Rafael Nadal won his 50th consecutive set on clay on Thursday to break John McEnroe’s 34-year record and beat Diego Schwartzman at the Madrid Open.
Nadal’s comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory took him into the quarter-finals in the Spanish capital and means he sets a new Open era best for the longest streak of victorious sets on a single surface.
McEnroe’s 49-set winning streak on carpet in 1984 included him clinching the Madrid Indoor Open title and Nadal may well be about to follow suit.
He will play Austria’s Dominic Thiem on Friday for a place in the last four, incidentally the last man to beat the Spaniard on clay at Rome last year.
Nadal had insisted before the match this latest milestone had barely crossed his mind but if nothing else, it is testament to the 31-year-old’s relentless consistency over the past 12 months.
The run includes tournament triumphs in Barcelona, Monte Carlo and last year’s French Open, where he will be the clear favourite later this month to claim a 17th major crown.
Meanwhile, there is this response from the man himself
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