Rafael Nadal is way more focused on winning matches than winning sets—consecutively on clay. The talk of Wednesday at the Mutua Madrid Open has been Nadal’s run of 48 consecutive sets won on clay, which leaves the King of Clay just one shy of the all-time surface-specific record for consecutive sets won.
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That 34 year old record is held by John McEnroe, who won 49 straight on indoor carpet during his remarkable 1984 that saw him go 82-3 overall. None of it matters to Nadal, however. The Spaniard is saying thanks but no thanks to the media buzz. He just wants to win the tournament.
“Believe me that when I am gonna go on court tomorrow my only goal is gonna be to try to play my best and try to win the match,” he said. “I don’t want to think about these things. If it happens later—okay… Being honest, I don’t know if these kind of records are very important, I won’t say I don’t care because it’s better to have these kind of things than to not have them, but I am in a tennis tournament and I think about that—nothing else.”