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2020 Rafael Nadal tennis season

Full name	Rafael Nadal Parera
Country	Spain
Calendar prize money	$3,881,202 (singles & doubles)
Singles
Season record	27–7
Calendar titles	2
Current ranking	No. 2
Ranking change from previous year	1
Grand Slam & significant results
Australian Open	QF
French Open	W
Wimbledon	Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic
US Open	A
Doubles
Season record	2–0
Current ranking	No. 475
← 2019 2021 →

The 2020 Rafael Nadal tennis season officially began on 3 January 2020, in the first round at the inaugural 2020 ATP Cup Group B venues in Perth.

Yearly summary

Early hard court season

ATP Cup

Nadal started his season at the inaugural ATP Cup as part of the Spanish squad. Nadal will be playing in singles along with compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut, while the doubles team will consist of Feliciano López and Pablo Carreño Busta. Spain was placed in Group B and will play their round-robin matches against Japan, Uruguay, and Georgia in Perth.

In Nadal's round-robin singles matches, he defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili, Pablo Cuevas and Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets. Nadal also played in the doubles match against Japan, along with Carreño Busta, and won the match in three sets. The Spanish team then moved on to Sydney to play in the QF. In the singles in QF, Nadal faced David Goffin, to whom he lost the match in straight sets. However, because compatriot Bautista Agut won his singles match, and Nadal and Carreño Busta won in the doubles, Spain moved on to the SF against Australia. There, Nadal defeated Alex de Minaur in the singles in 3 sets, and combined with Bautista Agut's defeat of Nick Kyrgios in straight sets earlier, moved Spain to the ATP Cup Final. In the final, they played against Serbia, with Nadal's singles match against World No. 2 Novak Djokovic. Nadal lost the match in straight sets to Djokovic, and with Spain's loss in doubles, Team Serbia won the ATP Cup.

Australian Open

Nadal's second tournament of the season will be the 2020 Australian Open. He won his first two matches against Hugo Dellien and Federico Delbonis in straight sets. He defeated compatriot and the 27th seed Pablo Carreño Busta in the 3rd round, again in straight sets. He defeated Nick Kyrgios in 4 sets the 4th round. However, he lost to World No. 5 Dominic Thiem in 4 sets at the QF.

Mexican Open

Nadal's first tournament following the Australian Open was the Mexican Open. He defeated Pablo Andujar, Miomir Kecmanović, and Kwon Soon-woo, all in straight sets to set up a semi-final encounter with Grigor Dimitrov. He was able to defeat Dimitrov easily in straight sets to reach his first final in Acapulco since 2017, and his first final for the 2020 season. He defeated Taylor Fritz in the final in straight sets, to win his third title in Acapulco and his first title in 2020.

Season hiatus

On March 8, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season went on indefinite hiatus. The following measures were taken:

• The ATP and WTA announced the suspension of their 2020 tournaments until July 13. On March 18, the ATP froze their player rankings.
• On March 17, the French Tennis Federation announced the decision of postponing the French Open, to be held now from September 20 to October 4, 2020.
• On March 24, after talks between Japan's prime minister and the International Olympic Committee president, the 2020 Summer Olympics were officially postponed to 2021. On March 30, the various organising entities reached an agreement to hold the Olympics between July 23 and August 8, 2021.
• On April 1, the All England Club announced the decision of cancelling Wimbledon, opting to focus on the 2021 edition of the tournament.

Clay Court Season

Nadal opted to skip the Western and Southern Open and the US Open to prepare for the clay court season.

Italian Open

Nadal's first match back was against fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, which he won 6–1, 6–1. In the next round, he played Serb Dušan Lajović, whom he defeated 6–1, 6–3. In the QF, he lost to Diego Schwartzman 2–6, 5–7.

French Open

Nadal won his 13th Roland Garros title, beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the tournament's final, only losing seven games. In doing so, he won his 20th Grand Slam title, equalling Roger Federer's record as the man with the most number of Grand Slam titles. It also marked his 100th win at the tournament, losing only twice in 16 years. His straight-sets victory over Djokovic marked also the 4th time that he won a Grand Slam without losing a set, all at the French Open doing it also in 2008, 2010 and 2017. Nadal also became the first player to defeat Djokovic in a completed match all year, Djokovic being 37-1 on the season prior to the loss to Nadal, with his only loss being the us open default.

European indoor hard court season

Paris Masters

Nadal lost to Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.

Nitto ATP Finals

Nadal defeated Andrey Rublev in his first round robin match. Two days later he lost to Dominic Thiem in two incredibly tight sets. He qualified for the semifinals with a three set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. In the semis he faced Daniil Medvedev, and despite serving for a straight sets win, he lost in three sets, ending his bid to win his first ever title at the season ending event.

All matches

This table chronicles all the matches of Rafael Nadal in 2020.

Singles matches

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponent (seed or key)	Rank	Result	Score
ATP Cup Perth, Group B Sydney, Knockout stage Australia Laver Cup Hard, outdoor 3–12 January 2020
	1 / 1175	RR	Nikoloz Basilashvili	26	Win	6–3, 7–5
	2 / 1176	RR	Pablo Cuevas	45	Win	6–2, 6–1
	3 / 1177	RR	Yoshihito Nishioka	72	Win	7–6, 6–4
	4 / 1178	QF	David Goffin	11	Loss	4–6, 6–7
	5 / 1179	SF	Alex de Minaur	18	Win	4–6, 7–5, 6–1
	6 / 1180	F	Novak Djokovic	2	Loss	2–6, 6–7
Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam tournament Hard, outdoor 20 January – 2 February 2020
	7 / 1181	1R	Hugo Dellien	73	Win	6–2, 6–3, 6–0
	8 / 1182	2R	Federico Delbonis	76	Win	6–3, 7–6, 6–1
	9 / 1183	3R	Pablo Carreño Busta (27)	30	Win	6–1, 6–2, 6–4
	10 / 1184	4R	Nick Kyrgios (23)	26	Win	6–3, 3–6, 7–6, 7–6
	11 / 1185	QF	Dominic Thiem (5)	5	Loss	6–7, 6–7, 6–4, 6–7
Mexican Open Acapulco, Mexico ATP Tour 500 Hard, outdoor 24–29 February 2020
	12 / 1186	1R	Pablo Andújar	54	Win	6–3, 6–2
	13 / 1187	2R	Miomir Kecmanović	50	Win	6–2, 7–5
	14 / 1188	QF	Kwon Soon-woo	76	Win	6–2, 6–1
	15 / 1189	SF	Grigor Dimitrov (7)	22	Win	6–3, 6–2
	16 / 1190	W	Taylor Fritz	35	Win (1)	6–3, 6–2
Italian Open Rome, Italy ATP Tour Masters 1000 Clay, outdoor 14 – 21 September 2020
	–	1R	Bye
	17 / 1191	2R	Pablo Carreño Busta	18	Win	6–1, 6–1
	18 / 1192	3R	Dušan Lajović	25	Win	6–1, 6–3
	19 / 1193	QF	Diego Schwartzman (8)	15	Loss	2–6, 5–7
French Open Paris, France Grand Slam tournament Clay, outdoor 27 September – 11 October 2020
	20 / 1194	1R	Egor Gerasimov	83	Win	6–4, 6–4, 6–2
	21 / 1195	2R	Mackenzie McDonald (PR)	236	Win	6–1, 6–0, 6–3
	22 / 1196	3R	Stefano Travaglia	74	Win	6–1, 6–4, 6–0
	23 / 1197	4R	Sebastian Korda (Q)	213	Win	6–1, 6–1, 6–2
	24 / 1198	QF	Jannik Sinner	75	Win	7–6, 6–4, 6–1
	25 / 1199	SF	Diego Schwartzman (12)	14	Win	6–3, 6–3, 7–6
	26 / 1200	W	Novak Djokovic (1)	1	Win (2)	6–0, 6–2, 7–5
Paris Masters Paris, France ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, indoor 2 – 8 November 2020
	–	1R	Bye
	27 / 1201	2R	Feliciano López	64	Win	4–6, 7–6, 6–4
	28 / 1202	3R	Jordan Thompson	61	Win	6–1, 7–6
	29 / 1203	QF	Pablo Carreño Busta (9)	15	Win	4–6, 7–5, 6–1
	30 / 1204	SF	Alexander Zverev (4)	7	Loss	4–6, 5–7
ATP Finals London, United Kingdom ATP Finals Hard, indoor 16 – 23 November 2020
	31 / 1205	RR	Andrey Rublev (7)	8	Win	6–3, 6–4
	32 / 1206	RR	Dominic Thiem (3)	3	Loss	6–7,6–7
	33 / 1207	RR	Stefanos Tsitsipas (6)	6	Win	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
	34 / 1208	SF	Daniil Medvedev (4)	4	Loss	6–3, 6–7, 3–6

Doubles matches

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponents (seed or key)	Ranks	Result	Score
ATP Cup Perth, Group B Sydney, Knockout stage Australia Laver Cup Hard, outdoor 3–12 January 2020 Partner: Pablo Carreño Busta
	1 / 210	RR	Ben McLachlan / Go Soeda	43 / NR	Win	7–6, 4–6,
	2 / 211	QF	Sander Gillé / Joran Vliegen	47 / 39	Win	6–7, 7–5,

Exhibition matches

Singles

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponent (seed or key)	Rank	Result	Score
2019 World Tennis Championship Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Exhibition Hard, outdoor 19 – 21 December 2019
	–	QF	Bye
	1	SF	Karen Khachanov (4)	17	Win	6–1, 6–3
	2	W	Stefanos Tsitsipas (3)	6	Win	6–7, 7–5, 7–6
The Match in Africa 6 Cape Town, South Africa Exhibition Hard, outdoor 7 February 2020
	2	–	Roger Federer	3	Loss	4–6, 6–3, 3–6
Atlanta Challenge Atlanta, United States Exhibition Hard, indoor 2 March 2020
	1	–	Grigor Dimitrov	19	Win	7–5, 6–3

Doubles

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponents (seed or key)	Ranks	Result	Score
The Match in Africa 6 Cape Town, South Africa Exhibition Hard, outdoor 7 February 2020 Partner: Trevor Noah
	1	–	Roger Federer / Bill Gates	– / –	Loss	3–6

Schedule

Per Rafael Nadal, the below was his 2020 schedule.

Singles schedule

Date	Tournament	Location	Tier	Surface	Prev. result	Prev. points	New points	Result
3 January 2020– 12 January 2020	ATP Cup	Perth & Sydney (AUS)	ATP Cup	Hard	N/A	N/A	250	Final (lost to Serbia, 1–2)
20 January 2020– 2 February 2020	Australian Open	Melbourne (AUS)	Grand Slam	Hard	F	1200	360	Quarterfinals (lost to Dominic Thiem, 6–7, 6–7, 6–4, 6–7)
24 February 2020– 29 February 2020	Mexican Open	Acapulco (MEX)	500 Series	Hard	R16	45	500	Champion (defeated Taylor Fritz, 6–3, 6–2)
9 March 2020– 22 March 2020	Indian Wells Masters	Indian Wells (USA)	Masters 1000	Hard	SF	360	360	Tournament cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
13 April 2020– 19 April 2020	Monte-Carlo Masters	Monte Carlo (MON)	Masters 1000	Clay	SF	360	360
22 April 2020- 28 April 2020	Barcelona Open	Barcelona (ESP)	500 Series	Clay	SF	180	180
4 May 2020– 10 May 2020	Madrid Open	Madrid (ESP)	Masters 1000	Clay	SF	360	360
29 June 2020– 12 July 2020	Wimbledon	London (GBR)	Grand Slam	Grass	SF	720	720
27 July 2020– 2 August 2020	Summer Olympics	Tokyo (JPN)	Olympic Games	Hard	N/A	N/A	0	Tournament postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
10 August 2020– 16 August 2020	Canadian Open	Montreal (CAN)	Masters 1000	Hard	W	1000	1000	Tournament cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
31 August 2020– 6 September 2020	US Open	New York (USA)	Grand Slam	Hard	W	2000	2000	Chose not to participate amid COVID-19 concerns.
14 September 2020– 20 September 2020	Italian Open	Rome (ITA)	Masters 1000	Clay	W	1000	1000	Quarterfinals (lost to Diego Schwartzman, 2–6, 5–7)
28 September 2020– 11 October 2020	French Open	Paris (FRA)	Grand Slam	Clay	W	2000	2000	Champion (defeated Novak Djokovic, 6–0, 6–2, 7–5)
2 November 2020– 8 November 2020	Paris Masters	Paris (FRA)	Masters 1000	Hard (i)	SF	360	360	Semifinals (lost to Alexander Zverev, 4–6, 5–7)
15 November 2020– 22 November 2020	ATP Finals	London (GBR)	Tour Finals	Hard (i)	RR	400	400	Semifinals (lost to Daniil Medvedev, 6–3, 6–7, 3–6)
Total year-end points						9985	9450	-495 difference

Doubles schedule

Date	Tournament	Location	Tier	Surface	Prev. result	Prev. points	New points	Result
3 January 2020– 12 January 2020	ATP Cup	Perth & Sydney (AUS)	ATP Cup	Hard	N/A	N/A	95	Final (lost to Serbia, 1–2)
9 March 2020– 22 March 2020	Indian Wells Masters	Indian Wells (USA)	Masters 1000	Hard	SF	360	N/A	Tournament cancelled due to the Coronavirus
Total year-end points						0	95	95 difference

Yearly records

Head-to-head matchups

Rafael Nadal has a 27–6 ATP match win–loss record in the 2020 season. His record against players who were part of the ATP rankings Top Ten at the time of their meetings is 3–4. Bold indicates player was ranked top 10 at the time of at least one meeting. The following list is ordered by number of wins:

• Pablo Carreño Busta 3–0
• Pablo Andújar 1–0
• Nikoloz Basilashvili 1–0
• Pablo Cuevas 1–0
• Federico Delbonis 1–0
• Hugo Dellien 1–0
• Grigor Dimitrov 1–0
• Taylor Fritz 1–0
• Egor Gerasimov 1–0
• Miomir Kecmanović 1–0
• Sebastian Korda 1–0
• Nick Kyrgios 1–0
• Dušan Lajović 1–0
• Feliciano López 1–0
• Mackenzie McDonald 1–0
• Alex de Minaur 1–0
• Yoshihito Nishioka 1–0
• Andrey Rublev 1–0
• Jannik Sinner 1–0
• Kwon Soon-woo 1–0
• Jordan Thompson 1–0
• Stefano Travaglia 1–0
• Stefanos Tsitsipas 1–0
• Novak Djokovic 1–1
• Diego Schwartzman 1–1
• David Goffin 0–1
• Alexander Zverev 0–1
• Dominic Thiem 0–2

* Statistics correct as of 19 November 2020.

Finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Feb 2020	Mexican Open, Mexico (3)	500 Series	Hard	Taylor Fritz	6–3, 6–2
Win	2–0	Oct 2020	French Open, France	Grand Slam	Clay	Novak Djokovic	6–0, 6–2, 7–5

Team competitions: (1 final)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner(s)	Opponents	Score
Final	0–1	Jan 2020	ATP Cup, Australia	ATP Cup	Hard (i)	Roberto Bautista Agut Pablo Carreño Busta Feliciano López Albert Ramos Viñolas	Nikola Čačić Novak Djokovic Dušan Lajović Nikola Milojević Viktor Troicki	1–2

Earnings

• Bold font denotes tournament win

Figures in United States dollars (USD) unless noted.

• source：2020 Singles Activity
• source：2020 Doubles Activity

Television

At the ATP Cup, Nadal's semifinals match versus Alex de Minaur averaged 320,000 viewers on Teledeporte, and his final match versus Novak Djokovic averaged 953,000 viewers on RTVE's La 1.

At the French Open, his semifinals match versus Diego Schwartzman averaged 403,000 viewers on DMAX and 232,000 viewers on Eurosport. His final match versus Djokovic averaged 1.5 million viewers on DMAX and 628,000 on Eurosport, combining for a 16.8% share.

At the ATP Finals, his semifinals match versus Daniil Medvedev averaged 274,000 vewiers on #Vamos.

See also

• 2020 ATP Tour
• 2020 Novak Djokovic tennis season
• 2020 Dominic Thiem tennis season

Notes

1. ^ Tournaments that were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic had their rankings adjusted - players can use the best result from 2019 or 2020 from the same Tour-level event. If a player’s 2019 result is better than his 2020 result, his 2020 result will not be included in his ranking breakdown. And for canceled tournaments player’s 2019 results will be included.

References

1. "24 countries field set for atp cup 2020". atptour.com. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
2. "ATP Cup Groups & Schedule Announced". ATP Tour. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
3. "Novak Djokovic leads Serbia to glory against Spain in inaugural ATP Cup". theguardian.com. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
4. Clarey, Christopher (29 January 2020). "Dominic Thiem Beats Rafael Nadal in Australian Open Quarterfinal". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
5. "Mexican Open: Rafael Nadal to face Taylor Fritz in men's final". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
6. "BNP Paribas Open Will Not Be Held As Scheduled Due To Coronavirus Concerns". Association of Tennis Professionals. March 8, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
7. "ATP Suspends Tour For Six Weeks Due To Public Health & Safety Issues Over COVID-19". Association of Tennis Professionals. March 12, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
8. "ATP & WTA Extend Suspension Of Tours". Association of Tennis Professionals. March 18, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
9. "ATP & WTA Announce Further Suspension Of Tours". Association of Tennis Professionals. April 1, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
10. "ATP, WTA suspend tennis tours through June 7, freeze player rankings". USA Today. Associated Press. March 18, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
11. "Roland-Garros 2020: from 20th Sep to 4th Oct". French Open. March 17, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
12. Clarey, Christopher (March 17, 2020). "The French Open Is Postponed, to the Surprise of the Tours". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
13. McCurry, Justin; Ingle, Sean (March 24, 2020). "Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021 due to coronavirus pandemic". The Guardian. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
14. "IOC, IPC, Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and Tokyo Metropolitan Government announce new dates for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020". International Olympic Committee. March 30, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
15. Fuller, Russell (April 1, 2020). "Wimbledon cancelled due to coronavirus - where does that leave tennis in 2020?". BBC. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
16. Clarey, Christopher (2020-08-04). "Rafael Nadal Won't Chase a Repeat of His U.S. Open Title". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
17. "Nadal: 'Now Is Not The Moment To Find Excuses'". atptour.com. 19 September 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
18. "Rafael Nadal wins 13th French Open with decisive victory over Novak Djokovic". www.yahoo.com. 11 October 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
19. "King Nadal continues Paris reign with record-equalling 20th Slam".
20. Robinson, Joshua (11 October 2020). "Rafael Nadal Wins His 20th Grand Slam Title with French Open Victory". Wall Street Journal.
21. "Rafael Nadal wins 13th French Open, claims 20th Grand Slam title". The Washington Post. 2020-10-11. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
22. "Rafael Nadal demolishes Novak Djokovic to win 13th French Open title". TheGuardian.com. 11 October 2020.
23. "Alexander Zverev overpowers Rafa Nadal at Paris Masters". CNN. 7 November 2020.
24. "Daniil Medvedev Stuns Rafael Nadal, to Play for Nitto ATP Finals Title | ATP Tour | Tennis".
25. "ATP Announces Adjustments To FedEx ATP Rankings Due To COVID-19". ATP. 6 July 2020.
26. "ATP Announces Adjustments To FedEx ATP Rankings Due To COVID-19". ATP. 6 July 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
27. "IOC, IPC, Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and Tokyo Metropolitan Government announce new dates for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020". olympic.org. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
28. ^ "ATP Issues Revised Calendar For Tour Resumption". ATP. 17 June 2020.
29. "Rafael Nadal won't play in US Open, cites coronavirus concerns". ESPN. 4 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
30. "Roland Garros 2020 Autumnal Dates". Rolandgarros. 2020-09-17. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
31. El cine de Trece lidera con "El reino de los cielos" y "Robin Hood: El magnífico" - Fórmula TV, 13 January 2020
32. TVE empieza con buen pie 2020 gracias a la ATP Cup - Diana E. Orozco, As, 16 January 2020
33. Nova arrasa con las seis emisiones más vistas del día, encabezando el ranking 'Fugitiva' con un 4,2% - Fórmula TV, 10 October 2020
34. Rafa Nadal puede contra Schwartzman en el Roland Garros que triunfa con un 2% en Eurosport - Fórmula TV, 10 October 2020
35. La victoria de Rafa Nadal en la final de Roland Garros lidera en DMAX con un fantástico 14,5% - Fórmula TV, 13 October 2020
36. Eurosport lidera ampliamente con la victoria de Nadal en el Roland Garros - Fórmula TV, 13 October 2020
37. El partido Atlético de Madrid-Barcelona lidera en Movistar LaLiga con un 6,3% - Fórmula TV, 23 November 2020

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)
• ATP tour profile

• Tennis
• Spain

• Rafael Nadal tennis seasons
• 2020 tennis player seasons
• 2020 in Spanish tennis
• 2020 in Spanish sport