List of players with winning head to head record against Rafael Nadal

List of players with winning head to head record against Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal was surprised in the second round of the 2022 Cincinnati Masters as the Spaniard lost to current World No. 152 Borna Coric of Croatia who was also returning to action after a spell on the sidelines due to recurring injuries. Coric entered the main-draw directly through protected ranking and made the best use of it as he defeated Italian teenager Lorenzo Musetti in the first round before defeating Nadal.

Nadal’s defeat to Coric was his 4th of the season in what was his 39th match of the injury filled season. The Spaniard’s defeats this season came in the finals of the 2022 Indian Wells Masters to Taylor Fritz and in Cincinnati on hardcourts while his other two defeats came on claycourts with defeats to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the 2022 Madrid Masters followed by a 3rd round defeat to Denis Shapovalov in the 2022 Rome Masters which also saw the ‘King of Clay’ reach the 2022 French Open without a Clay title for the first time.

Also Read: “When you have a scar, it’s difficult to analyse” Rafael Nadal addresses his injury concerns after crashing out of Cincinnati Masters in the 2nd round

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Only 2 players feature on the list with a positive head-to-head record against Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Despite the constant battles with injuries, Nadal has boasted positive records against the majority of the Tour. While he is often labelled as a claycourt bully, not many players have been able to register a positive record against the Spaniard on hardcourts as well. So far, over the course of Nadal’s glorious 2-decade-long career, only 9 players, active and retired, have managed a positive record against Nadal on hard courts.

List of players with a positive head-to-head record against Nadal on Hardcourts

  • Novak Djokovic (20-7)
  • Roger Federer (11-9)
  • Juan Martin del Potro (6-5)
  • Nikolay Davydenko (6-1)
  • Lleyton Hewitt (3-2)
  • Borna Coric (3-2)
  • Dominic Thiem (2-1)
  • David Goffin (2-0)
  • Dominik Hrbaty (2-0)

When it comes to career head-to-head record, only two players have managed to win more matches against the Spaniard than they have lost against him.

Also Read: “Had some trouble closing,” Iga Swiatek becomes the first player since 2019 to win 50 matches on the WTA Tour but the World No. 1 isn’t satisfied

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