Rafael Nadal never won the ATP Finals, but it's not like he didn't have success there

Rafael Nadal has won almost everything of significance in tennis over the course of his career. Grand Slam singles titles? Twenty-two of them, and at least two from each pillar tournament. He’s won Olympic gold in singles and doubles, and held the Davis Cup five times—with another possibly on the way.

He also owns 36 Masters 1000 trophies, but if you want to get nitpicky about Rafa’s resume, this is where you could.

Despite reaching the Miami final five times—over a 12-year span—Nadal never won the Florida hard-court tournament. Apparently he took out his frustration on the three subsequent Masters events on the calendar, on clay in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome: he won those events a combined 26 times.

⬆️ WATCH: Rafael Nadal arrives in Málaga for Davis Cup—the final tournament of his career ⬆️

Then there’s the Paris Masters. Nadal’s success in the City of Light is unparalleled, but on Paris’ indoor courts, he failed to shine brightest. Did you know he only played Bercy nine times? Still, he reached the semifinals or better there five times.

That brings us to the ATP Finals, once known as the Tennis Masters Cup. You could posit that Nadal’s lack of success at the Paris Masters was because we wanted to prepare, and preserve, himself for the season-ending championship; three times he skipped Bercy but played the ATP Finals. But a championship run never materialized, and a trophy at the exclusive, elite-eight tournament is the biggest omission on Nadal’s otherwise otherworldly resume. Novak Djokovic won it seven times, Roger Federer six times, Andy Murray once. None for Nadal, though.

But it isn’t like Rafa was an also-ran at the ATP Finals. Quite the contrary, as we go back down memory lane:

2015: A scintillating semifinal with Murray

Overall, Nadal went 21-18 at the ATP Finals, with two runner-up finishes. In 2010, 2013 and 2015, Nadal won all three of his round-robin matches. While 2015 ended with a semifinal loss to Djokovic (more on him later), he reached the title bout the other two years.

Let’s start in 2010. Nadal followed up round-robin wins over Andy Roddick, Djokovic and sometimes-nemesis Tomas Berdych with a scintillating, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6) escape of Murray. An entire Reddit thread is dedicated to their “intense match point.”

There wasn’t a deuce point played in the first set, and Murray saved a match point to push Nadal into the dramatic extra session. But the Spaniard saved his best tennis for last.

“If there has been a better tennis match in recent times than the one in which Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray to reach the final of the ATP World Tour Finals against Roger Federer, it must have been played on another planet,” wrote Kevin Mitchell of The Guardian, just two years after the Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final classic.

After three hours and 11 minutes, even the match loser had to agree.

“It was a great match,” Murray said. “Today is why I play tennis.”

2013: Beating Federer the hard way

The quality of Nadal’s 2013 semifinal victory over Federer didn’t match his mastery of Murray three years earlier, but this win is notable: it is Rafa’s only conquest of Roger at the ATP Finals.

The legends collided four times at the season-ending championships, with Federer prevailing in the 2007 semis (a one-sided affair that featured a brilliant winner on match point), the 2010 final (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) and, in lopsided fashion, the 2011 round-robin stage (6-3, 6-0).

But in what would be their final meeting at this event, Nadal bested his one of his best friends, 7-5, 6-3, in just an hour and 19 minutes. It was Federer’s first loss to Nadal in five indoor matches, and it would be Nadal’s second-to-last win over Federer on a hard court (the last would come just a few months later, in the Australian Open semifinals). It also sent Nadal to his 14^th final of the season—a career high.

“The most satisfying thing always is the tournament more than the personal victories,” said Nadal. “To be able to win the final is much more important than any victory against any opponent.”

While he wouldn’t go on to win the tournament, Nadal can surely look back on this performance proudly.

2019: An improbable win, and an unfortunate exit

One of Nadal’s most impressive ATP Finals came in a year that saw him fail to advance past the round-robin stage. In 2019, he lost his first match to Alexander Zverev, 6-2, 6-4. When Nadal trailed Daniil Medvedev by 5-1 in the third set of his next match, his title hopes appeared all but extinguished.

In the seventh game, Rafa saved a match point—and then improbably came all the way back to win. He followed that with another marathon victory, over Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5.

“Sorry for Daniil, it’s a tough loss,” said Nadal of the Medvedev match. “He was playing much better than me in the third, today is one of the days one out of 1,000 you win.”

The odds were perhaps with Nadal against the Russian, but he got some worse luck after his win over Tsitsipas: Zverev’s subsequent victory over Medvedev kept Rafa from advancing despite a 2-1 record. It’s the only time Nadal won two round-robin matches at the ATP Finals but failed to reach the final four.

2007 & 2010: Knocking off Novak

Let’s end this Rafa rewind on more positive notes: his two wins over Djokovic at a tournament the Serbian would come to own.

In 2007, Nadal defeated Djokovic 6-4, 6-1 in the round-robin stage. Three years later, Nadal did it again, in the same stage, 7-5, 6-2.

Djokovic would beat Nadal three times at the ATP Finals: once in round-robin play, once in the semifinals (2015) and once in the final (2013). But to have two victories over the eventual seven-time champion—who is 50-18 at the ATP Finals—is something only four other players can claim.

“Only thing I am sure,” Nadal said after his 2013 final-round loss to Djokovic, “I gonna try to keep working hard and hopefully I will be healthy to keep competing the way that I am doing.”

Nadal’s persistence wouldn’t lead to a title at this event, but it would bring about another decade of matches and memories elsewhere.