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.


[adrotate banner=”147″]


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.

Leave a Reply

July 5, 2025

Unsuspecting players to make a deep run at Wimbledon

At the beginning of the week, we discussed all the top seeded players at Wimbledon who had shockingly been knocked out Now it is time to look at the unsuspecting players who still have a chance to Read More

July 5, 2025

How far can the three Australians left at Wimbledon go?

There are three Australians left at Wimbledon this year Two Australian players are left in the men's draw and there is one left in the women's draw In the women's draw, the new Australian and 16th Read More

July 2, 2025

Eight top 10 seeds knocked out of first round of 2025 Wimbledon

The massive story at Wimbledon at this time is not who is in but who is out We have already seen eight top 10 seeds eliminated (four men and four women) On the men's side gone are the third seed Read More