He set a new record of 54 successive winning matches on clay when he defeated Robin Soderling 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 to reach the French Open second round.
PARIS: Defending champion Rafael Nadal set a new record of 54 successive winning matches on clay on Monday when he defeated Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 to reach the French Open second round. The Spanish second seed passed Guillermo Vilas’s record of 53 clay wins in a row set back in 1977, the year the Argentinian won Roland Garros.
Nadal, who will now take on Kevin Kim of the United States for a place in the third round, has not been beaten on the surface since losing to Russia’s Igor Andreev in Valencia in April 2005. “It is difficult to win 54 matches in a row,” said Nadal. “But it was important to win and to be part of history. Now I want to keep the record going. It’s all very special.”
The 19-year-old was congratulated by Vilas and was even presented with a specially-commissioned trophy to mark his record. Nadal pulled level with Vilas when he beat Roger Federer in the final of the Rome Masters earlier this month. He admitted that the record was starting to prey on his mind. “I thought about the record when I started to get close. It’s great to have and I thanked Vilas for his kindness.”
Vilas admitted that he knew his 29-year-old record would fall to the Spaniard. “When I saw him win in Rome I knew he would break the record because I knew he would go beyond the first round here,” he said. Vilas pointed out that he was still the holder of other records including a winning streak of 46 matches on all surfaces. Nadal’s run overall is 17 at the moment with his last defeat coming on hard court in Miami against close friend Carlos Moya in March, one of three losses he has suffered in 2006. “Then there is the 14 tournaments in one year. I hope he’s not going to break that,” added Vilas.
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