When Rafael Nadal finally calls it a day, he will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest players to ever pick up a racquet. With 16 Grand Slam titles to his name, the Spaniard has proved that he has both the ability and versatility to win on any surface. However, with Nadal currently cutting through the field of the Madrid Open like a hot knife through butter, we are once again reminded that he is undoubtedly the best clay court tennis player of all time. Rafa’s latest victim in the tournament was former number six Gael Monfils, who can count himself unlucky after only returning from a lengthy back injury a week prior to the tournament.
After recently picking up titles at both Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Nadal looks primed and ready to pick up his sixth career title in Madrid and his fifth since the tournament switched to clay some nine years ago. The win against Monfils meant that Nadal is now on a 20-match clay court winning streak and has won a record-breaking 48 consecutive sets on the clay courts. If Nadal was to win his next round game in straight sets, he would equal the record set by U.S. tennis legend John McEnroe, who managed to put together a streak of 49 consecutive sets on carpet all the way back in 1984.
With the French Open just around the corner, we’re back to the same question that we seem to be asking ourselves at this time every year – can anyone stop Rafael Nadal from claiming another clay court Grand Slam? Nadal is around 4/9 with most tennis betting to pick up his 11th French Open and on this basis alone, it would appear that the rest of the players may as well not bother searching for a Parisian hotel. With Andy Murray absent from the competition, Roger Federer out of the clay court equation for the foreseeable future and all manner of questions over the form of Stan Warwinka and Novak Djokovic, it’s difficult to see anyone putting up any sort of meaningful resistance.
Despite the fact that it would take a brave punter to back against Nadal, rising Austrian star Dominic Thiem believes he has the know-how and the tools at his disposal to stop the Spaniard in his tracks on the clay courts. Thiem is one of only four players to have beaten Nadal twice on the surface since 2014 and was the last man to do so, knocking him out in the quarter-final stages in Rome just last year – the fact that Thiem is second favourite with most bookmakers to win at Roland Garros does indeed suggest that he could be the player to end Nadal’s clay court dominance. At 8/1, the Austrian looks good value for money and after making the semi-finals in his last two French Open appearances, the shrewd punters will no doubt be having a little flutter on the 24-year-old. With that being said, Nadal looks hungrier than ever and with some of the game’s top stars either missing or convalescing, the field looks wide open for Nadal to land his 11th Roland Garros crown.
