Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic’s longest win streaks on clay, grass and hard courts

Shahida Jacobs
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Rafael Nadal has the record for longest win streak of clay, Roger Federer has the longest unbeaten run on the other two surfaces, but Novak Djokovic trumps the two in terms of longest overall match-winning streak.

The Big Three of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have dominated tennis over the past two decades, setting numerous records along the way.

So it comes as no surprise that the trio also holds records for longest unbeaten streaks on the three main surfaces in tennis namely hard court, clay court and grass court.

Clay Court Streaks

Rafael Nadal – 81

We start with the clay-court streak as this is the longest winning streak on any surface and it is Nadal with his astonishing record of 81 consecutive wins, which he achieved from April 2005 until May 2007.

The run started at the Monte Carlo Masters when Nadal beat Gael Monfils in the first round and he went on to win another 80 matches before Federer ended his streak in the 2007 Hamburg Masters final.

Nadal’s run included three titles at the Monte Carlo, Barcelona Open and Italian Open, two French Open trophies as well as titles in Bastad and Stuttgart.

Novak Djokovic – 17

Djokovic is tied for 40th in terms of longest clay-court streaks and he achieved his 17 wins in a row in 2011 with the run starting on home soil in Belgrade and ending in the semi-final at Roland Garros.

Djokovic defeated qualifier Adrian Ungur en route to lifting the Serbia Open title and he won the Madrid Open and Italian Open – defeated in the final of both tournaments – before Federer beeat him at the French Open.

Roger Federer – 14

The likes of Casper Ruud (16) and Andy Murray (15) have longer streaks on the surface than Federer, but then again the Swiss often ran into Nadal or Djokovic.

Unsurprisingly, Federer’s run took place the same year that he won Roland Garros (2009) with Robin Soderling his first victim as he won the Madrid Masters. He went on to win Roland Garros, again Soderling but this time in the final, before notching up two Davis Cup wins.

His next match on clay was against Ernests Gulbis in Rome in 2010, but he lost against the Latvian.

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Grass-Court Streaks

Roger Federer – 65

Federer is the only man to have won more than 50 consecutive matches on grass with Bjorn Borg second on the all-time list with 41.

The Swiss achieved the feat over five years with the first win coming at Halle in 2003 against Sargis Sargsian and the final victory against Marat Safin in the Wimbledon semi-final in 2008. Nadal then defeated him in the 2008 Wimbledon final in five marathon sets.

Federer won five consecutive Wimbledon titles – with Nadal denying him a six in a row – and five Halle trophies.

Novak Djokovic – 34

All 34 of Djokovic’s wins on grass came at Wimbledon as the tennis great was unbeaten at the England Club from 2018 until 2023 when Carlos Alcaraz beat him in the final.

Tennys Sandgren was his first win during the 2018 Championships and he won the title that year while the following year he beat Federer in the famous 2019 five-set final when he saved two match points. After the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus, Djokovic returned to win title sin 2021 and 2022 as well.

Rafael Nadal – 14

Nadal’s run started and ended at Queen’s Club as he defeated Jonas Bjorkman in the round of 32 in 2008 before losing against Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-final in June 2010.

After winning the Queen’s title in 2008, Nadal went on to beat Federer in the Wimbledon final and he then missed his title defences in 2009 due to injury before returning to Queen’s in 2010.

Hard Court Streaks

Roger Federer – 56

Swiss great Federer is one of two players to have a hard-court winning streak of 50+ with Jimmy Connors the other one.

The run started in Rotterdam in 2005 when he got the better of Bohdan Ulihrach and Nadal was the man to end the streak in the Dubai final the following year.

Federer won the Rotterdam Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Cincinnati Open, US Open, Bangkok, Doha and Australian Open during that period.

Novak Djokovic – 35

The most consecutive match wins Djokovic achieved came during a December 2010 to August 2011 streak.

It started at the Davis Cup when he got the better of Gilles Simon and he then won the Australian Open at the start of the year followed by titles in Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami and Canada before Andy Murray beat him in the Cincinnati Open final.

Rafael Nadal – 30

Nadal kicked off his 30-match winning streak on hard courts with a win over Santiago Giraldo at the Miami Open in March 2012.

He went on to win that title and also lifted trophies at Indian Wells the following year – he missed the 2012 US Open and 2013 Australian Open – Canadian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open and US Open.

Djokovic was the man to bring the run to an end as he beat the Spaniard in the China Open final.

Overall longest match-winning streak in Open Era:

Bjorn Borg has the official longest match-winning streak in men’s tennis in the Open Era as he won 49 consecutive matches in 1978. He is also second with a run of 48 wins in a row between 1979 and 1980.

Guillermo Vilas is third with 46, Ivan Lendl has 44 and Djokovic sits fifth with 43. Federer retired with a best winning streak of 41 matches, which he achieved in 2006–07 while Nadal’s best run was 32 wins in 2008.