Rafael Nadal, one of the all-time best tennis players with 20 Grand Slam titles under his belt, marked another watershed moment in his career Wednesday when he won his 1,000th tour match.
KEY FACTS
With his victory over fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez at the Rolex Paris Masters, Nadal officially won his 1,000th tour-level match.
It took Nadal about 18 years to hit 1,000, having won his first in Mallorca, Spain in 2002.
Nadal is only the fourth tennis pro in history to hit four-figure wins, following i greats like Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Nadal rival Roger Federer, according to the ATP Tour.
Just last month, Nadal won the French Open, giving him his 20th Grand Slam title and tying him with Federer for the male player with the most Grand Slam titles in history.
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CRUCIAL QUOTE
“[Winning 1,000 matches] means that I am old. That means that I played well for such a very long time,” Nadal said, according to the tour. “I have been playing well for a lot of years and [that] is something that makes me feel happy.”
KEY BACKGROUND
Besides his wins on the court, Nadal is one of the most commercially successful athletes. Forbes ranked him in May at #27 of the world’s top-paid athletes, with an estimated $40 million in earnings up to that point in 2020. Since going professional in 2001, he has collected $121 million in prize money and can fetch seven-figure fees for appearances, according to Forbes.
-By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff
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