Roland Garros 2019: Rafael Nadal keeps extending the records
It was business as usual in the fortnight overlapping May and June at Roland Garros. Spain’s Rafael Nadal arrived, played and won seven matches in a row to clinch his 12th French Open title. The victory in the final against Austria's Dominic Thiem helped him extend many a records he already owns.
With the convincing title win at Paris, Nadal became the first player among both men and women to win a single Grand Slam tournament a dozen times. The next best among women is Margaret Court who had won the Australian Open 11 times, and among men it's Roger Federer, who has claimed 8 Wimbledon titles so far.
While Nadal's 12th title puts his record in Paris in a class by itself, the win-loss numbers at Roland Garros itself stand at an astonishing 93-2 in his favor.
One more record which the World No. 2 extended in Paris was that of the most calendar years in which at least one Grand Slam title has been won by a male player. At Paris, he opened his Grand Slam account for 2019 as well, taking that record to 13 years.
Given the fact that he has been the champion 12 times at Roland Garros itself, the only year when he won a Grand Slam outside the French Open was in 2009, when he emerged victorious at the Australian Open.
Among the leader-board in terms of the number of calendar years marked by Grand Slam victories, the Spaniard is right there at the top followed by the fellow legend Federer who has enjoyed 11 such calendar years. The overall statistics of top Grand Slam winners is as follows:
The table stands testimony to the consistency of the King of Clay in winning big ticket events. Since 2005, there have been only two years - 2015 and 2016 - where he couldn’t pocket any of the four Majors.
On his favorite surface clay, the Spaniard has now extended his record of number of titles to 59, 11 ahead of Argentine’s Guillermo Vilas.
Last month, by winning the Internazionali BNL D'Italia (popularly known as the Rome Masters), Nadal extended his number of ATP 1000 Masters titles to 34 - one better than his rival Novak Djokovic. Out of those 34 he has conquered 25 on clay, which is also a record.
Overall the man from Mallorca has 18 Grand Slam titles, and is just two behind Federer in the all-time list. This year, at present, he is leading the race towards the year-end ATP Tour Finals to be held in London, the one title that has eluded him till now.
His fans would hope that he remains fit and healthy for the rest of the year and conquers that title as well.