Two players Rafael Nadal could never beat: The only tennis players with a perfect record against the Spaniard

ATP
Sunday, 27 October 2024 at 10:00
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Throughout his impressive career, Rafael Nadal has beaten the best in world tennis, but there are a few players he has never managed to beat. These opponents have the privilege of boasting a 100% success rate against the Spaniard in a minimum of two matches, an achievement that given the domination of the circuit that Nadal has exercised for almost 20 years, ends up being a complete rarity.
Rafael Nadal's career is full of incredible moments, epic victories and many many titles, that's why it became a challenge to gather several players who have defeated him every time they faced each other. To tell the truth, there are not many players who have a positive head-to-head record with Rafa, but who have defeated him in 100% of their matches, only two players in more than two decades.
The first one who can claim to have beaten the 14-time Grand Slam champion whenever he faced him is his compatriot Alex Corretja. Of course, the two victories against Nadal came when he was taking his first steps on the circuit in 2003. Even so, Corretja had the luxury of beating that 16-year-old Rafa on clay at the Barcelona Open 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and a few weeks later he defeated him again on clay at the Madrid Open also in a hard-fought three-set duel by 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
The other of this duo of players who have beaten the Spaniard whenever they have faced each other is more contemporary. The charismatic German Dustin Brown also has a perfect record against Rafa, and a curious fact is that the two times he faced him were on grass. First in Halle in 2014 in the round of 16 with a score of 6-4 and 6-1, and in 2015 in that memorable encounter in the second round of Wimbledon where Brown surprised everyone by winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4.
While these are the only players that Nadal has never beaten in two or more matches, there are others who have made things difficult for him, such as Novak Djokovic, who holds a historical advantage in their meetings (31-29), and the Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who won 6 of the 11 matches they played.
This small group of players with a positive record against Nadal demonstrates how exceptional the Spaniard's career has been, as very few in history can boast consistent dominance against him despite having made his professional debut in 2001.

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