Rafael Nadal
With the French Open coming to an end last week, let us take a look at the records that were broken in Paris this year
The clay courts of Paris witnessed a lot of records being broken and new ones being created over the last few weeks at the French Open 2022. Here are the top 5 records that were smashed during the Grand Slam.
At 36, Rafael Nadal became the oldest French Open champion since 1925. The oldest champion of the French was Elizabeth Ryan, who won the 1934 women’s doubles with Simone Mathieu (France) at 42 years 88 days. The oldest singles champion was Andrés Gimeno (Spain) in 1972 at 34 years 301 days. Rafael Nadal broke Gimeno’s record to become the oldest ever men’s singles champion at Roland Garros.
He is the fourth oldest winner of a Grand Slam. Only two players besides Nadal, have won a Grand Slam aged 36 or older – Roger Federer and Ken Rosewell.
After the French Open 2022 win, Rafael Nadal now leads the race for the most Grand Slam titles with 22 majors to his name. The next best are Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with 20 each.
The Spaniard also has the most number of titles on clay – 63, which is 14 more than any other player on the clay surface.
Rafael Nadal kept up his perfect record in the French Open finals with 14 titles from 14 finals. After him, the best in the Open era is Bjorn Borg with six titles. No other active player has more than 2 French Open titles currently.
In the all-time Grand Slam record, Rafael Nadal tied Steffi Graf with 22 majors. Margaret Court with 24 majors and Serena Williams with 23 majors are ahead are the only ones ahead of him.
Nadal had never won the Australian Open and the French Open in the same season before. He has become the fourth man to win the Australian Open and French Open in the same season. He joins Rod Laver, Mats Wilander, and Novak Djokovic in achieving the feat.
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