Alexander Zverev joined an elite list of Tennis players who have managed to beat Rafael Nadal three consecutive times as he entered the final of the Madrid Open.
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Alexander Zverev put on a magnificent performance in the Madrid Open to beat Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4. The win was Zverev’s third consecutive win against Nadal. The German had recently won the indoor hard-court meetings at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals and the 2020 Rolex Paris Masters in straight sets. With his third consecutive win, Zverev has joined an elite list of players who have managed to defeat Nadal three consecutive times or more in Tennis. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are the obvious players who have beaten Nadal three times or more. But, there is one more player apart from Zverev who has beaten Nadal more than three times. His name is Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.
Djokovic is the only player in the active circuit to have a positive head-to-head against Nadal. They have clashed 56 times in the Open Era, which is the most in history. Djokovic holds a 29-27 head-to-head record against Nadal. The Serb has beaten Nadal seven consecutive times twice in their meetings. The first streak of seven was from 2011 to 2012 while the second was from 2015/16.
Federer is another player who has beaten Nadal more than three times. However, he has a negative head-to-head record against the Spaniard, losing 24 out of the 40 encounters. However, Federer has clawed back a bit in the rivalry. From 2017 to 2019, Federer won six consecutive matches against Nadal which is his best streak ever.
However, Davydenko has a surprisingly good record against Nadal. If one looks at the sample of more than 10 games, Davydenko is the second player after Djokovic to have a positive head-to-head record. From 2009 to 2011, Davydenko won four consecutive games and improved his head-to-head record to 6-5 against Nadal.
Apart from these five players, Nadal has a record of 0-2 against Germany’s Dustin Brown and Spain’s Alex Corretja. The Spaniard has retired from active tennis while Brown has not featured in many tournaments. Zverev is just the fourth player to have won three or more consecutive games against Nadal in Tennis. To have achieved this feat is simply amazing.
