Over the last few years several all-time greats have called time on their professional tennis careers, and we’ve given them a statistical send-off, counting down some of their most incredible records that may never be broken. We did it for Serena Williams, Roger Federer and most recently Andy Murray.
And now, it’s Rafael Nadal’s turn.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 is playing the final event of his career this week, the Davis Cup Finals, and in the five days leading up to it we’re bringing you five of his records—one a day—that may never be broken.
On Friday and Saturday we covered his 23 career wins over world No. 1s and his 912 straight weeks in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings.
Today, a golden achievement.
A Career Golden Slam at age 24
Nadal’s career achievements kept coming for so long—almost two decades—so it’s sometimes hard to remember just how much he accomplished in his early years on the tour.
Among those early accomplishments was becoming the youngest man in the Open Era to complete a Career Slam, or winning all four Grand Slams in your career—he did that at 24 years, 3 months and 10 days when he won his first US Open title in 2010. By then, he had already won his first titles at Roland Garros (2005), Wimbledon (2008) and the Australian Open (2009).
But there’s even more.
Having already won his first Olympic gold medal at Beijing in 2008, Nadal also completed a Career Golden Slam that day—and he wasn’t just the youngest man in the Open Era to achieve that feat, he was the youngest man ever to do it.
The previous record belonged to Andre Agassi, who completed his Career Golden Slam at age 29 when he won Roland Garros in 1999. He had previously won the other three majors once each, as well as the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Novak Djokovic became just the third man ever to complete a Career Golden Slam at the Paris Olympics this year at age 37.
