came back to win the match.
Nadal ended his tennis season with the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament not affiliated with the ATP. The tournament, normally held in early January, was held from 29 to 31 December 2011. Nadal had a bye into the semifinals and played against David Ferrer, who defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. Ferrer won the match in straight sets. Nadal was then relegated to the third place match against Roger Federer. Nadal won in straight sets.
2012
Nadal began his ATP World Tour season at the Qatar Open. He beat Philipp Kohlschreiber and qualifier Denis Gremelmayr in rounds one and two and then won against seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny. In the semifinal he lost to Gaël Monfils in two sets.
In the Australian Open Nadal began the tournament by breezing past qualifier Alex Kuznetsov of United States. The second round against Tommy Haas, who has never won a set against Rafael, was tighter, but Nadal again advanced in three straight sets. He defeated Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round, then won in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches against Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer respectively. By doing so, he has reached the finals of all four majors consecutively. In the final, on 29 January, he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in a five-set match that lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, the longest ever match for a Grand Slam title. The pair set a new world record, breaking the latest longest major singles final between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, which lasted 4 hours and 54 minutes, at the US Open in 1988.
Nadal made it to the semifinals in Indian Wells, where he was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Roger Federer. He also made the semifinals in Miami, but withdrew because of knee problems.
As the clay court season started, Nadal was seeded 2nd at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Mikhael Kukushkin, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Gilles Simon before topping world No. 1 Novak Djokovic to win his 8th consecutive Monte Carlo trophy. This ended a streak of seven straight final losses to Djokovic, which began at the 2011 Indian Wells Masters final.
A day after the Monte Carlo Masters Final, Nadal traveled to Barcelona where he received a bye in the first round. His tremendous record on clay continued as he beat compatriot David Ferrer in a hard fought final to clinch his seventh title in eight years at the Barcelona Open.
The Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open did not go very well for Nadal. He beat Nikolay Davydenko, one of the few players to hold a positive head to head record over Nadal, in straight sets. He then lost to Fernando Verdasco, who he held a 13–0 record against in the third round 7–5 in the third, after blowing a 4–0 final set lead. Nadal stated that he was very unhappy with the new blue-colored clay and threatened not to attend in the future if the surface was not changed back to red clay. Several other players (such as Novak Djokovic) voiced similar criticism.
In the last tournament before the French Open, Nadal went to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. He advanced to his 7th final after defeating Florian Mayer, Marcel Granollers, Tomas Berdych, and David Ferrer all in straight sets, setting up another finals showdown with World number one Novak Djokovic. Nadal defeated Djokovic in a tight straight sets encounter. This was his second victory over Novak Djokovic in 2012 and his third title of the season, as well as his 6th Rome title overall.
At the 2012 French Open, Nadal dropped only 30 games during the first five opponents, defeating his opponents without losing a set. In the semifinal he faced a friend and compatriot in David Ferrer. Unlike their previous two encounters in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal showed almost no flaws, dismantling Ferrer to set up anothtwor championship title fight with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. This marked the first time where two opposing players faced each other in four consecutive Grand Slam tournament finals. They also became the only players to have faced the same opponent in the finals of all four Majors. Nadal won the first two sets before Djokovic claimed the third. Play was suspended in the fourth set due to rain. When the match resumed the following day, Nadal won when Djokovic double faulted on match point, sealing a record 7th Roland Garros title for Nadal. Throughout the tournament, Nadal lost only one set, occurring in the final. By winning his seventh title at Roland Garros, Nadal surpassed Borg's overall titles record to become the most successful tennis player in French Open history. Nadal only lost a total of three sets in the 2012 clay court season.
In his first grass court tournament of the season at Halle, Nadal advanced to quarterfinals, where he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber. At Wimbledon, Nadal beat Thomaz Bellucci in the first round. He then met Lukáš Rosol in the second round, a player who was then ranked 100th in the world and had never advanced beyond the first qualifying round in his five previous Wimbledons. In one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history, Nadal was defeated by Rosol in five sets. This was the first time since the Wimbledon 2005 championships that Nadal had failed to progress past the 2nd round of a Grand Slam tournament.
In July 2012, Nadal withdrew from the 2012 Olympics due to tendinitis in his knee, which subsequently also led to him pulling out of both the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati Masters. On 15 August, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the US Open in New York, as he felt he still wasn't healthy enough to compete. On 11 September 2012, Nadal fell to a world No. 4 ranking, his lowest since 2010, as 2012 US Open winner Andy Murray climbed to No. 3. Nadal ended 2012 ranked No. 4 in the world, the first time in eight years that he hasn't been ranked 1st or 2nd at the end of the year.
2013
Two weeks prior to the 2013 Australian Open Nadal officially withdrew from the tournament citing a stomach virus. Nadal's withdrawal subsequently saw him drop out of the ATP's Top Four for the first time since 2005.
Nadal made his comeback at the Latin American Golden Swing, starting his 2013 season at the 2013 VTR Open in Chile, where he advanced to the final without dropping a set but was stunned by Argentine World No. 73 journeyman Horacio Zeballos. He lost in the doubles final (with Juan Monaco) as well. The next week Nadal went to the 2013 Brasil Open at Sao Paulo, he struggled in opening rounds dropping sets to Berlocq and qualifier Alund. Despite the poor clay surface which many players complained about, Nadal made the final where he defeated David Nalbandian. These were his first tournaments in South America since 2005. He then played in the 2013 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco. He advanced to the semifinals where he defeated Nicolás Almagro in two sets, setting up a title match with world No. 4 David Ferrer, whom he also defeated losing just two games in the process. Nadal then returned to the American hard courts after a year, playing the Indian Wells Masters as the fifth seed. Nadal reached the final for the loss of just one set, defeating World No. 2 Roger Federer and World No. 6 Tomas Berdych along the way. In the final, he came back from a set down to defeat Juan Martin del Potro, winning his third Indian Wells Masters title and his first hardcourt title since October 2010. This win also made Nadal the player to have won the most Masters 1000s.
2002–2004
In April 2002, at 15 years and 10 months, the world No. 762 Nadal won his first ATP match, defeating Ramon Delgado, and became the ninth player in the Open Era to do so before the age of 16. The following year, Nadal won two Challenger titles and finished the year in the top 50. At his Wimbledon debut in 2003, Nadal became the youngest man to reach the third round since Boris Becker in 1984.
Nadal reached the third round of the 2004 Australian Open where he lost in three sets against AustralianLleyton Hewitt. Interestingly, had he won, he would have faced Roger Federer in the next round. Later that year, Nadal played his first match against world No. 1 Roger Federer at the 2004 Miami Masters, and won in straight sets. He is one of the six players that defeated Federer that year (along with Tim Henman, Alberta Costa, Gustavo Kuerten, Dominik Hrbaty and Tomas Berdych). He missed most of the clay court season, including the French Open, because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Nadal, at 18 years and six months, became the youngest player to register a singles victory in a Davis Cup final for a winning nation. By beating world No. 2 Andy Roddick, he helped Spain clinch the 2004 title over the United States in a 3–2 win. He finished the year ranked world No. 51.
2005: First Grand Slam title
At the 2005 Australian Open, Nadal lost in the 4th round to eventual runner-up Lleyton Hewitt. Two months later, Nadal reached the final of the 2005 Miami Masters, and despite being two points from a straight-sets victory, he was defeated in five sets by world No. 1 Roger Federer. Both performances were considered to be breakthroughs for Nadal.
He then dominated the spring clay court season. He won 24 consecutive singles matches, which broke AndrewAgassi's Open Era record of consecutive match wins for a male teenager. Nadal won the Torneo Conde de Godo in Barcelona and beat 2004 French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria in the finals of the 2005 Monte Carlo Masters and the 2005 Rome Masters. These victories raised his ranking to world No. 5 and made him one of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the 2005 French Open semifinals, being one of only four players who defeated the top-seeded player that year (along with Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, and David Nalbandian). Two days later, he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the second male player to win the French Open on his first attempt since Mats Wilander in 1982: He also became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Winning the French Open improved Nadal's ranking to world No. 3.
Three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal's 24-match winning streak was snapped in the first round of the grass court Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, where he lost to the German Alexander Waske. He then lost in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg.
Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments, bringing his ranking to world No. 2 on 25 July 2005.
Nadal started his North American summer hard-court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the 2005 Canada Masters, but lost in the first round of the 2005 Cincinnati Masters. Nadal was seeded second at the 2005 US Open, where he was upset in the third round by world No. 49 James Blake in four sets.
In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the 2005 Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup.
Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four ATP Masters Series titles in 2005. Nadal broke Mats Wilander's previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay, and the remainder were on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005, with eleven 6–0 sets during the year. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award
2006
Nadal missed the Australian Open due to a foot injury. In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of the year in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open (in 2006, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were the only two men who defeated Federer). To complete the spring hard-court season, Nadal was upset in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, by James Blake, and was upset in the second round of the 2006 Miami Masters.
On European clay, Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. He defeated Federer in the final of the Masters Series Monte Carlo in four sets. The following week, he defeated Tommy Robredo in the final of the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. After a one-week break, Nadal won the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the final, after saving two match points and equaling Björn Borg's tally of 16 ATP titles won as a teenager. Nadal broke Argentinian Guillermo Vilas's 29-year male record of 53 consecutive clay-court match victories by winning his first round match at the French Open. Vilas presented Nadal with a trophy, but commented later that Nadal's feat was less impressive than his own because Nadal's winning streak covered two years and was accomplished by adding easy tournaments to his schedule. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open. The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive, as the rivals traded 6–1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker. Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first player to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam tournament final.
Nadal injured his shoulder while playing a quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt at the Artois Championships, played on grass at the Queen's Club in London. Nadal was unable to complete the match, which ended his 26-match winning streak. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon, but was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets. In the third round, Nadal defeated world No. 20 Andre Agassi in straight sets at Agassi's last career match at Wimbledon. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up his first Wimbledon final, which was against Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years. Nadal was the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966, to reach the Wimbledon final, but Federer won the match in four sets to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.
During the lead up to the US Open, Nadal played the two Masters Series tournaments in North America. He was upset in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second at the US Open, but lost in the quarterfinals to world No. 54 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets.
Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. Joachim Johansson, ranked world No. 690, upset Nadal in the second round of the Stockholm Open. The following week, Nadal lost to Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals of the year's last Masters Series tournament, the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid. During the round-robin stage of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Robredo. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer. This was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer.
Nadal went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1994–95 to finish the year as the world No. 2 in consecutive years.
2007
Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Mallorca, Spain
Nadal started the year by playing in six hard-court tournaments. He lost in the semifinals and first round of his first two tournaments and then lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to eventual runner-up Fernando González. After another quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Tennis Championships, he won the 2007 Indian Wells Masters, before Novak Djoković defeated him in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Miami Masters.
He had comparatively more success after returning to Europe to play five clay-court tournaments. He won the titles at the Masters Series Monte Carlo, the Open Sabadell Atlántico in Barcelona, and the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, before losing to Roger Federer in the final of the Masters Series Hamburg. This defeat ended his 81-match winning streak on clay, which is the male Open Era record for consecutive wins on a single surface. He then rebounded to win the French Open for the third straight year, defeating Federer once again in the final.
Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Mallorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.
Nadal played the Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London for the second consecutive year. As in 2006, Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before being beaten by Federer in the five-set final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001.
In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which proved to be his last title of the year. He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was a semifinalist at the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal before losing his first match at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open, but was defeated in the fourth round by David Ferrer.
After a month-long break from tournament tennis, Nadal played the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid and the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him in straight sets.
During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. In addition, there were rumors at the end of the year that the foot injury he suffered during 2005, caused long-term damage, which were given credence by coach Toni Nadal's claim that the problem was "serious". Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".
2008: Ascent to No. 1 and Olympic gold
Nadal began the year in India, where he was comprehensively beaten by Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the Chennai Open. Nadal then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Nadal in the semifinal of 2008 Australian Open. Nadal also reached the final of the Miami Masters for the second time.
During the spring clay-court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his Open Era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer's holding a 4–0 lead in the second set. Nadal then won his fourth consecutive title at the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg, defeating Federer in the three-set final. He then won the French Open, becoming the fifth man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set.[40] He defeated Federer in the final for the third straight year, but this was the most lopsided of all their matches, as Nadal only lost four games and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999. This was Nadal's fourth consecutive French title, tying Björn Borg's all-time record. Nadal became the fourth male player during Open era to win the same Grand Slam singles tournament four consecutive years (the others being Borg, Pete Sampras, and Federer).
Nadal then played Federer in the final of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry. Nadal entered the final on a 23-match winning streak, including his first career grass-court title at the Artois Championships staged at the Queen's Club in London prior to Wimbledon. Federer had won his record fifth grass-court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win. They played the longest (in terms of time on court, not in terms of numbers of games) final in Wimbledon history, and because of rain delays, Nadal won the fifth set 9–7 in near-darkness. The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some tennis critics even calling it the greatest match in tennis history. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, after Rod Laver in 1969, and Borg in 1978–80, (Federer later accomplished this the following year) as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. He also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles and 65 straight wins on grass courts. This was also the first time that Nadal won two Grand Slam tournaments back-to-back.
After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Rogers Cup title in Toronto, and then made it into the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, Nadal clinched the US Open Series and, combined with Federer's early-round losses in both of those tournaments, finally earned the world No. 1 ranking on 18 August, officially ending Federer's record four-and-a-half-year reign at the top.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nadal defeated Novak Djoković in the semifinals and Fernando González of Chile in the final to win his first Olympic gold medal. Nadal became the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.
At the US Open, Nadal was the top-seeded player for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament. He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round. He then needed four sets to defeat both Sam Querrey in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual runner up, Andy Murray. Later in the year in Madrid, Nadal helped Spain defeat the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals.
At the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid, Nadal lost in the semifinals to Gilles Simon. However, his performance at the event guaranteed that he would become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year as the world No. 1.[50] On 24 October at the Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, Spain, Nadal was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, in recognition of his achievements in tennis. Two weeks after the Madrid Masters at the BNP Paribas Masters in France, Nadal reached the quarterfinals, where he faced Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal lost the first set 6–1, before retiring in the second with a knee injury. The following week, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, citing tendinitis of the knee. On 10 November, Nadal withdrew from Spain's Davis Cup final against Argentina, as his knee injury had not healed completely.
2009
Nadal's first official ATP tour event for the year was the 250 series Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. After his first-round match with Fabrice Santoro, Nadal was awarded the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion trophy. Nadal eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Gaël Monfils. Nadal also entered and won the tournament's doubles event with partner Marc López, defeating the world No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in the final. As noted by statistician Greg Sharko, this was the first time since 1990 the world No. 1 singles player had played the world No. 1 doubles player in a final.
At the 2009 Australian Open, Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set, before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals in the second longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes. This win set up a championship match with Roger Federer, their first meeting ever in a hard-court Grand Slam tournament and their nineteenth meeting overall. Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard-court Grand Slam singles title, making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and the fourth male tennis player—after Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi—to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces. This win also made Nadal the first male tennis player to hold three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces at the same time. Nadal then played the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. In the final, he lost to second-seeded Murray in three sets. During the final, Nadal called a trainer to attend to a tendon problem with his right knee, which notably affected his play in the final set. Although this knee problem was not associated with Nadal's right knee tendonitis, it was serious enough to cause him to withdraw from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships a week later.
In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Serbia in a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on clay in Benidorm, Spain. Nadal defeated Janko Tipsarević and Novak Djokovic. The win over world No. 3 Djokovic was Nadal's twelfth consecutive Davis Cup singles match win and boosted his career win–loss record against Djokovic to 11–4, including 6–0 on clay.
At the 2009 Indian Wells Masters, Nadal won his thirteenth Masters 1000 series tournament. In the fourth round, Nadal saved five match points, before defeating David Nalbandian for the first time. Nadal defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semi-finals, before defeating Murray in the final. The next ATP tour event was the 2009 Miami Masters. Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match. This was the first time del Potro had defeated Nadal in five career matches.
Nadal began his European clay court season at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, where he won a record fifth consecutive singles title there. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final for his fifth consecutive win, a record in the open era. Nadal is the first male player to win the same ATP Master series event for five consecutive years.
Nadal then competed in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. He advanced to his fifth consecutive Barcelona final, where he faced David Ferrer. Nadal went on to beat Ferrer to record five consecutive Barcelona victories. At the Rome Masters, Nadal reached the final, where he defeated Novak Djokovic to improve his overall record to 13–4 and clay record to 8–0 against the Serb. He became the first player to win four Rome titles.
After winning two clay-court Masters, he participated in the Madrid Open. He lost to Roger Federer in the final. This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semifinals of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.
On 19 May, the ATP World Tour announced that Nadal was the first player out of eight to qualify for the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at the O2 Arena in London.
By beating Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of 2009 French Open, Nadal (2005–09 French Open) set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros, beating the previous record of 28 by Björn Borg (1978–81 French Open). Nadal had won 32 consecutive sets at Roland Garros (since winning the last 2 sets at the 2007 French Open final against Federer), the second-longest winning streak in the tournament's history behind Björn Borg's record of 41 consecutive sets. This run came to an end on 31 May 2009, when Nadal lost to eventual runner-up, Robin Söderling in the 4th round. This was Nadal's first and, thus far, only loss at the French Open.
After his surprise defeat at Roland Garros, Nadal withdrew from the AEGON Championships. It was confirmed that Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees. On 19 June, Nadal withdrew from the 2009 Wimbledon Championship, citing his recurring knee injury. He was the first champion to not defend the title since Goran Ivanišević in 2001. Roger Federer went on to win the title, and Nadal consequently dropped back to world No. 2 on 6 July 2009. Nadal later announced his withdrawal from the Davis Cup.
On 4 August, Nadal's uncle, Toni Nadal, confirmed that Nadal would return to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. There, in his first tournament since Roland Garros, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Juan Martín del Potro. With this loss, he relinquished the No. 2 spot to Andy Murray on 17 August 2009, ranking outside the top two for the first time since 25 July 2005.
In the quarterfinals of the US Open he defeated Fernando Gonzálezin a rain-delayed encounter. However, like his previous US Open campaign, he fell in the semifinals, this time losing to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro. Despite the loss, he regained the No. 2 ranking after Andy Murray's early exit.
At the World Tour Finals, Nadal lost all three of his matches against Robin Söderling, Nikolay Davydenko, and Novak Djokovic respectively without winning a set.
In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. He defeated Tomáš Berdych in his first singles rubber to give the Spanish Davis Cup Team their first point in the tie. After the Spanish Davis Cup team had secured its fourth Davis Cup victory, Nadal defeated Jan Hájek in the first Davis Cup dead rubber of his career. The win gave Nadal his 14th consecutive singles victory at Davis Cup (his 13th on clay).
Nadal finished the year as No. 2 for the fourth time in five years. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2009, with nine 6–0 sets during the year. Nadal has won the award three times (a tour record).
2010: Return to No. 1 and Career Grand Slam
Nadal began the year by participating in the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated compatriot David Ferrer to reach his second final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, Nadal defeated Robin Söderling in straight sets.
Nadal participated in an Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, where he lost in the finals to Nikolay Davydenko.
In the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Peter Luczak, Lukáš Lacko, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Ivo Karlović. In the quarterfinals, Nadal pulled out at 3–0 down in the third set against Andy Murray, having lost the first two sets. After examining Nadal's knees, doctors told him that he should take two weeks of rest, and then two weeks of rehabilitation.
Nadal reached the semifinals in singles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he was the defending champion; however, eventual champion Ivan Ljubičić defeated him in three sets. He and countryman López won the doubles title, though, as wildcard entrants against number one seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić. This boosted his doubles ranking 175 places to world number 66, whereas he was 241st before Indian Wells. After Indian Wells, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, where he lost to eventual champion Andy Roddick in three sets.
Nadal reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco, after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the semifinals. This was Nadal's first tour final since Doha earlier in the year. He won the final in straight sets over his compatriot Fernando Verdasco. He lost 14 games throughout all five matches, the fewest he had ever lost en route to a championship, and the final was the shortest Masters 1000 final in terms of games. With this win, Nadal became the first player in the open era to win a tournament title for six straight years.
Unlike in previous years, Nadal next chose to skip the Barcelona tournament (despite being that event's five-time defending champion), and his next tournament was the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. He defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber, Victor Hănescu, and Stanlias Wawrinka, all in straight sets, to win his 57th straight match in April. In the semis, he faced a resilient Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Roger Federer earlier in the tournament and took Nadal to three sets for the first time this clay-court season. Nadal eventually prevailed in 2 hours and 40minutes. He then defeated compatriot David Ferrer in the final for his fifth title at Rome to equal Andre Agassi's record of winning 17 ATP Masters titles.
Nadal then entered the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where he had finished runner-up the previous year. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, he defeated qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr in straight sets. He then played the six-foot-nine-inch American John Isner. Nadal comfortably came through in straight sets. He defeated Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals and his countryman Nicolás Almagro in the next round, who was playing in his first Masters 1000 semifinal. The first set of his match against Almagro would be just the second set he lost on clay up to this point in 2010. Nadal then defeated longtime rival Roger Federer, avenging his 2009 finals loss to Federer. The win gave him his 18th Masters title, breaking the all-time record. He became the first player to win all three clay-court Masters titles in a single year and the first player to win three consecutive Masters events. Nadal moved back to No. 2 the following day.
Entering the French Open, many were expecting another Nadal-Federer final. However, this became impossible when rival Robin Söderling defeated Federer in the quarterfinals. The failure of Federer to reach the semifinals allowed Nadal to regain the world No. 1 ranking if he were to win the tournament. Nadal advanced to the final and defeated Soderling. The win gave Nadal his seventh Grand Slam tournament title, tying him with John McEnroe, John Newcombe, and Mats Wilander on the all-time list, and allowed Nadal to reclaim the position of world No. 1, denying his biggest rival Roger Federer the all-time record for weeks at No. 1. By this win, Nadal became the first man to win the three Masters series on clay and the French Open. The victory at Roland Garros marked the second time (2008) that Nadal had won the French Open without dropping a single set (tying the record held by Björn Borg). With the win in Paris he also booked his place at the World Tour Finals in London and became the first player to win five French Open titles in six years.
In June, Nadal entered the AEGON Championships, which he had won in 2008, at the prestigious Queen's Club. He played singles and doubles at this grass court tournament as a warmup for Wimbledon. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, where he played his first match on grass since winning Wimbledon 2008, he defeated Marcos Daniel. In the third round, he played Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, whom he defeated to advance to the quarterfinals. However, he was defeated by compatriot Feliciano López.
At the Wimbledon Championships, Nadal beat Kei Nishikori and Robin Haase in the opening rounds. He defeated Philipp Petzschner in the third round, winning after five sets of play. During his match with Petzschner, Nadal was warned twice for allegedly receiving coaching from his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, resulting in a $2000 fine by Wimbledon officials. He met Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the round of 16 and comfortably beat Mathieu In the quarterfinals, he got past Robin Söderling of Sweden in four sets. He defeated Andy Murray in straight sets to reach his fourth Wimbledon final.
Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon men's title by defeating Tomáš Berdych in straight sets. After the win, Nadal said that winning Wimbledon was "more than a dream" for him, and thanked the crowd for being both kind and supportive to him and his adversary during the match and in the semifinal against Andy Murray. The win gave him a second Wimbledon title and an eighth career major title just past the age of 24. The win also gave Nadal his first "Old World Triple"; the last person to achieve this was Björn Borg in 1978 ("Old World Triple" is a term given to winning the Italian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in the same year).
In his first hard-court tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup, along with No. 2 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Roger Federer, and No. 4 Andy Murray, after coming back from a one-set deficit to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber. In the semifinal, defending champion Murray defeated Nadal, becoming the only player to triumph over the Spaniard twice in 2010. Nadal also competed in the doubles with Djokovic in a one-time, high-profile partnership of the world No. 1 and No. 2, the first such team since the Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe team in 1976. However, Nadal and Djokovic lost in the first round to Canadians Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil. The next week, Nadal was the top seed at the Cincinnati Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.
At the 2010 US Open, Nadal was the top seed for the second time in three years. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Denis Istomin, Gilles Simon, number 23 seed Feliciano López, number 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, and number 12 seed Mikhail Youzhny all without dropping a set, to reach his first US Open final, becoming only the eighth man in the Open Era to reach the final of all four majors, and at age 24 the second youngest ever to do so, behind only Jim Courier. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic, which completed the Career Grand Slam for Nadal; he also became the second male after Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam. Nadal also became the first man to win majors on clay, grass, and hard court in the same year, and the first to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969. Nadal and Mats Wilander are the only male players to win at least two Grand Slams each on clay, grass, and hardcourts in their careers. Nadal also became the first left-handed man to win the US Open since John McEnroe in 1984. Nadal's victory also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for 2010, making Nadal only the third player (after Ivan Lendl in 1989 and Roger Federer in 2009) to regain the year-end number one ranking after having lost it.
Nadal began his Asian tour at the 2010 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where he reached the semifinals, losing to compatriot Guillermo García López. Nadal was able to regroup, and at the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (debut), he defeated Santiago Giraldo, Milos Raonic, and Dmitry Tursunov. In the semifinals against Viktor Troicki, Nadal saved two match points in the deciding set tiebreaker to win it 9–7 in the end. In the final, Nadal comfortably defeated Gaël Monfils for his seventh title of the season.
Nadal next played in the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, where he was the top seed, but lost to world No. 12 Jürgen Melzer in the third round, snapping his record streak of 21 consecutive Masters quarterfinals. On 5 November, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters due to tendinitis in his left shoulder. On 21 November 2010, in London, Nadal won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the first time.
At the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nadal defeated Roddick in the first match, Djokovic in the second match, and Berdych in the third match, to advance to the semifinals for the third time in his career. This was the first time that Nadal achieved three wins in the round-robin stage. In the semifinal, he defeated Murray in a hard-fought match to reach his first final at the tournament. In only their second meeting of the year, Federer beat Nadal in the final. After the match, Nadal stated, "Roger is probably the more complete player of the world. I'm not going to say I lost that match because I was tired." This was a reference to his marathon victory over Murray on Saturday. "I tried my best this afternoon, but Roger was simply better than me."
Nadal ended the 2010 season having won three Grand Slams and three Masters 1000 tournaments, and having regained the No. 1 ranking.
Next up for Nadal was a two-match exhibition against Federer for the Roger Federer Foundation. The first match took place in Zürich on 21 December 2010, and the second in Madrid the next day.
2011
Nadal started 2011, by participating in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated Tomáš Berdych to reach his third final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, he won over his main rival Roger Federer.
At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, Qatar, Nadal barely struggled past his first three opponents, Karol Beck, Lukáš Lacko, and Ernests Gulbis, citing fever as the primary reason for his poor performance. He fell in straight sets to a resurgent Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals. He and countryman López won the doubles title by defeating the Italian duo Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi.
Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open
In the first round of the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Marcos Daniel. In the second round, he beat upcoming qualifier Ryan Sweeting. In the third round, he was tested by emerging player Bernard Tomic of Australia, but Nadal was victorious in straight sets. He went on to defeat Marin Čilić of Croatia, in the fourth round. He suffered an apparent hamstring injury against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer early in the pair's quarterfinal match and ultimately lost in straight sets, thus ending his effort to win four major tournaments in a row.
On 7 February 2011, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nadal won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the first time, ahead of footballer Lionel Messi, Sebastian Vettel, Spain's Andres Iniesta, Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant, and Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.
In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Belgium in a 2011 Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on hard indoor courts in the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium. Nadal defeated Ruben Bemelmans. After Spain's victory in three matches, Nadal won a second dead rubber against Olivier Rochus.
At the 2011 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Nadal defeated upcoming qualifier Rik de Voest in his first match. In the third round, he beat qualifier Ryan Sweeting He then defeated qualifier Somdev Devvarman in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had a hard time against Croatian Ivo Karlovic, and in the semifinals he met Juan Martin del Potro. The last three confrontations between the players were in favor of del Potro, but despite some difficulties, Nadal won in straight sets. He reached his third final at Indian Wells, and lost against Novak Djokovic. The next day, Nadal and Djokovic played a friendly match in Bogota, Colombia, which Nadal won.
Nadal started the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open with a win over Kei Nishikori then met his compatriot Feliciano Lopez in the third round, whom he defeated. In the fourth round, he defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had the first real test of the tournament when he met the world No. 7 Tomas Berdych, who he defeated in three sets. In the semifinals, Nadal met his main rival Roger Federer, their first meeting in a semifinal since the 2007 Masters Cup. Nadal won in straight sets. For the second time in two weeks, Nadal faced Novak Djokovic in the final. As in the Indian Wells tournament, Nadal won the first set, and Djokovic the second. The third set ended in a tiebreak, with Djokovic winning. This was the first time Nadal reached the finals of Indian Wells and Miami in the same year.
Nadal began his clay-court season by winning the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with the loss of just one set. Nadal defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Richard Gasquet, Ivan Ljubičić, and Andy Murray to reach his seventh consecutive final in Monte Carlo. In the final, Nadal avenged his defeat by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open. He became the first man to win the same tournament seven times in a row at the ATP level in the open era. Nadal chalked up his 37th straight win at the clay-court event, where he has not lost since the 2003 Monte Carlo Masters. It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. It was his first title since winning the Japan Open. Nadal shares third place with Björn Borg and Manuel Orantes in the list of players with the most titles on clay.
Just a week later, Nadal won his sixth Barcelona Open crown, winning the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell final against Ferrer in straight sets. In doing so, Nadal became the first man in the open era to have won two tournaments at least six times each. Nadal was then the leader in terms of matches won in the year, with 29. He did not gain any points for this victory, however, as only four ATP 500 tournaments can be counted towards a players ranking at one time, but they will go into effect 8 August 2011, when the result of the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic expires.
At the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open in May, he defeated Marcos Baghdatis, had a walkover against Juan Martin del Potro, and defeated Michael Llodra and Roger Federer, before losing the final to Novak Djokovic in two sets.
Nadal again lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in the Rome Masters final. This marked the first time that Nadal has lost twice on clay to the same player in a single season. However, Nadal retained his No. 1 ranking during the clay-court season and won his sixth French Open title by defeating Roger Federer.
During the first three rounds of Wimbledon, Nadal beat Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting, and Gilles Muller. He then faced Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals, defeating both players in four sets. His semifinal opponent was world No. 4 Andy Murray. Nadal lost the first set, then won the next three. This set up a final against world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who had beaten Nadal in all four of their matches in 2011 (all in Masters finals). After dropping the third set, Djokovic defeated Nadal in the fourth. This was the first Grand Slam tournament final that Nadal had lost to someone other than Roger Federer and his first loss at Wimbledon since his five-set loss to Federer in the 2007 final. The loss ended Nadal's winning streak in Grand Slam finals at seven, preventing him from tying the Open-Era record of eight victories in a row set by Pete Sampras. Djokovic's success at the tournament also meant that the Serb ascended to world No. 1 for the first time, breaking the dominance of Federer and Nadal on the position, which one of them had held for every week since 2 February 2004. Nadal fell to world No. 2 in the rankings for the first time since June 2010.
After resting for a month from a foot injury sustained during Wimbledon, he contested the 2011 Rogers Cup, where he was shocked by Croatian Ivan Dodig in a third-set tiebreak. He next played in the 2011 Cincinnati Masters, where he lost to Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals.
At the 2011 US Open, Nadal defeated Andrey Golubev in straight sets and advanced to the third round after Frenchman Nicholas Mahut retired. After defeating David Nalbandian on 4 September, Nadal collapsed in his post-match press conference due to severe cramps. Nadal lost to Novak Djokovic in the final in four sets.
After the US Open, Nadal made the final of the Japan Open Tennis Championships. Nadal, who was the 2010 champion, was defeated by Andy Murray. At the Shanghai Masters, Nadal was top seed with the absence of Novak Djokovic, but was upset in the third round by No. 23 ranked Florian Mayer in straight sets. At the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals, Nadal was defeated by Roger Federer in the round-robin stage, in one of the quickest matches between the two, lasting just 60 minutes. In the following match, Nadal was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and was eliminated from the tournament.
In the Davis Cup final in December, Nadal had a quick straight-set win over Juan Monaco in his first match. In his second match against Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal did not win a single service game in the first set but came back to win the match.
Nadal ended his tennis season with the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament not affiliated with the ATP. The tournament, normally held in early January, was held from 29 to 31 December 2011. Nadal had a bye into the semifinals and played against David Ferrer, who defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. Ferrer won the match in straight sets. Nadal was then relegated to the third place match against Roger Federer. Nadal won in straight sets.
2012
2012 - Rafa clined the Rome Open Title
Nadal began his ATP World Tour season at the Qatar Open. He beat Philipp Kohlschreiber and qualifier Denis Gremelmayr in rounds one and two and then won against seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny. In the semifinal he lost to Gaël Monfils in two sets.
In the Australian Open Nadal began the tournament by breezing past qualifier Alex Kuznetsov of United States. The second round against Tommy Haas, who has never won a set against Rafael, was tighter, but Nadal again advanced in three straight sets. He defeated Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round, then won in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches against Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer respectively. By doing so, he has reached the finals of all four majors consecutively. In the final, on 29 January, he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in a five-set match that lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, the longest ever match for a Grand Slam title. The pair set a new world record, breaking the latest longest major singles final between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, which lasted 4 hours and 54 minutes, at the US Open in 1988.
Nadal made it to the semifinals in Indian Wells, where he was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Roger Federer. He also made the semifinals in Miami, but withdrew because of knee problems.
As the clay court season started, Nadal was seeded 2nd at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Mikhael Kukushkin, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Gilles Simon before topping world No. 1 Novak Djokovic to win his 8th consecutive Monte Carlo trophy. This ended a streak of seven straight final losses to Djokovic, which began at the 2011 Indian Wells Masters final.
A day after the Monte Carlo Masters Final, Nadal traveled to Barcelona where he received a bye in the first round. His tremendous record on clay continued as he beat compatriot David Ferrer in a hard fought final to clinch his seventh title in eight years at the Barcelona Open.
The Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open did not go very well for Nadal. He beat Nikolay Davydenko, one of the few players to hold a positive head to head record over Nadal, in straight sets. He then lost to Fernando Verdasco, who he held a 13–0 record against in the third round 7–5 in the third, after blowing a 4–0 final set lead. Nadal stated that he was very unhappy with the new blue-colored clay and threatened not to attend in the future if the surface was not changed back to red clay. Several other players (such as Novak Djokovic) voiced similar criticism.
In the last tournament before the French Open, Nadal went to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. He advanced to his 7th final after defeating Florian Mayer, Marcel Granollers, Tomas Berdych, and David Ferrer all in straight sets, setting up another finals showdown with World number one Novak Djokovic. Nadal defeated Djokovic in a tight straight sets encounter. This was his second victory over Novak Djokovic in 2012 and his third title of the season, as well as his 6th Rome title overall.
At the 2012 French Open, Nadal dropped only 30 games during the first five opponents, defeating his opponents without losing a set. In the semifinal he faced a friend and compatriot in David Ferrer. Unlike their previous two encounters in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal showed almost no flaws, dismantling Ferrer to set up anothtwor championship title fight with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. This marked the first time where two opposing players faced each other in four consecutive Grand Slam tournament finals. They also became the only players to have faced the same opponent in the finals of all four Majors. Nadal won the first two sets before Djokovic claimed the third. Play was suspended in the fourth set due to rain. When the match resumed the following day, Nadal won when Djokovic double faulted on match point, sealing a record 7th Roland Garros title for Nadal. Throughout the tournament, Nadal lost only one set, occurring in the final. By winning his seventh title at Roland Garros, Nadal surpassed Borg's overall titles record to become the most successful tennis player in French Open history. Nadal only lost a total of three sets in the 2012 clay court season.
In his first grass court tournament of the season at Halle, Nadal advanced to quarterfinals, where he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber. At Wimbledon, Nadal beat Thomaz Bellucci in the first round. He then met Lukáš Rosol in the second round, a player who was then ranked 100th in the world and had never advanced beyond the first qualifying round in his five previous Wimbledons. In one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history, Nadal was defeated by Rosol in five sets. This was the first time since the Wimbledon 2005 championships that Nadal had failed to progress past the 2nd round of a Grand Slam tournament.
In July 2012, Nadal withdrew from the 2012 Olympics due to tendinitis in his knee, which subsequently also led to him pulling out of both the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati Masters. On 15 August, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the US Open in New York, as he felt he still wasn't healthy enough to compete. On 11 September 2012, Nadal fell to a world No. 4 ranking, his lowest since 2010, as 2012 US Open winner Andy Murray climbed to No. 3. Nadal ended 2012 ranked No. 4 in the world, the first time in eight years that he hasn't been ranked 1st or 2nd at the end of the year.
2013
2013 - Nadal won the Brasil Open Championship
Two weeks prior to the 2013 Australian Open Nadal officially withdrew from the tournament citing a stomach virus. Nadal's withdrawal subsequently saw him drop out of the ATP's Top Four for the first time since 2005.
Nadal made his comeback at the Latin American Golden Swing, starting his 2013 season at the 2013 VTR Open in Chile, where he advanced to the final without dropping a set but was stunned by Argentine World No. 73 journeyman Horacio Zeballos. He lost in the doubles final (with Juan Monaco) as well. The next week Nadal went to the 2013 Brasil Open at Sao Paulo, he struggled in opening rounds dropping sets to Berlocq and qualifier Alund. Despite the poor clay surface which many players complained about, Nadal made the final where he defeated David Nalbandian. These were his first tournaments in South America since 2005. He then played in the 2013 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco. He advanced to the semifinals where he defeated Nicolás Almagro in two sets, setting up a title match with world No. 4 David Ferrer, whom he also defeated losing just two games in the process. Nadal then returned to the American hard courts after a year, playing the Indian Wells Masters as the fifth seed. Nadal reached the final for the loss of just one set, defeating World No. 2 Roger Federer and World No. 6 Tomas Berdych along the way. In the final, he came back from a set down to defeat Juan Martin del Potro, winning his third Indian Wells Masters title and his first hardcourt title since October 2010. This win also made Nadal the player to have won the most Masters 1000s.
Sure! Rafael Nadal will be going to rule the Mens Tennis world in 2013 also
ReplyDelete