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Gianluca Costantini
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Rafael Nadal: Who can stop the ‘King of Clay’ at the French Open?

By Ravi Ubha, CNN
Updated 1429 GMT (2229 HKT) May 21, 2018

Perhaps the question heading into next week’s French Open should be: “Who can take a set off Rafael Nadal?” instead of “Who can beat Nadal?'”The Spaniard, dubbed the “King of Clay,” is the white-hot favorite to land a record-extending 11th title at Roland Garros. And given he recently set the men’s record for most consecutive tennis sets won — all on his beloved clay — it would be some stretch to look elsewhere for a winner.Take this stunning statistic: Nadal owns a 79-2 win-loss record at the French Open, where the best-of-five set format makes the 31-year-old even harder to defeat. He’s only lost to Sweden’s Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal in 2015. Continue

Roland Garros / Cnn

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