Most consecutive sets won on a single surface

Rafael Nadal (Spain) won 50 consecutive sets on clay between 29 May 2017 and 10 May 2018. Nadal’s winning streak featured tournament victories at the 2017 French Open (20 sets won, including one incomplete set due to the retirement of his opponent), the 2018 Monte-Carlo Masters (10 sets) and the 2018 Barcelona Open (10 sets), plus two Davis Cup ties in Valencia, Spain, in April 2018 (six sets) and second- and third-round wins at the 2018 Madrid Open (four sets), where a quarter-final defeat to Austria’s Dominic Thiem ended the clay-court king’s impressive run.

The 50 sets of tennis came in 21 matches and were bookended by quarter-final defeats to Thiem at the Italian Open on 19 May 2017 and the 2018 Madrid Open. Conversely, Nadal recorded comfortable wins against Thiem on his way to claiming the 2017 French Open and the 2018 Monte-Carlo Masters.

The closest Nadal came to losing one of the 50 sets was against Slovak qualifier Martin Klizan during their quarter-final match at the 2018 Barcelona Open. Nadal came through 7-5. He won the other 49 sets by a score of 6-4 or better.

The record was set when he completed a 6-3, 6-4 third-round win against Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman at the Madrid Open on 10 May 2018. The following day, fifth seed Thiem beat Nadal 7-5, 6-3 to end the winning streak.

- The record was previously held by John McEnroe (USA), who won 49 straight sets on carpet between 24 February and 28 September 1984 on his way to producing an unprecedented (in the open era) single-season win rate of 96.5% (82 matches won, three defeats), an achievement that remains unbroken to this day.