Which record is hard to break: Rafael Nadal‘s 14 French Open wins, or Novak Djokovic‘s 24 Grand Slam wins? The Spaniard himself thinks his record is harder.
Nadal, after winning his career’s first Major at the 2005 French Open, defended his crown in the next three seasons. After a fourth-round exit in 2009, he completed a five-peat.
In the next two seasons (2015 and 2016), he couldn’t make the semifinals. But he completed a four-peat next, and following his semifinal exit in 2021, Nadal clinched his career’s last Major at the 2022 French Open by breezing past Casper Ruud.
My Roland Garros record is going to be tough to beat. I think it will be harder to surpass this one than Novak’s 24 Major titles. You never know, but if you made me bet, I think it will take longer to beat 14 Roland Garros titles than 24 Majors.
Rafael Nadal said in his Netflix documentary ‘Rafa’
After Nadal, the player with the second-most French Open titles was Bjorn Borg (six), while in women’s tennis, Chris Evert holds the record with seven titles. Djokovic never met Nadal in a Roland Garros final, but has played him 10 times in other stages.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion holds an 8-2 head-to-head record over the Serb in the clay-court Major. Djokovic beat Nadal in the 2015 quarterfinals and the 2021 semifinals.
Nadal hung up his racket at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In his career’s last clay-court match, Nadal lost to Djokovic in the second round of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and later, Nole made the final and defeated Carlos Alcaraz to win his career’s first Olympic gold medal.
