Rafael Nadal joins Roger Federer in elite 1000 ATP match wins club with win in Paris

After winning a record-extending 13th French Open title and earning his 20th Grand Slam title to equal the record of his long-time rival Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal has added yet another record to his name. The Spaniard has won 2 titles this year, firstly at Acapulco and then of course, at the French Open. With his Round 1 win at the Paris Masters, Rafa has now joined an elite club of men with 1000 life-time ATP match wins.

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Rafael Nadal 1000 ATP wins

34-year-old Rafael Nadal started his journey in professional tennis at the age of 15, all the way back in 2002. A lot has changed since then. Nadal has gone from the brusque challenger who dared to defeat the darling of the tennis world, Roger Federer, to becoming one of the most loved players on the tour. Gone also, is the initial assumption that Rafa would not be a real threat to the draw, owing to his proclivity towards clay courts and his multiple injury scares.

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With his 4-6, 7⁷-6⁵, 6-4 win over Spanish compatriot Feliciano López, Nadal became just the 4th person in the Open Era to win 1000 lifetime matches at the professional level. He was close to this milestone at the Rome Masters 2020 but lost out by just one match after he crashed out in the quarter-finals. He joins Federer (1242 wins), Jimmy Connors (1274 wins) and Ivan Lendl (1,068 wins) in this elite club. 

Nadal 1st ATP win and Nadal ranking through the years

A young Rafael Nadal won his first-ever ATP match in 2002 when he defeated Paraguay's Ramon Delgado, then the World No. 81, in a first-round encounter at the Mallorca Open. The current World No.2 was not even in the Top 100 rankings back then. Rafa won his first ATP title in 2004 at Sopot. By the next year, Rafa had broken into the top ten of the ATP rankings and ended 2005 as the World No.2. He has not slipped past No.10 ever since, which is 789 weeks as of now. 

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Plagued with injuries in 2012 and again from 2014-2017, Nadal just managed to keep himself within the Top 10. Even though the worst of his years, he has played at enough smaller events, like the ATP Masters 250 events. His worst year since his break into the top 10 was 2015-16 when he slipped to No.10. These were the only two years that Nadal did not win a single Grand Slam title since 2005. A credit to his gritty nature, Nadal is now on the verge of a breakthrough to overtake Djokovic as the No.1 and halt his dream run to surpass Federer as the player with most weeks at the top.

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Image Credits: ATP website