Has there ever been a more dominant sportsperson in a particular area or discipline within their sport than Rafael Nadal at the French Open in Roland-Garros? If anyone can answer ‘yes’ to this question then please contact me on Twitter with your answers!
Nadal’s record at the French Open is genuinely mind-blowing. Regardless of his victory in straight sets against Casper Ruud on Sunday, he would have held a higher than 95%-win record at the tournament dating back to 2005.
This statistic in isolation is extraordinary but I guess could be matched by, for example, Usain Bolt’s win ratio in the 100m or Michael Phelps’ dominance in the pool at times; but yet there is so much more to Nadal’s record.
Firstly, he is playing in an era when undeniably two of the greatest tennis stars of all time, in Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, are competing against him. Federer and Djokovic have both won 20 Grand Slam events each which places them in second and third place on the All-Time Grand Slam Winners list behind Nadal. If Nadal had been playing in an era of mediocrity then his record could seem more understandable but this is an era in which we consider Andy Murray unlucky to be playing in, otherwise he would have won more Grand Slams.
Secondly, we must remember that Nadal is now 36 years old and when he first came onto the tennis scene many believed that his body wouldn’t be able to stand up to the physical pressure his style put on it. Many thought his light would burn bright but not for a long time.
Nadal has repeatedly told people that he plays with constant pain. In 2005, a young Nadal was diagnosed with the Muller-Weiss syndrome, a chronic, degenerative injury, inoperable if you want to maintain the mobility required to practice high-level sport and one that can cause pain even while you rest. And even with that, other injuries followed over the years and yet he is still going, still breaking records.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Where does Nadal's Paris achievements rank in the history of sport? Let us know in the comments section
Lastly, Nadal could have been forgiven for only ever being dominant at Roland-Garros – a clay court specialist and nothing else; but he has eight other Grand Slam victories as well. In fact, he has won every other Grand Slam tournament, twice! Those wins by themselves would place him above the likes of John McEnroe, Boris Becker, and Rod Laver in the All-Time Grand Slam Winners list. When you add this into the two points I have made above then you can see how incredible Nadal’s achievements really are.
It is hard to believe that Nadal’s record at the French Open will ever be matched but no one would have believed you if you had predicted his future success at the tournament, so you never know. ‘Great’ is a word used far too casually at times within sport but Nadal’s greatness will never be in doubt. He is unquestionably one of the greatest sportspeople of all-time.
