How many times did Rafael Nadal lose a match at the French Open?

Rafael Nadal, who today announced his decision to retire from tennis, lost just four matches in a nearly two-decade career at the French Open, on his way to lifting the Roland Garros men’s singles title a record 14 times.

When were Nadal’s French Open defeats? Who did he lose to?

After winning in Paris at the first attempt in 2005 - beating Argentina’s Mariano Puerta in the final - Nadal remained undefeated in the French capital until four years later. At the 2009 French Open, the Spaniard’s 31-match unbeaten sequence at the event came to an end when he suffered a stunning fourth-round defeat to Robin Söderling. In what was one of the biggest shocks in tennis history, Nadal went down in four sets to the Swede, who finished the tournament as runner-up to Roger Federer.

Nadal’s next two French Open defeats, which came at six-year intervals after that Söderling upset, were both against fellow tennis great Novak Djokovic. In 2015, Djokovic got the better of Nadal in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, triumphing in straight sets. That victory for the Serb, who went on to lose that year’s final to Stanislas Wawrinka, halted a run of 39 French Open matches without loss for Nadal - a mark that remains a tournament record, across both men’s and women’s tennis.

Between 2016 and 2021, Nadal then embarked on a streak of 35 matches without defeat - the second-longest unbeaten run in French Open history. It was brought to an end when he lost in four sets to Djokovic in the 2021 semi-finals. This was the first time that Nadal had ever lost a match at Roland Garros after winning the first set. Djokovic proceeded to beat Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final in Paris, to win the second of his three French Open titles.

Three years on, Nadal succumbed to the fourth - and final - defeat of his Roland Garros career. In the 2024 first round in May, the veteran lost in straight sets to No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev, having had to face the German at that early stage because he was unseeded, after slipping to 275th in the world following an injury-hit couple of seasons. It was the first time that Nadal had not been given a seeding at a grand slam tournament since the Australian Open in 2005.

How many matches did Nadal win at the French Open?

In all, Nadal won 112 of his 116 matches at the French Open. His defeats to Söderling, Djokovic and Zverev aside, the only other occasion on which he entered the tournament and failed to win it was in 2016, when a wrist injury forced him to withdraw before his third-round clash with countryman Marcel Granollers.