Rafael Nadal enters 1,000-wins club

PARIS: Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has added yet another feather to his already illustrious cap by becoming only the fourth tennis player to register 1000 Open Era single wins.

On Wednesday, Nadal defeated Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to reach the third round of the ongoing Paris Masters.

The Spaniard is the fourth player to reach the milestone in the Open Era, joining Jimmy Connors (1,274-283), Roger Federer (1,242-271) and Ivan Lendl (1,068-242). The 34-year-old leads all players in the Open Era with an 83.3 winning per cent (1,000-201).

"(Winning 1,000 matches) means that I am old. That means that I played well for such a very long time, because to achieve that number is because I have been playing well for a lot of years and (that) is something that makes me feel happy," Nadal was quoted as saying by the ATP Tour website.

"I just can say thank you very much to all the people that helped me and all the people that in any moment of my life helped me to be where I am," he added.

The 13-time Roland Garros champion, who is aiming to capture his first Paris Masters title, will now face Jordan Thompson for a place in the quarter-finals. The 2007 runner-up has reached the quarter-finals or better in each of his previous seven tournament appearances. IANS

Nadal's first tour-level victory came in May 2002 when the 15-year-old, ranked in the lower 580s that month, beat Paraguay's Ramon Delgado, then ranked 81, in the first round of his hometown tournament of the Mallorca Open.

n Record in deciding sets: 164-73

The Spaniard's record in deciding sets, both third and fifth sets in 164-73. That's a win percentage of about 69.2%. In just the fifth set, he stands at 22-12 -- almost 65%.

n 1000-201

Nadal's tour-level win-loss record now stands at 1000-201, which translates to a winning percentage of 83.3%.

n Career title : 86

Nadal's career singles title count, which is fourth on the men's all-time list, behind Connors (109), Federer (103) and Lendl (94), and ahead of Novak Djokovic (81) and John McEnroe (77).

n Record vs Top 10

172-92

Nadal's win-loss record against Top 10 players, a win rate of over 65%.

n Grand Slams record: 282-39

Nadal's win-loss record at the Grand Slams, translating to a winning percentage of almost 88%. What this also means is that over a third -- about 35.5%, to be exact -- of Nadal's wins at majors have come at Roland Garros.

n Masters 1000 record: 387-80

The Spaniard's win-loss record at Masters 1000 events, a win percentage of almost 83%. Nadal has won 35 Masters 1000 titles, second only to Djokovic (36) since such events were introduced in 1990. Federer is third on the list with 28 Masters 1000 titles.

n Record by surface:

CLAY: 445-40 :- Nadal's win-loss record so far on clay. With a win rate of almost 92% and 60 titles, clay is obviously his best surface by far.

HARD COURT : 482-135 :- The Spaniard's win-loss record so far on hard courts, counting Wednesday's win on the indoor hardcourts in Paris. With a winning percentage just over 78 and 22 titles, hard courts are Nadal's second-best surface.

GRASS: 71-20:- Nadal's record on grass. With a win rate of 78% and four titles, grass is generally considered Nadal's weakest surface.

CARPET: 2-6:- Nadal's record on carpet, a very fast removable type of court whose use has been discontinued by the ATP since 2009.

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