Nadal's Grand Slam career by numbers

 - Alex Sharp

Number-crunch any digits from 0 to 950, and it all adds up to sheer brilliance for Rafael Nadal.

Rafael Nadal ballkids Roland Garros final 2019©Nicolas Gouhier / FFT

The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, shot to prominence as a 19-year-old champion at Roland-Garros back in 2005.

Now, every time the Spaniard steps onto a clay court he seems to carve out more history. Here are the stats behind his latest dominant display on the Parisian clay…

0 - Nadal has never been taken to five sets in his 11 Roland-Garros finals.

4 - In a repeat of the 2018 final, they were the fourth men’s duo to reach consecutive Roland-Garros finals since the event became international in 1925. Fred Perry and Gottfried von Cramm (1935-36), Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver (1968-69), and Nadal facing Roger Federer (2006-08) are the first three.

9 - After toppling Thiem the Spaniard tops the list of the most successful title defences at a single Grand Slam in the Open Era.



12 - Nadal surpasses Margaret Court’s 11 Australian Open title triumphs to become the first player in history to clinch 12 singles titles at any major.

18 - The 33-year-old’s 12 trophy lifts on Court Philippe-Chatrier put Nadal on 18 Grand Slams, second on the all-time list for men, behind Federer (20) and ahead of world No.1 Novak Djokovic (15)

21 - Seven victories in Paris have propelled Nadal level with Guido Pella to joint-lead the ATP Tour for clay-court match wins in 2019.

26 - career Grand Slam finals for Nadal, which is only beaten by Federer (30). 

27 - sets lost by Nadal during his 95 Roland-Garros matches. Within his time he’s won an astonishing 278 sets on the grounds.

33 - and six days. Once again Nadal has celebrated his birthday week with a Roland-Garros title to become the third oldest men’s champion in Paris, following Andres Gimeno in 1972 (34 years 306 days) and Ken Rosewall back in 1968 (33 years 220 days).



93 - The astonishing amount of match wins for Nadal on the terre battue of Roland-Garros. His only two defeats occurred in the fourth round in 2009 (l. Robin Soderling) and the quarter-finals in 2015 (l. Djokovic).

105 - Including Davis Cup action, Nadal has never lost a best-of-five sets clay-court match after securing the first set.

260 - Nadal’s tally of Grand Slam match-wins since his major debut in 2003.

950 - Another milestone for the King of Clay with his 950th Tour-level match-win. He is fourth on the all-time ranks for men, behind Federer (1207), Jimmy Connors (1156) and Ivan Lendl (1069).