The win in Hamburg for Rafael Nadal could reveal some extraordinary numbers for the Spaniard. The German”s title for Nadal represents a 67th career title, 47th collected on clay. Two more wins and Nadal will have tied Guillermo Vilas for the all-time record of most clay court titles ever.
Nadal’s victory in Hamburg is his 65th outdoor title, reaching Roger Federer in first position for most outdoor titles of all-time.
The duo is followed by Jimmy Connors and Guillermo Vilas, both with 56 titles. Among the active players Novak Djokovic is in 7th position in the all-time special chart with 44 outdoor single titles.
Even more importantly, Nadal has won at least three titles each year for a total of 11 consecutive seasons. That again, sets Nadal to tie Roger Federer. This time though the two rivals don”t top the special ranking, falling behind Connors and Ivan Lendl, who both managed to win at least three titles for more than 11 consecutive tennis season. Jimmy reached the feat a total of 13 times between 1972 and 1984, whereas Ivan made it for 12 consecutive times between 1980 and 1991.
That means that next year the Spaniard could overtake the Swiss, if he were to win at least three titles. Considering how Nadal has managed to win three titles in what has been considered one of his all time worst seasons, it wouldn”t be surprising to see the Spaniard overtaking the Swiss already next year.
Roger will not be fighting for his spot anyways, as in 2013 he only managed to conquer the title in Halle.