Rafa Nadal and Roland Garros: A Legendary Story

Rafa Nadal will be honored at the Philippe-Chatrier on Sunday, May 25, the opening day of the tournament. It will be a ceremony “full of surprises” that will pay tribute to one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

It all began in 2005, in his tournament debut. In a dominant clay-court season on the ATP Tour, Nadal won 17 consecutive matches, leading him to titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome. He led the French capital in spectacular form, dropping just one set to reach the semifinals.

On his nineteenth birthday, Rafa faced world No. 1 Roger Federer in a huge semi-final duel, the third of 40 that would follow. Dressed in his iconic green sleeveless shirt and white shorts, Rafa won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a match that would go on to become known around the world.

In the final against Mariano Puerta, Rafa lost the first set (the only one he would lose in the tournament), but eventually defeated the Argentinian in four sets. “My dream was to win a Grand Slam title, but especially Roland Garros , because that’s the tournament all Spaniards want to win,” Rafa said after the match.

That triumph began a run of four consecutive titles in Paris. He lost only three sets in 2006, one in 2007, and none in 2008, defeating Federer in all three finals. That 2008 performance, in which he lost only 41 games in 21 sets, cemented Nadal’s status as King of Clay.

After a fourth-round defeat in 2009 to Robin Soderling , order was restored in 2010 when he defeated the powerful Swede in a final dominated by the Balearic Islands from start to finish. Once again, Nadal did not drop a set on his way to the title.
 
Rafa would reestablish his dominance in Roland Garros by winning five consecutive titles between 2010 and 2014. Despite tremendous rivalry with the members of the Big4 (Federer, Djokovic and  Andy Murray ), the Spaniard’s success in Paris was undeniable. During this period, his greatest challenge was the semi-final against Djokovic in 2013, a classic encounter that ended 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7 in favor of the Spaniard after four hours and 37 minutes. A year after Djokovic beat Rafa in the epic Australian Open final (it lasted five hours and 53 minutes in the longest major final in history), Rafa overcame adversity to reach another final.  

The eliminations in 2015 (losing to Djokovic in the quarterfinals) and 2016 (he had to retire due to a wrist injury) were remedied with a run of five titles in six years between 2017 and 2022. The Spaniard’s triumph in 2017 broke a three-year Grand Slam drought.

In the latter part of his career, Rafa continued to rewrite the history books in Paris. When Bjorn Borg won six Roland Garros titles, including four consecutive ones between 1978 and 1981, many thought that record was untouchable.

By equaling Sampras’s total number of Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros alone, Rafa surpassed the limits of what anyone thought was possible. “ Roland Garros is the most important tournament of my tennis career ,” he said before his farewell. “Everything I experienced there, everything I enjoyed there, will remain in my heart forever.”

Now, all sports fans can relive Rafa’s legendary feats in Paris by visiting the Rafa Nadal Museum, which houses the 92 trophies won by the Balearic tennis player.