How Rafael Nadal strung together a 20-0 winning run on hard courts

The brilliant run this year includes the Australian Open win for a record 21st Grand Slam title; only injury that led to an upset loss at Indian Wells halted it.

Rafael Nadal’s best-ever start to a season this year is remarkable for a variety of reasons. That he is 35 is merely a starter. There’s then the small matter of him having missed the last six months of 2021 due to a chronic foot injury. Add to that the surface on which the Spaniard has managed to script his latest classic comeback tale.

Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates his victory over Carlos Alcaraz of Spain (Getty Images)

Nadal has notched up a 20-1 win-loss record so far this year on hard courts, a surface that has given him more heartbreaks than joy over the years and where he tends to play his best much deeper into the season. The southpaw cruised for 20 matches without losing—his personal best stretch to begin a new season, comfortably bettering his 11 wins on the trot in 2014—before a surprise defeat to American Taylor Fritz at the ATP Indian Wells final over the weekend snapped it.

Visibly in discomfort in that match, Nadal announced that he has suffered a stress fracture in his ribs which would keep him on the sidelines for 4-6 weeks. Slugging it out on hard courts with his brutal, physical game has given Nadal various injury concerns in his career, but the most recent one is a minor setback to what has been a rousing run of results over the last three months.

Nadal turned up in Melbourne and won the ATP 250 tournament before capturing the Australian Open, a record 21st Grand Slam title. He carried his dominant form into Acapulco for his third straight title before Taylor denied him a fourth. It’s just the third time in his over two-decade professional career that Nadal has won three hard-court titles in a season. Previously, he achieved it in 2005 and 2013. His three victories on the bounce in 2013 came at the ATP Masters in Canada and Cincinnati followed by the US Open triumph—all in September. That was Nadal in his prime rolling into the business end of the season having already pocketed seven titles and bossing the clay-court swing like only he can. This is Nadal, at 35, kicking off a new season into the unknown after a six-month layoff.

Despite the general perception that the clay-court maestro’s game is not suited to the harder and quicker surfaces and fears of the resultant wear and tear hampering his longevity, the 13-time French Open champion has stacked up solid numbers on hard courts. In beating Matteo Berrettini in the Australian Open semi-finals, the Spaniard completed 500 wins on the surface. He became only the fourth man in the Open Era to cross that landmark on hard courts; Roger Federer (783), Novak Djokovic (636) and Andre Agassi (592) being the others. Nadal has more wins on hard courts (win-loss: 511-141) than clay (464-43), with a 78.4% win record and 25 ATP titles on the former.

Adaptability has been one of Nadal’s standout traits when fully fit. If he relies on his unflappable defensive skills on the slower red dirt, he can also transform into an attacking force on hard courts. The last three months have only reinforced that.

Nadal has taken his offensive game to another level this year, fuelled by a speedier serve, a more ferocious forehand and by reducing the length of rallies.

Throughout the 2022 Australian Open, Nadal’s serves were overall approximately 10kph quicker than what he sent down at last year’s edition, according to data on the tournament’s website. What he did to back up his stronger serve also made a difference. Across his seven matches at Melbourne Park, Nadal struck a forehand, his more attacking side, around 80% of the time after his serve to get into rallies.

Those forehands had more velocity too. Leading into the final against Daniil Medvedev, the Spaniard generated more average speed off his forehand swing (122.2kph) than the Russian (120.8kph). Nadal went on to beat Medvedev, a proven hard-court performer who had denied Novak Djokovic a Calendar Slam in the final of the 2021 US Open, in the high-quality five-set clash after losing the opening two sets.

Not only has Nadal been more aggressive in his game, but smarter too. According to data on Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers, the Spaniard’s rally length through the Australian Open was 4.4 shots, only a shade above the tournament average of 4.2 shots per rally. It’s a relatively low figure for a player who thrives on grinding down opponents by constructing points and working on angles from the back of the baseline.

“I have always been able to find a way to adapt my game when I have needed to become better,” Nadal said in his pre-tournament press conference before the ATP Indian Wells earlier this month.

“Some days I have played aggressively, some days I have played a little more defensively and more tactically. My serve has been working well, which is important at this stage in my career. Then, I think I have been brave enough to play with the right determination when needed. I am just working hard to continue to improve, but I am happy with the level of tennis and intensity I am showing on court.”

On his less favoured surface, it has resulted in a breathtaking opening act to a season that, save injuries, promises much more from Nadal.