Rafa Nadal’s dominance over the earth kingdom is literally alien. 17 years after his first triumph at Roland Garros, the Balearic added this Sunday his 14th title on Parisian clay. No one has imposed the law on him with as much authority on a great as the man from Manacor, divine, brilliant and, above all, effective when it comes to devouring rivals in the Bois de Boulogne. It is only necessary to take a look at the numbers that will appear below to confirm that hardly another player will be able to repeat such superiority in a tournament.
It is not only the number, nor the fact that most of his 22 major titles are at Roland Garros. Above all else is his infallibility as he makes it to the last Sunday in the tournament. He has not lost any final in Paris. When the Musketeers Cup is at stake there is nothing to do against Nadal. From Mariano Puerta in 2005 to Casper Ruud in 2022, up to eight tennis players have tried to unseat the Mallorcan at the decisive moment and have not been able to. Federer lost four finals against him, Djokovic three. While Thiem bent the knee twice. Söderling, Ferrer, Wawrinka and the aforementioned Puerta and Ruud fell once.
German Lars Burgsmüller was Nadal’s first victim at Roland Garros, on May 24, 2015, on court 1, then known as the bullring. A bull passed over the German in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Burgsmüller was 96 in the world. Today he is a radiologist. He inaugurated a list of up to 74 players who have lost to the Balearic Islands in the tournament. The one who has lost the most times against him in Paris, Djokovic, with eight defeats, followed by Federer, with six, and Almagro, Ferrer, Thiem and Hewitt, with 4. Instead, he has only lost three times, two against Djokovic (fourth final of 2015 and semifinals of 2021) and one, the most surprising, against Söderling (eighth of 2009). Also, in 2016 he did not show up to play against Marcel Granollers because he was injured.
Of 351 sets at Roland Garros Nadal has prevailed in 334, or what is the same 95.5% efficiency over 17 years. An atrocity. They are followed by Djokovic, with 76.8% of sets won, and Sergi Bruguera, with a 73.5% success rate but much fewer participations than the Spaniard and the Serbian.
That is the amount of money that Nadal has pocketed in his participation in Paris. A sensational figure within the 121.8 million that he has entered in prizes (singles and doubles) throughout his long career.
With his victory against Ruud Nadal he became the oldest tennis player to win the tournament, surpassing the late Andrés Gimeno, who did so at 34 years and 306 days in 1972. He is already the third oldest tennis player to win a major, for behind Ken Rosewall (37 years, 1 month, 24 days when he lifted the 1972 Australian Open) and Federer (36 years, 5 months, 7 days, when he triumphed in Australia 2018).
