When an athlete is superlative, it is common to speak of him in terms of records, marks or exceedances one after the other. Is what happens with Rafael Nadal. It is true that the Balearic tennis player is not usually aware of those numbers that excite his fans and we usually detail the journalists, but it is still exciting for him to overcome challenges.
This Wednesday, in his debut at Paris Bercy, he has the chance to get one of those figures that impact: reach 1,000 ATP wins.
To achieve this you must win a friend of yours, Feliciano Lopez, in his debut in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Paris, by the way one of the few tournaments that are missing in the record of the tennis player from Manacor.
Fourth tennis player to reach 1,000 wins
If Rafa passes round he will become the fourth tennis player in history to be a millennial after Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer and Ivan Lendl, three other myths of this sport.
The 999 games he has won to date have resulted in 86 titles, most of them on clay, with Roland Garros being the tournament that has won the most times with the 13 trophies it has lifted in its career.
More hard court wins
Analyzing the numbers that show the 999 victories that he has in his record, a curious fact is given. Although Nadal is the king of the earth, he has achieved more victories on hard court, with 481, for the 445 he has achieved on clay.
The explanation is clear, the Australian Open and the US Open are played on hard courts and many games are played in the Grand Slams. However, if we look at it in percentages, there is no color. Nadal’s performance and effectiveness on clay is impressive with 92% wins. Both on grass and hard court he has 78% of victories while on carpet he played seven games in his day, of which he only won two (25%).
Feli has won him 4 times
Rafa will face Feliciano López this afternoon (6.30 pm), with whom he has not faced since 2015. In the face-to-face between the two, Nadal adds 9 wins to 4 for ‘Feli’, but the Toledo beat him on the last two occasions they met at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati in 2014 and in Shanghai in 2015. Han over the years and currently Feliciano is 64th in the world, but will look for the formula to avoid Rafa’s anniversary, although his Nadal wants the 1,000 …
