Rafael Nadal is not known as the King of Clay for nothing as he has an unbelievable record on the surface, but his achievements on grass are much better than many give him credit for.
With an astonishing 484–51 (90.5%) win-loss record, it is easy to see why some people can’t look past his milestones on the red dirt.
His biggest successes have come on the clay as 63 of his 92 career titles have been won on the surface as he lifted 14 Roland Garros trophies and 26 titles at ATP Masters 1000 level.
Away from the clay many felt hard courts were his next best surface, but Nadal recently disputed that in an interview on the Andy Roddick on the Served Podcast.
“Because I started winning a lot on clay, people started thinking I was a clay-court player,” the tennis legend said.
“But the truth is, of course, my game adapted well to the clay, but I loved playing on fast courts, I finished my career winning a couple of US Opens [late on], but my second-best surface was grass.
“I played the Wimbledon final in 2006, so it’s not like it took me five years to play well on grass.”
He added: “For me it was painful, because I felt that my chances were bigger, if I was healthy enough, on grass than hard. Honestly, I preferred to play against Novak [Djokovic] on grass than on hard.”
So how does his record on hard courts compare to his performances on grass?
Nadal does statistically have a better record on grass than on clay, but of course, there are more tournaments on the latter than on the grass.
The tennis great is 76-20 on grass and his best-ever season on the surface was in 2008 when he won the Queen’s Club Championship and Wimbledon for a 12–0 record.
He defeated his great rival Roger Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7 (5–7), 6–7 (8–10), 9–7 in an epic final that lasted four hours and 48 minutes.
His troublesome knee forced him to skip his title defences at both tournaments in 2009, but he returned in 2010 and defended his Wimbledon crown while he lost in the quarter-final at Queen’s to finish 9–1.
The last of his four titles on grass came at the 2015 Stuttgart Open while he also lost three finals at Wimbledon – against Roger Federer in 2006 and 2007, and against Djokovic in 2011.
Nadal was 2-2 with Djokovic on grass during his career while Federer won their head-to-head on the surface 3-1.
The hard-courts record…
Most tournaments take place on hard courts and he played more than 600 matches on the surface for a career record of 77.5% (516-150).
He won 25 titles on hard courts, four of them coming at the US Open and two at the Australian Open while he also won 10 Masters 1000 trophies.
But there is no doubt that he would have had more titles on both grass and hard courts if it wasn’t for his knee and foot injuries.
