Roland Garros 2005, Rafael Nadal returned Mariano Puerta’s serve with a forehand cross which returned to Puerta. Seeing that Nadal’s position was not ideal, Puerta tried to hit him to the right. But the punch goes wide. Nadal stretched out his arms and fell on the ground. Her first grand slam title came to him at the French Open.
2020 Roland Garros, Nadal serving to the right point. Novak Djokovic failed to read the ball and Nadal successfully registered a service ace. Nadal shouted while sitting up. His 20th grand slam title was here for him.
In the span of 15 years, Nadal has successfully collected 20 grand slam titles and equaled Roger Federer’s record as the record holder for the most grand slam titles. That impressive record makes Nadal now have the opportunity to stand alone as a grand slam record holder.
Listening to Nadal’s journey, means listening to a hard struggle. At the beginning of his appearance, Nadal was only considered a clay court specialist.
His first four grand slam titles came from the French Open. Nadal is considered inadequate in other grand slams despite having entered the Wimbledon final for two years in a row in 2006 and 2007. However, from the start, Nadal has also been considered as Federer’s rival because he always thwarted Federer’s efforts to achieve a grand slam calendar, aka winning four grand slams in one season in 2006 and 2007.
It was only when Nadal won Wimbledon 2008 through a legendary final against Federer that his name became increasingly prominent and deserved more than just ‘King of Clay’.
In the end, Nadal also succeeded in completing his career grand slam with scores from the 2009 Australian Open and the 2010 US Open. When he won the US Open, Nadal had won nine grand slam titles while Federer scored 16 titles.
Nadal’s battle was not only against Federer and then Novak Djokovic, but also against a series of injuries that disrupted his performance.
Elbow, left leg, knee, sole of the foot, left arm, muscles of both knees, groin, back and wrist. When compared, Rafael Nadal’s body is like glass, which is easily brittle and breaks.
Nadal has repeatedly suffered severe injuries, especially in the knee, but for some reason, his body is always healthy enough to appear in the French Open. In 2010, Nadal injured his knee at the Australian Open but was able to reclaim the 2010 French Open.
A year later, Nadal experienced a groin problem which caused him to cry during a medical break against David Ferrer. But a few months later, Nadal could return to be the champion of the French Open.
Nadal’s closeness to the French Open continues. When he failed to qualify for the semifinals in 2015 and 2016, Nadal’s status as the King of Clay was deemed over. However, he was able to win the title in the next four years.
Reach Grand Slam Record Through French Open
In 2018-2019, Nadal even experienced many problems when recurrent injuries again bothered him. He even suffered an abdominal injury, surgery on his right ankle which made Nadal miss the 2018 ATP Finals.
Nadal then experienced problems in his thighs and hands while appearing at the Australian Open. Nadal was then in trouble again at Indian Wells before finally winning the French Open.
This familiarity between Nadal and the French Open is what makes Nadal seem to be guaranteed to pass Federer’s record in the future.
With the age of four years younger than Federer, of course rough calculations will make Nadal’s playing duration still longer than Federer.
Nadal’s greatness at the French Open is indeed far above other levels of domination. When Federer is called the king of Wimbledon, Federer ‘only’ won eight Wimbledon titles. Nadal’s total title at the French Open is now more than 1.5 times that of Federer’s Wimbledon titles.
Although 65 percent of Nadal’s grand slam titles come from the French Open, it is not an obstacle to be able to call Nadal the greatest player of all time if he becomes the player with the most grand slam titles.
Nadal has proven that he is head to head ahead of Federer with a score of 24-16. He has also won four Grand Slams, just like Federer.
There is no need to argue that Nadal is only great because of the clay court and the French Open. After all, the number of grand slam tournaments played is the same every year, except this year when Wimbledon was not held due to the corona pandemic.
Nadal fans would also reply to such statements with the question that how many additional grand slam titles would Nadal have had if he had not suffered many injuries?
All kinds of assumptions will continue to spin and flow. But what only counts in history are the number of titles won. That at this time, Nadal was level with Federer in the record for grand slam titles.
