Rafael Nadal improves his 100% perfect record against teenagers on clay to 18-0 with Madrid win over Carlos Alcaraz
Rafael Nadal has made a habit of quashing the hopes of younger players, especially on clay. He added another such win to his bag on Wednesday, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the Madrid Open second round.
Alcaraz, who turned 18 on the day of the match, was playing just his fourth career claycourt event. And his inexperience was clearly on display as Rafael Nadal registered a thumping 6-1, 6-2 win.
The gap between the two compatriots couldn't have been more pronounced during the match. Nadal effortlessly patrolled the baseline at his end, and the teenager ended up making a rash of costly errors to cede control of the proceedings.
With his win over Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal improved his win-loss record against teenagers on clay to 18-0. The Spaniard has proven to be insurmountable against younger players, no matter how talented they may be. That is particularly evident from the fact that he has also beaten top players like Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils when they were in their teens.
The list of players with the best win-loss records against teenagers on clay in the Open era is given below:
1999 Roland Garros finalist Andrei Medvedev and former Canadian pro Mike Belkin follow Rafael Nadal on the list, but have notably played fewer matches against teens on dirt than the Spaniard has.
Mats Wilander and Thomas Wilander have a lower winning percentage against teens on clay, but have played more such matches than Rafael Nadal
Seven-time Major winner Mats Wilander rounds out the top 5 when it comes to the best winning percentage while playing teens on clay, having amassed 45 such wins against just seve losses (86.53%). Having said that, the Swede does not have the most caycourt wins against teenagers; that distinction belongs to 1995 Roland Garros champion Thomas Muster.
Muster, who is considered one of the greatest claycourters of all time, accumulated 53 wins against teenagers on dirt but dropped 11 matches as well. It is pertinent to note that the Austrian played a much larger amount of such matches compared to someone like Rafael Nadal, who has only faced a teenager 18 times on clay.
There is an argument to be made that if Nadal had played more such matches, he might have had a lower winning percentage - like in the case of Wilander and Muster. That said, Nadal is the most successful player to have ever played on clay, and he has provided examples of why he is in a league of his own - including a staggering 13 French Open crowns and 61 overall claycourt titles.