300 and Counting
On Tuesday, Rafael Nadal won his 101st match at Roland Garros—along with his 300th, 301st and 302nd set. In his unsurpassed clay-court career, Nadal has lost just 27 sets at the French Open, and he's won the last 26 he's played.
So Close, Yet So Far
Alexei Popyrin, the talented 21-year-old, had a great chance to make it 28, leading Nadal 5-2 in the third before capitulating in a tiebreaker.
Four players have won more than one set against Rafa at Roland Garros—can you name them?
7 sets: Novak Djokovic
We start with the superb Serb, one of just two players to have defeated Nadal at Roland Garros. That victory came in the 2015 quarterfinals, but his most memorable match against Rafa in Paris may have been in the 2013 semifinals, which Nadal escaped, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 9-7.
4 sets: Roger Federer
Federer won a set against Nadal in their very first collision on the terre battue, in the 2005 semifinals, and has never done better, losing four four-set matches (alongside two blowouts) to the Spaniard.
3 sets: Robin Soderling
Three sets, of course, go to Soderling, who famously dethroned Nadal in the fourth round of the 2009 French Open, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (2).
As London’s Daily Telegraph put it the following day: “The impossible happened on the red clay at Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.”
The Best of the Rest
Honorable mentions go to John Isner—who took Nadal to a deciding set in the first round, at the 2011 tournament—and these 11 players, who have each taken one set from Rafa at Roland Garros: Sebastien Grosjean, Mariano Puerta, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Lleyton Hewitt, Daniel Brands, Martin Klizan, David Ferrer, Jack Sock, Diego Schwartzman, David Goffin and Dominic Thiem.