Rafael Nadal's first French Open title - 2005

In 13 days, Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal will start his marketing campaign to assert a record-extending 14th French Open title.

Left-handed Nadal, because of his prowess on the floor, has been given the sobriquet ‘King of Clay.’ With out deep-diving into his point-construction course of, taking a look simply on the mere numbers is nice sufficient to point out how dominant he has been on clay.

Nadal performed his first ATP Tour fundamental draw match as a 15-year-old on clay on dwelling soil in Mallorca. Nadal, then world quantity 762, received 6-4, 6-4 towards Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado, a participant who was ranked 681 locations greater than him. Total, Nadal has performed 507 matches on clay and received 464 of them, which is roughly 92 per cent.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Rafael Nadal, a genius on clay

Nadal’s first ATP singles title additionally got here on clay when he beat Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-3, 6-4 to raise the trophy in Sopot, Poland, in 2004. At current, out of Nadal’s 91 singles titles, 62 have been on this floor.

Main as much as the 2022 French Open, which begins on Could 22, this collection will take you thru Nadal's 13 French Open titles, which represent virtually 21 per cent of these 62.

2005

Lengthy hair with a bandanna to maintain them out of his eyes, carrying capri pants and inexperienced sleeveless t-shirts, Nadal made his first look at Roland Garros in 2005, two years later than he was initially purported to. A proper elbow harm in 2003 had shifted his Grand Slam debut from the clay court docket in Paris to Wimbledon the place he reached the third spherical. He went on to play the US Open that yr and Australian Open in 2004. Nonetheless, a stress fracture made him miss not simply Roland Garros however many of the clay court docket season that yr.

Here is a compilation of Rafael Nadal's 13 French Open Titles

Come 2005, Nadal was prepared.

Earlier than the French Open, he performed seven occasions on clay and received 5 of them. Having began the yr ranked 51, the Spaniard was world quantity 5 by the point he set foot in Paris.

Nadal started his debut French Open marketing campaign with straight units wins over Lars Burgsmuller, Xavier Malisse and Richard Gasquet. He lastly dropped a set in the course of the 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win towards Sebastien Grosjean within the fourth spherical, following it up with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-0 demolition of compatriot after which World No. 21 David Ferrer within the quarterfinals.

Within the closing 4 conflict which occurred to happen on his nineteenth birthday, Nadal’s opponent was World No. 1 and his soon-to-be long-term rival - Switzerland’s Roger Federer. The 2 had confronted one another twice earlier than the semifinal - each instances in Miami. Whereas Nadal had received the third spherical conflict in 2004, it was Federer who got here from two units all the way down to win the ultimate in April 2005 (From 1985 till 1990 and once more from 1997 to 2007, the format for males's closing was best-of-five units).

On this event, each had been taking part in their first ever French Open semifinal though within the Swiss maestro’s case, he had already performed in Paris six instances earlier than 2005.

The match started with a memorable opening rally - right-handed Federer serving huge to Nadal’s proper who needed to slide to ship the return with the World No. 1 already in place to hit the inside-out forehand to the opposite nook. Nonetheless, {the teenager} displayed super court docket velocity and whereas working, hit a forehand cross to Federer’s proper. That time mainly set the tone for the primary set as each gamers struggled to carry serve. Nadal ended up profitable the set 6-3. Nonetheless, Federer made a rapid turnaround to take a 5-1 lead within the second earlier than finally wrapping it up 6-4.

FILE PHOTO: Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates after beating Switzerland's Roger Federer within the males's singles semifinal of the 2005 French Open.   -  GETTY IMAGES

The third set was fairly shut till Nadal, from 30-40 down, broke Federer within the sixth sport to go 4-2 forward. The 23-year-old from Basel responded promptly to get issues again on serve however quickly discovered himself in bother once more. Serving at 5-4 30-40, Federer saved a set level solely to be left annoyed as Nadal clinched the subsequent two to take the set 6-4.

Federer did increase the potential of a sensational comeback by breaking Nadal within the third sport of the fourth set however from 1-3 down, the Spaniard reeled off 5 straight video games to achieve the ultimate. The ultimate level, a gruelling 18-shot rally, ended with Federer’s forehand going lengthy, Nadal dropping his racquet and falling flat on his again, an iconic celebration which has been seen many instances since then.

Two days later, versus what individuals might have thought could be a mere formality after beating Federer, the summit conflict towards World No. 37 Mariano Puerta of Argentina was no simple process for Nadal. He misplaced the opening set within the tiebreaker earlier than coming again to win the subsequent three 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 in a match that lasted three hours and 24 minutes. This was Nadal's twenty fourth consecutive win.

Nadal turned simply the second man after Mats Wilander in 1982 to win Roland Garros on his debut in Paris. Fifteen years after Pete Sampras at US Open, Nadal was additionally the primary male teenager to win a Main.