He is the only player to have won all four Grand Slam titles, all nine ATP Masters events, and the new ATP Finals. Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked world number 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 538 weeks dating back to November 2011 when he replaced Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings. As well as having the most consecutive weeks at number one, he is also the oldest champion in any major sporting event at 31 years and 10 months old when he wins his third French Open this year. His victory marks only the second time in history that someone has won three Grand Slam events before the age of 32 (the other person is Rod Laver who was aged 30 when he triumphed at the 1969 Australian Open).
Nadal has more Grand Slam victories than any other player, with 14, including the newly established event of the 2018 French Open. He is also the only man to have beaten Roger Federer in all their meetings. Their first match was in the 2006 Wimbledon Championships where Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to become the first man in over 50 years to win the same Grand Slam tournament twice.
Nadal has been named the ATP Player of the Year eight times, more than any other player.
Djokovic is the first player to defeat Nadal in a Grand Slam final in straight sets (Australian Open 2019), and the first man to defeat Nadal in straight sets at the French Open (2015 quarterfinal). Only Djokovic has beaten Nadal in a French Open semifinal (2021), snapping Nadal's string of 13 semifinal victories.
Djokovic has 17 Grand Slam men's singles victories and 81 ATP singles titles in total, including a record eight Australian Open wins and 36 Masters competitions. Djokovic is the first and only player to have won all of the men's professional circuit's yearly elite-tier tournaments.
In fact, Djokovic is the only player to have defeated Nadal in a major slam final in straight sets (Australian Open 2019). Djokovic is the only player in history to have won three Grand Slams in a row. Djokovic joins Sampras (286), Connors (268), Lendl (270), and Federer as the sixth male player to hold the No. 1 ranking for more than 200 weeks (310).
We have picked the seven players who have lost the most Grand Slam final matches: Rafael Nadal has 18 Grand Slam trophies to his name, but he has also lost eight Grand Slam finals. The most recent defeat was against Novak Djokovic at the 2019 Australian Open. Nadal is one of only three men left in tennis history to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year (the other two are Rod Laver and Roger Federer).
Nadal's record is certainly not bad, but it's interesting to note that he has more wins than losses against top-10 opponents. He has won 14 out of 15 sets played against Djokovic and has never been defeated by him in a best-of-three match series. Nadal has also won 13 out of 14 set matches against Andy Murray and claims the last loss against him was in the 2013 French Open final. Against Stan Wawrinka, Nadal has won 12 out of 13 sets played and lost only one match out of four meetings.
Nadal has won more Grand Slam titles than any other man in history. He is the longest-serving current world number one and is still playing at a high level at the age of 31. Although he hasn't won the Australian Open since 2015, he remains one of the favorites to win the tournament this year.
Roger Federer is the only guy to have previously surpassed the 300-win milestone at the Grand Slams, with 362. Rafael Nadal is third with 285 points. Djokovic has reached the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 12th time in the past 14 years, and he will face Germany's Alex Zverev next. If Djokovic wins, he will be just the second player after Pete Sampras to reach the Australian Open final without dropping a set. If Nadal wins, he will be just the fourth player after Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, and Roger Federer to do so.
In other news, the season is almost over! The last week of the regular season starts on Monday night when the Clippers play the Lakers. Game 7 of the World Series is tonight -- can Boston win it back-to-back? I'm sure we'll get plenty of baseball and football coverage this week on NBA Countdown and ESPN's NFL Sunday Night Football game.
And finally, here's what else you need to know to start your day:
Top stories today include an update on the investigation into the deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon, where officials say they've made some progress but still have many questions about who was responsible for the attack and why it happened.
In another development related to the marathon bombing, police in New York City have arrested a person of interest in connection with another case of suspected terrorist violence.
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