Rafael Nadal has gained access to the Round of 16 of the US Open 2022, continuing the ride towards the final phase of the tournament and towards the 23rd career Grand Slam title. The Majorcan phenomenon has already won two Grand Slam titles this year while he did not fully fight at Wimbledon by retiring before playing the semi-final match against Australian Nick Kyrgios.
Rafa’s numbers this year are devastating, surprising if we think that he started the season after months of hiatus due to a not simple foot injury. Nadal, on the other hand, is back in a big way and immediately won in Australia.
In Paris, however, he took his great revenge by triumphing and beating his arch rival Novak Djokovic during the tournament. During the night, however, Rafa had the best, without particular worries, against the expert French tennis player Richard Gasquet.
6-0 6-1 7-5 in just over two hours and a challenge that has never really been discussed. It was not the first time that these two, no longer young athletes, faced each other and to be exact it was their eighteenth confrontation.
Nadal’s record against Gasquet
Eighteen matches and as many victories for Rafa Nadal in the previous games against Gasquet who will surely cross his fingers, in every draw, to avoid finding himself on the side of the Majorcan champion.
With his eighteenth success, Rafa Nadal equaled the record of Novak Djokovic, who was also ahead 18-0 in the precedents against another athlete on the circuit, in his case the Frenchman Gael Monfils. However, tennis players like Borg, Lendl and Roger Federer remain behind, who has the record of 17 wins and 0 defeats against two athletes, the Spaniard David Ferrer and the Russian Mykhail Youzhny.
Here is this curious record and the main protagonists:
18-0 | Djokovic vs Monfils
18-0 | Nadal ve Gasquet 17-0 | Borg vs Gerulaitis
17-0 | Lendl vs Mayotte
17-0 | Federer vs Ferrer
17-0 | Federer vs Youzhny
