ROME: Diego Schwartzman joined a very unique club at the Italian Open as he became only the 24th player to beat Rafael Nadal in an ATP Tour-level match on the red dirt.
Nadal is not known as the King of Clay for nothing as he has a 91.5% success rate on the surface. Of the 479 matches he has played on the red dirt, he has won an astonishing 436 matches, winning 59 titles, with the defeat against Schwartzman only his 40th loss.
It was a case of 10th time lucky for Schwartzman as he had lost his previous nine encounters against Nadal, but he finally tasted success in Rome.
The Argentine is only the 10th active player to have achieved the feat with the others being Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Fernando Verdasco, Fabio Fognini, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, Pablo Cuevas and Stefanos Tsitispas.
World No 1 Djokovic has the best head-to-head record against the 12-time Roland Garros champion on clay as he has beaten him seven times with the first coming in Madrid in 2011 and the last one in Rome in 2016.
Newly-crowned US Open champion Thiem has four wins over Nadal with Fognini and Gaston Gaudio three while David Ferrer, Federer and Murray two each.
There are 17 players who have claimed one win over the Spaniard on clay with Olivier Rochus from Belgium the first player to do so when he beat Nadal in two sets in Mallorca in 2002 and Schwartzman joined that list on Saturday.
The other 15 players are Guillermo Coria, Alex Corretja, Nicolas Lapentti, Fernando Gonzalez, Carlos Moya, Olivier Mutis, Igor Andreev, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Robin Soderling, Verdasco, Horacio Zeballos, Nicolas Almagro, Stan Wawrinka, Cuevas and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Agencies
Full list of Nadal's 40 defeats on clay:
1. Olivier Rochus d. Nadal (WC) 6-2, 6-2 Mallorca 2002
2. Guillermo Coria d. Nadal (Q) 7-6(3), 6-2 Monte Carlo 2003
3. Alex Corretja (8) d. Nadal (WC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 Barcelona 2003
4. Gaston Gaudio d. Nadal (Q) 6-2, 6-2 Hamburg 2003
5. Nicolas Lapentti (6) d. Nadal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) Bastad 2003
6. Fernando Gonzalez (6) d. Nadal 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 Stuttgart 2003
7. Carlos Moya (1) d. Nadal (6) 6-4, 6-4 Umag 2003
8. Gaston Gaudio (2) d. Nadal 6-2, 6-3 Bastad 2004
9. David Ferrer (11) d. Nadal (14) 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5 Stuttgart 2004
10. Olivier Mutis d. Nadal (6) 6-3, 6-3 Palermo 2004
11. Gaston Gaudio (2) d. Nadal (7) 0-6, 6-0, 6-1 Buenos Aires 2005
12. Igor Andreev (7) d. Nadal (3) 7-5, 6-2 Valencia 2005
13. Roger Federer (1) d. Nadal (2) 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 Hamburg 2007
14. Juan Carlos Ferrero d. Nadal (2) 7-5, 6-1 Rome 2008
15. Roger Federer (2) d. Nadal (1) 6-4, 6-4 Madrid 2009
16. Robin Soderling (23) d. Nadal (1) 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(2) Roland Garros 2009
17. Novak Djokovic (2) d. Nadal (1) 7-5, 6-4 Madrid 2011
18. Novak Djokovic (2) d. Nadal (1) 6-4, 6-4 Rome 2011
19. Fernando Verdasco (15) d. Nadal (2) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 Madrid 2012
20. Horacio Zeballos d. Nadal (1) 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-4 Vina del Mar 2013
21. Novak Djokovic (1) d. Nadal (3) 6-2, 7-6(1) Monte Carlo 2013
22. David Ferrer (6) d. Nadal (1) 7-6(1), 6-4 Monte Carlo 2014
23. Nicolas Almagro (6) d. Nadal (1) 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 Barcelona 2014
24. Novak Djokovic (2) d. Nadal (1) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 Rome 2014
25. Fabio Fognini (4) d. Nadal (1) 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 Rio de Janeiro 2015
26. Novak Djokovic (1) d. Nadal (3) 6-3, 6-3 Monte Carlo 2015
27. Fabio Fognini (13) d. Nadal (2) 6-4, 7-6(6) Barcelona 2015
28. Andy Murray (2) d. Nadal (3) 6-3, 6-2 Madrid 2015
29. Stan Wawrinka (8) d. Nadal (4) 7-6(7), 6-2 Rome 2015
30. Novak Djokovic (1) d. Nadal (6) 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 Roland Garros 2015
31. Dominic Thiem (5) d. Nadal (1) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) Buenos Aires 2016
32. Pablo Cuevas d. Nadal (1) 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 6-4 Rio de Janeiro 2016
33. Andy Murray (2) d. Nadal (5) 7-5, 6-4 Madrid 2016
34. Novak Djokovic (1) d. Nadal (5) 7-5, 7-6(4) Rome 2016
35. Dominic Thiem (8) d. Nadal (4) 6-4, 6-3 Rome 2017
36. Dominic Thiem (5) d. Nadal (1) 7-5, 6-3 Madrid 2018
37. Fabio Fognini (13) d. Nadal (2) 6-4, 6-2 Monte Carlo 2019
38. Dominic Thiem (3) d. Nadal (1) 6-4, 6-4 Barcelona 2019
39. Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) d. Nadal (2) 6-4, 2-6 6-3 Madrid 2019
40. Diego Schwartzman (8) d. Nadal (2) 6-2, 7-5 Rome 2020
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