Rafael Nadal records that may never be broken, No. 1: Winning Roland Garros 14 times

Over the last few years several all-time greats have called time on their professional tennis careers, and we’ve given them a statistical send-off, counting down some of their most incredible records that may never be broken. We did it for Serena Williams, Roger Federer and most recently Andy Murray.

And now, it’s Rafael Nadal’s turn.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 is playing the final event of his career this week, the Davis Cup Finals, and in the five days leading up to it we’ve been bringing you five of his records—one a day—that may never be broken.

In the last four days we've covered his 23 career wins over world No. 1s, his 912 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings, how he became the youngest man ever to complete a Career Golden Slam and how he's the only tennis player ever to win multiple Grand Slam titles in three different decades.

Last up, a mind-blowing level of domination.

Winning Roland Garros 14 times

When you think of Rafael Nadal you think of Roland Garros, and there’s a reason the two are synonymous—no tennis player has ever dominated a single tournament like he has there.

He’s won Roland Garros a total of 14 times in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022.

No other player in tennis history, male or female, has even won the same Grand Slam tournament more than 11 times.

MOST TITLES AT A SINGLE MAJOR (all-time, male or female):
14: Rafael Nadal [Roland Garros]
11: Margaret Court [Australian Open]
10: Novak Djokovic [Australian Open]
9: Martina Navratilova [Wimbledon]
8: Roger Federer [Wimbledon]
8: Helen Wills Moody [Wimbledon]
8: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory [US Open]

And when you look deeper into Nadal’s career numbers at Roland Garros, the domination gets even more profound.

The Spaniard has an absolutely ridiculous 112-4 career win-loss record at the event—that’s a 97% winning percentage, by the way. He recorded 90 of those 112 wins in straight sets.

He put together three 30-plus winning streaks on the terre battue, winning his first 31 matches in a row there between 2005 and 2009, then another 39 matches in a row between 2010 and 2015, then another 35 matches in a row between 2016 and 2021.

He was never bageled in 372 career sets played there, but he dropped 24 bagels. His overall record in sets was 335-37. He won 36 sets in a row at one point, too, between 2016 and 2018.

His record in games was 2,196-1,135 (a 66% winning percentage).

We could keep going deeper and deeper, but there’s one other number that jumps out, maybe even more than anything else—he was a flawless 14-0 in his career in finals at Roland Garros, and was never pushed to five sets in any of those finals. He won seven of them in four sets, and seven of them in straight sets.

And there’s one final thing to consider: if it hadn’t been for injuries, Nadal could have had 15 titles at Roland Garros—or 16, or more...

He missed Roland Garros a total of four times in his career, withdrawing before the event three times in 2003 (elbow injury), 2004 (ankle injury) and 2023 (hip injury) and mid-tournament once in 2016, ahead of his third-round match (wrist injury).

Winning the title in 2003 would have been possible, but a long shot—he had only broken into the Top 100 earlier that year, and he would have turned 17 during the tournament. But he had gone 2-0 against Top 10 players during the clay-court lead-up season that year, beating Albert Costa and Carlos Moya—both former champions on the terre battue—in straight sets.

Winning the title in any of the other three years would have been much more within reach. In 2004 he was almost in the Top 30 before his injury, and he had already gotten his first career win over a world No. 1 earlier that year, against Federer in Miami. He went into the 2016 event having won both Monte Carlo and Barcelona. And in 2023, he was the defending champion.

But lifting the Coupe des Mousquetaires 14 times is about as unbreakable a record as one can think of in the sport already, and it’s our No. 1 entry for Rafa’s records that may never be broken.