“Forgot What it is Like to Play Competitive Tennis!” – Rafael Nadal Leaves Fans in Splits After Reminder That He Went Past Ivan Lendl’s 1068 Match Wins Record

Rafael Nadal could not have imagined and asked for a better start perhaps than to the 2024 season. The Spaniard beat one of his top rivals, Dominic Thiem in his very first match of his much anticipated comeback at the Brisbane International 2024. In the post match presentation though, Nadal had a unique take on the fact that he registered his 1069th win on the ATP Tour.

Advertisement Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1742134347702882743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw With this achievement, he went past the great Ivan Lendl, who has 1068 wins to his name. When reminded about the same by the interviewer, Rafael Nadal rather refreshingly took it with a sense of humor and self deprecation that he is loved for by millions around the world.

Nadal candidly commented that he had no idea about this statistic as he had forgotten how to play tennis competitively and the efforts he had to put in to get back on his feet, during the last 12 months when he was out due to injuries and attempting to complete surgeries. Fans in the arena were left in splits even as Nadal might have been modest in his take as he confessed that he was filled with nerves and doubt rather, ahead of his return.

Advertisement Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1742138293905486257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Rafael Nadal is now 20 wins behind Novak Djokovic, who overtook Nadal’s tally of 1068 earlier in August 2023. While Roger Federer continues to lead the pack with 1251 wins. With the way Nadal played on Tuesday against Thiem, one can expect Nadal to take the fight to Djokovic especially in this regard.

Rafael Nadal is most likely to play against the winner of the match between 8th seed Aslan Karatsev and Australia’s Jason Kubler. At the time of writing this report, both the players were 1 1 and were to go into the deciding set. This could give a huge advantage to Nadal, who won his match against Thiem, 7 5, 6 1 in just 90 minutes of play..