Rafael Nadal’s astonishing Davis Cup record, including his 20-year unbeaten streak

Ewan West 22 Nov 2024 4:12 PM

Rafael Nadal made his Davis Cup breakthrough with a win against Andy Roddick

Rafael Nadal has amassed a plethora of amazing records and statistics in his glorious career – and his body of work in the Davis Cup ranks near the top of the list.

The sporting icon retired from tennis after playing his last-ever match at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, with Spain exiting at the quarter-final stage.

Ahead of his last-ever event, Nadal explained what makes the team competition so special to him.

“I mean, the feeling to play for your country, the feeling to play for your teammates, and if you have a good relationship with the team, something that happened I think 99% of the times of our careers, with David [Ferrer], with Carlos before, I mean Moya, and now with all this team, have been 20 years of playing this competition,” the 38-year-old said.

“So I went through a lot of different generations. The big success in our country is we always had a familiar relationship, no? And that helps to have the feeling that at the end when you win, everybody wins. When you lose, everybody loses, no?”

The 22-time Grand Slam winner added: “Everybody knows how much I love my country in general. I haven’t been able to move from the country ever, so I enjoy living here. And play my last event in Spain, it’s something that I am very happy with, no?”

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Here, we look at Nadal’s remarkable Davis Cup statistics.

Five titles and 4-0 in finals

Nadal has been a member of triumphant Spanish Davis Cup teams on five occasions: 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019.

The Mallorcan featured in the final in all of these years besides 2008, when he missed out through injury after playing in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. Spain are unbeaten in finals when Nadal has been in the squad.

29-2 in singles and a 20-year unbeaten streak

Nadal holds a staggering 29-2 (93.5%) record in Davis Cup singles matches, with his only losses coming 20 years apart in his first and final matches in the competition.

A 17-year-old Nadal fell 6-7(2), 3-6, 6-7(3) to Jiri Novak on an indoor carpet court in a first round World Group away tie against the Czech Republic.

Nadal was not even taken to a deciding set — either in the best-of-five or best-of-three set formats — in his 29 consecutive singles victories following his debut defeat.

The Mallorcan’s 20-year spell without a Davis Cup singles loss was broken when he fell 6-4, 6-4 to Botic van de Zandschulp in his last career match.

The 38-year-old’s loss was in the first rubber of Spain’s 2-1 quarter-final loss to the Netherlands at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.

His record stands at 19-0 on clay, 9-1 on hard-court, 1-1 on carpet, while he is 14-0 outdoors and 15-2 indoors.

8-4 in doubles and unbeaten after 2005

Nadal, an 11-time ATP doubles titlist, also has an impressive 8-4 (66.7%) record in Davis Cup doubles rubbers despite losing four of his first five matches across 2004 and 2005.

The Spaniard won his last seven doubles matches in the competition in a streak starting in 2006, while his last victory was in 2019.

In doubles ties, Nadal is 3-2 on clay, 5-1 on hard-court and 0-1 on carpet, while he has an identical 4-2 record both indoors and outdoors.

32-match winning streak across both formats

With all of Nadal’s Davis Cup losses coming in 2004, 2005 or 2024, he amassed an incredible 32-match winning streak in singles and doubles between 2006 and 2019.

The former world No 1 finished his career with an outstanding 37-6 (86%) combined Davis Cup record, underlining his status as one of the greatest players in the team competition’s history.