Stat of the Day: Beating Rafael Nadal in back-to-back weeks

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Tuesday, Nadal withdrew from Toronto, citing the left foot injury that previously sidelined him.

Lloyd Harris pulled off the biggest win of his career last Thursday night, taking out Rafael Nadal, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, in the third round of Washington D.C.

When the South African faces Nadal again in the second round of Toronto on Wednesday, though, he’ll be going for something even bigger—historic, even.

No one has ever beaten Nadal twice in six days.

One player has beaten Nadal twice in a seven-day span—Novak Djokovic beat him in back-to-back finals at Madrid and Rome on Sunday, May 8th and Sunday, May 15th, 2011. Even more impressive is that those matches were on Nadal’s best surface (clay) and both wins were in straight sets (7-5, 6-4 and 6-4, 6-4).

That’s the only time anyone’s ever beaten Nadal in back-to-back weeks.

Four players—including Djokovic four times—have beaten Nadal at back-to-back ATP events that Nadal has played, though in all of the other instances there was more than a week in between those matches (and in a few cases, an entire off-season):

~ David Nalbandian: 2007 Madrid QFs, 2007 Paris F
~ Novak Djokovic: 2009 Paris SFs, 2009 ATP Finals RR
~ Nikolay Davydenko: 2009 ATP Finals RR, 2010 Doha F
~ Novak Djokovic: 2011 Indian Wells F, 2011 Miami F
~ Novak Djokovic: 2011 Madrid F, 2011 Rome F
~ Novak Djokovic: 2015 ATP Finals SFs, 2016 Doha F
~ Roger Federer: 2017 Indian Wells 4th Rd, 2017 Miami F