Nadal extends clay-court winning streak to 16 matches and 40 sets

Rafael Nadal extended his clay-court winning streak to 16 matches and 40 sets in a row on Thursday, beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, 6-1, 6-3.

Garcia-Lopez is a very accomplished player—he’s a former No. 23 with five career wins over Top 5 players, including a win over Nadal while he was No. 1 (on the hard courts of Bangkok in 2010). But none of that mattered on Thursday as Nadal stormed out to a 6-1, 4-0 lead, and after a brief lapse that saw Garcia-Lopez catch up to 6-1, 4-3, the world No 1 held and broke one last time to wrap it up.

Nadal’s 40 sets in a row on clay is an Open Era record. He surpassed the previous record—35 in a row by Guillermo Coria in 2003 and 2004—in the final of his title run in Monte Carlo last week.

Match point from Nadal's win over Garcia-Lopez in Barcelona:

Nadal actually owns five of the seven longest clay-court set streaks in the Open Era:

• 40 sets in a row: Rafael Nadal (2017-2018)

• 35 sets in a row: Guillermo Coria (2003-2004)

• 34 sets in a row: Ilie Nastase (1973)

• 32 sets in a row: Rafael Nadal (2010-2011)

• 31 sets in a row: Rafael Nadal (2007-2008)

• 30 sets in a row: Rafael Nadal (2012)

• 30 sets in a row: Rafael Nadal (2006-2007)

But this one has been especially dominant—the 10-time French Open champion has lost a total of just 84 games across these 40 sets, meaning he’s winning those sets by an average score of 6-2.

Awaiting the Spaniard in the quarterfinals is Martin Klizan, who upset 12th-seeded Feliciano Lopez earlier in the day, 6-1, 6-4. The Slovak qualifier took out Novak Djokovic on Wednesday.

Klizan beat Nadal in their last meeting in the quarterfinals of the hard-court event in Beijing in 2014, but Nadal won their other two meetings (including their only one on clay at Roland Garros in 2013).

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