Rafael Nadal records 74th win against top-10 opponent on hardcourt, joins elite list of players with more than 50% win rate against top-10 opponents on all 3 surfaces
Rafael Nadal produced a remarkable display of shotmaking on Friday to defeat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals of the 2022 Mexican Open. The win over the World No. 2 was the Spaniard's 74th victory against a top-10 opponent on hardcourt.
Prior to the match, Nadal had a 73-73 win-loss record against opponents in that bracket. His win against the Russian improved his record to 74-73, amounting to a win rate of 50.3%. Impressively, the Mallorcan has beaten top-10 opponents more than half the time on all three surfaces - grass, hard and clay.
Three times champion Rafael Nadal stays undefeated in 2022 (14-0), beating future #1 Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 to reach a 5th career final in Acapulco. https://t.co/CliVpBw2uE
On clay, the 21-time Grand Slam champion has the highest-ever win percentage against top-10 opponents, with an incredible 81.67% success rate (98 wins in 120 matches). He is followed by Bjorn Borg (72.13%) and Ivan Lendl (66.67%).
On grass, which is regarded by many as his least favorite surface, the Mallorcan has a 69.23% winning percentage against players ranked inside the top 10, with nine wins out of 13 matches. On the all-time list of players with the best winning ratio, the Spaniard is fourth after Rod Laver (84.62%), Pete Sampras (78.57%) and Borg (76.47%).
After today’s win, Rafa is now 74-73 vs Top 10 on Hard Courts
Only 5 players in the Open Era have a win % of ATLEAST 50% vs Top 10 players on Clay, Grass, and Hard:
- Rafael Nadal
- Novak Djokovic
- Roger Federer
- Boris Becker
- Daniil Medvedev
Only four other men in the Open Era have at least a 50% win rate against top-10 opponents on all three surfaces. They are: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Boris Becker.
Here are their winning percentages on each surface:
If only players with more than 50% success rate are considered, Becker and Medvedev have to be dropped from the conversation. Becker had a 10-10 win/loss record on clay, while Medvedev has a 50% win rate on grass.
Rafael Nadal has the 4th highest win percentage against top-10 players
Rafael Nadal has faced top-10 players 280 times in his career, including the semifinal match against Daniil Medvedev at the 2022 Mexican Open. He has ended up as the victor on 181 occasions for an overall winning percentage of 64.64%.
Previously, the Spaniard had a win percentage of 64.51%, which was the fifth highest on the ATP tour, marginally behind Roger Federer. The Swiss has won 224 out of 347 such matches for a win percentage of 64.55%.
But Nadal's win over Medvedev has taken him above Federer on the list.
Also: Nadal has narrowly moved ahead of Federer in this statistic as well https://t.co/wufgK1lujZ
The three players who are ahead of the Spaniard are Bjorn Borg, Novak Djokovic and Boris Becker. Borg leads the pack with a win percentage of 71.3% (117 wins in 164 matches), followed by Djokovic with 68.8% (229 wins in 333 matches) and Becker with 65.1% (121 wins in 186 matches).
British #1 Cameron Norrie plays one of the best matches of his career to beat #4 Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 and reach his 2nd career ATP 500 final in Acapulco. Ties his best career win in terms of ranking.
Awaits Medvedev or Nadal. https://t.co/CfPdG7tb3D
The Mallorcan will take on World No. 12 Cameron Norrie in the final. The Brit scored a commanding victory over World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals and is in red hot form.
However, Nadal will be the favorite to win the ATP 500 event, which would mark his fourth title in Acapulco.