Rafael Nadal has a negative figure in 2022

• Sports

It's time to take stock also for Rafael Nadal. After the season on the tour, the Spanish tennis player experienced a year of ups and downs, still conditioned by the injuries that dogged him throughout the year. Victory at the Australian Open for the second time in his career, followed however by a stop at Indian Wells due to physical problems.

Fourteenth title on clay in Paris, but Roland Garros remains Nadal's last dream in the Grand Slam title cabinet: withdrawal before the semifinal at Wimbledon and defeat in the round of 16 at the US Open. At the Finals, however, two defeats and only one victory, which did not allow him to pass the group stage.

The unusual data on Nadal's season, however, concerns the Masters 1000 tournaments: he has not collected any 1000 titles all year. There were five appearances this year, from Indian Wells to Paris Bercy; in California the title eluded him due to an injury before the final.

No 1000 title even on his surface, the red clay: out both in Madrid and in Rome. The last two tournaments on hard courts close, Cincinnati and Paris-Bercy, both concluded at the debut.

It hasn't happened since 2015

It is a rare phenomenon that the Spanish number two ends a year without 1000 titles on his wall.

With the exception of 2020 (the year of the outbreak of the pandemic, with numerous tournaments canceled and several postponed, ed.), from 2005 onwards, the year of consecration with the victory of the first Roland Garros, the twenty-two times Grand Slam champion has always won at least one Masters 1000, with the exception of only one empty passage: 2015.

Unlike this 2022, the Spaniard played more tournaments seven years ago, reaching a total of nine played. He always started from Indian Wells and finished in Paris-Bercy, but in between he also played the Masters 1000 in Miami, Monte Carlo, Canada and Shanghai.

Among these, only the last is no longer in the ATP programming; the others, however, were a renunciation by Nadal due to various injuries and a physical condition that was his enemy, both in the first and second part of the season.