In Barcelona, 10-time champ Nadal routs Goffin for 400th win on clay

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal has played just nine matches since retiring from his quarterfinal match at the 2018 Australian Open with a leg injury, but in that time he has already reached several milestones. He kicked off his clay-court campaign last week with two records: his 11th Monte Carlo title, and his 31st ATP Masters trophy.

When the Barcelona Open draw came out, the No. 1 seed faced a brutal section but has now found himself one win away from a record 11th crown with his 6-4, 6-0 win over Davin Goffin on Saturday.

The defending champion was broken in his opening service game, but Goffin’s lead was short-lived as Nadal broke back in the fourth game. The Belgian held his ground, going toe-to-toe with the man who is considered the greatest player on clay, until the 10th game, as Nadal broke to close out the set—and then ran away with the second set without losing a game.

Match point from Nadal's win over Goffin in Monte Carlo:

Like he’s done to most players on clay, Nadal was able to put Goffin in a deflected state. Despite coming out at full speed, the No. 4 seed had difficulty keeping up the momentum, mostly due to the Spaniard’s clay-court prowess. As we all know by now, breaking the Nadal code on clay is almost impossible even on a player's best day. Clearly, Goffin wasn't able to measure up on this day.

On Sunday, 19-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas will attempt to break the Nadal code in the final. The Greek player is having one of his best weeks on tour after defeating four seeds, including No. 3 seed Dominic Thiem, en route to his first ATP final, becoming the first Greek to reach an ATP World Tour final in 45 years.

Speaking of stats, Nadal has now won 400 clay-court tour matches—the fourth player in the Open era to do so, behind fellow left-handers Guillermo Vilas (659), Manuel Orantes (502), and Thomas Muster (422). The clay-court king is hoping to extend his clay-court winning streak to 19 on Sunday.

ATP Barcelona Outer Courts (4/23-4/26)

-Catch all the action from Barcelona with outer-court coverage live on Tennis Channel Plus beginning Monday April 23 at 5 a.m. ET