The year was 2005 and a very young Rafael Nadal had just reached his first Miami Open final. His opponent was none other than his arch-rival Roger Federer. It was a long and heavy 5-set match, one that exhausted both Federer and especially Nadal. This long match will have a long-lasting impact on Nadal’s career; something that he turned into a great positive a created a record.
Rafael Nadal lost the match, and it impacted his performance in his very next tournament to a huge extent, which was on a clay court. He lost that too. Following that loss, Nadal steadied himself such that he went on to have a historic 81-match winning streak on clay court. Throughout his career, he barely lost on clay courts.
To start with the 2005 Miami Open final, Nadal started well by winning the first set 6-2. A slightly more experienced Federer was marginally taken aback. The next set was a tie at 7-6, with Nadal stealing the victory by 7-4 in the tiebreaker. Now, Federer was truly on the back foot. But as champion players often do, Federer made a comeback for the ages. He stole the next set from Nadal, this time winning the tiebreaker at 7-6 (7-5). By the last two sets, 18-year-old Nadal was so tired that he lost 3-6, 1-6, and lost the trophy.
This fatigue and tiredness stayed with the Spaniard, who had to travel to Valencia soon after for the Valencia Open. The Valencia Open was established to replace the Mallorca Open in 2003. The 2005 was its 3rd edition, where Nadal reached the quarter-finals by beating fellow Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero and Guillermo Garcia Lopez.
In the quarter-final, Nadal would go on to lose against an unknown Russian player at the time, Igor Andreev. This would be the last time in a long, long while that Nadal would lose a match on a clay court.
Andreev won the match 7-5, 6-2, and went on to win the Valencia Open. But for Nadal, that loss meant that he had to prepare himself better. The motivation could’ve been this loss, but it was really the Miami Open final. The Miami Masters used to have 5-set finals back then, and after the 2005 final, a lot of criticism came its way for it. Rafael Nadal started a winning streak after that went on for 81 matches. This is just one out of many unbelievable records of Rafael Nadal.
The 81-match winning streak of Rafael Nadal
Little did Igor Andreev know back then, that a win against Nadal in the Valencia Open quarter-final would be iconic for this reason. It remains the last time Nadal lost before starting his winning streak. It began at the 2005 Monte-Carlo Masters, where he beat wildcard Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.
Nadal won that tournament, beating Guillermo Coria 6-3, 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 in the final. His invincibility continued in the Barcelona Open, the Rome Masters, and then the French Open. Rafael Nadal became a winning machine.
After a ‘Honeymoon’ run on clay courts for two years, the streak was finally over. It was the Hamburg Open in 2007, where once again his archrival Roger Federer beat him in the final. Once again it was Nadal who won the first set 6-2. But Federer, as he so often does, won the next two sets 6-2, 6-0 to win the trophy and end Nadal’s run.
