Rafael Nadal's Career Struggles At The Madrid Open Continues | The Sporting Base
[google-translator]

Rafael Nadal’s career struggles at the Madrid Open continues

May 8, 2021

Rafael Nadal’s career struggles at the Madrid Open continues

There are two significant tennis tournaments each year in Rafael Nadal’s home country of Spain. While Nadal has dominated the Barcelona Open over the years in winning 12 times, he has not had the same success at the Madrid Open, as he has only won that title five times.

Ok, when you win a single title five times in your career, it is normally a magnificent achievement. However when you are talking about the King of Clay, one must realize that Nadal has looked a little vulnerable in Madrid compared to his dominance in other clay court tournaments. Remember, he has won the French Open a remarkable 13 times, the Monte Carlo Masters 11 times and the Italian Open nine times.

On Friday in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, Nadal lost to Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-4. Zverev was able to break Nadal’s serve three times and win 82% of his points on his first serve.



So why are the results different in Madrid compared to other clay court venues for Nadal? Well, there appears to be a difference to the surface. According to Canadian tennis star Denis Shapovalov, the Madrid surface plays faster than the other clay court surfaces. Nadal definitely feels more comfortable on slower surfaces.

Head-to-head, Nadal has a record of five wins and three losses all-time against Zverev. Friday’s win was the first time that Zverev has ever beaten Nadal on clay. In the semifinal, Zverev will play Dominic Thiem of Austria in a rematch of the 2020 United States Open Final. The other semi-final will have Italy’s Matteo Berrettini against Norway’s Casper Ruud.


Fill In The Form Below To Receive Our NFL News Straight To Your Email For FREE!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Tell Us What You Think Below

August 20, 2025

Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz win 2025 Cincinnati Open

The 2025 Cincinnati Open wrapped up on Sunday with Poland's Iga Swiatek winning on the women's side, and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz winning on the men's side Swiatek was seeded third in Cincinnati, and Read More

August 19, 2025

Terence Atmane delivers breakthrough in Cincinnati

The men's and women's finals in Cincinnati take place on Monday with the top two players in the world competing in the men's final (world number one Jannik Sinner of Italy versus world number two Read More

August 13, 2025

Opinion: Felix Auger-Aliassime is playing better with a hat

At the 2025 National Bank Open in Toronto, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec was bitterly disappointed with his performance in front of his hometown Canadian crowd He received a first round Read More