Top 5 matches of Rafael Nadal’s career


Top 5 matches of Rafael Nadal’s career

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Rafael Nadal, every tennis fan knows this name. The Spaniard who emerged in the early 21st century as one of the game’s leading competitors. He has also won a record 12 career French Open championship.

In the year 2001, Nadal had appeared in Grand Slam tournament as a junior competitor and reached to the semifinals at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships.

Noticing his performance and ability to cover the court with enthusiasm, made Nadal as one of the top players on the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) tour. In 2006, Nadal claimed five titles on the ATP tour comprising his second straight Open win against Federer.

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While in 2007, Nadal managed to claim his winning streak of 81 consecutive matches but lost to Federer in the final of the ATP Masters Series on May 20.

In 2008, Nadal became the first man since 1980 to win both the French Open and the Wimbledon title in the same year and also won the men’s singles Gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Nadal won his second career Olympic gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games in the year 2016 and also won the 2019 U.S. Open single title which was his 19th Grand Slam title which is second-most in tennis history after Federer’s 20 titles.

Today, June 3, on the birthday of the global icon and one of the best tennis player in the world Rafael Nadal, we wished him a great year ahead.

Here are five top matches of his career:

2005 Rome Masters final against Guillermo Coria, 2005

After losing his first-ever Masters 1000 final to Roger Federer at Miami in 2005, Nadal did comeback and won his first Masters 1000 title at Monte-Carlo and then won the Barcelona Open.

Nadal completed at the Rome Masters which is his third successive Masters 1000 final of the year against Coria.

Nadal drew the first set by 6-4 while Coria bounded back and won the second one 6-3. While Nadal was in lead by taking third set 6-3 but the fourth set was a win by Coria.

The final set turned to be very exciting as both the players were not backing down and it resulted to a tiebreak and with this close tiebreak, Nadal won against Coria and claimed his second Masters 1000 title.

2009 Australian Open semi-final against Fernando Verdasco

Nadal was in search to claim his maiden win in Australian Open title in 2009. In the semifinal, Nadal was up against his opponent Fernando Verdasco.

Initially both the players began incredibly and the first set was won by Verdasco and take the lead in the game. While Nadal did comeback and won the second set 6-4. The third set was also nail-biting as it won by Nadal by a tiebreak.

The fourth set was also managed to win by Nadal with another tiebreak and in the final set both the players fight hard but it was in Nadal’s favour to win his first-ever Australian Open final in the game which lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes.

2009 Madrid Open semifinal against Novak Djokovic

The year 2009 was proving good to Nadal as he does not drop a single set till the quarter-finals. In the semifinal. Nadal was now up against Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic drew first blood by winning the first set easily by the margin of 6-3 while Nadal saved two break points in the second set. The third set was also exciting as both players fought hard with the set going to a tiebreak and Nadal saved three match points to take his clay out winning streak to 33.

The match lasted 4 hours and three minutes which was the longest before being overtaken at the semifinals of the 2012 London Olympics between Federer and Martin Del Potro.

However, Nadal was defeated in the final against Roger Federer in straight sets.

2009 Australian Open Final against Roger Federer

Nadal had the brilliant year 2008 where he won the French Open and Wimbledon titles to become the World No.1 and won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The first set was won by Nadal as the Swiss fault coupled in the beginning but did come back and won the next game convincingly. While Nadal broke Federer in the third set with the margin of 7-5.

Federer was not sitting quietly and strongly won the fourth set with the margin of 6-3. However, in the last set both the players fought hard and Nadal was broke his serve and claim his first Australian Open title.

2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer

After winning a fourth consecutive French Open title, Nadal was in search to win Wimbledon title and the World No.1 ranking while Federer was hoping to become the first man to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles.

The beginning of the Match was delayed by around 35 minutes due to the rain but when it started, the Spaniard has cleared his intention by winning the first two sets with 6-4 margin each time.

While Federer did comeback and won the third set of the game to lead with the margin of 5-4 before the rain halted the game for around 80 minutes.

After the game began, Federer also won the fourth set in another tiebreak but again rain-delayed and intervened the match.

However, the match restarted soon and in the final set, Federer was only two points away from the sixth Wimbledon title but match and luck were in Nadal’s favour as he won the final set with the margin of 9-7 and that’s how it was an ending of Swiss Maestro’s 41 matches unbeaten streak at Wimbledon and heading the first defeat since Marcio Ancic in 2002.

The match lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes which is regarded by many as one of the greatest Wimbledon finals in Tennis history.