2012 Rafael Nadal tennis season

Year summary

Asian/Pacific hard court season and Australian Open

Nadal began his World Tour season at the Qatar Open. He beat Philipp Kohlschreiber and qualifier Denis Gremelmayr in rounds one and two and then won against seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny. In the semifinal he played poorly and lost to Gaël Monfils in two routine sets.

Australian Open

In the Australian Open Nadal began the tournament by breezing past qualifier Alex Kuznetsov of United States. The second round against Tommy Haas, who has never won a set against Rafael, was a little tighter but Nadal again advanced in three straight sets. He outwitted compatriot Feliciano López in fourth round and won in the quarterfinals in an epic four-set match against Tomáš Berdych, who was playing at a high-level. He then beat Roger Federer, who was riding a 24-match win streak heading into the match, in a four-set match in the semifinals. With his win, he reached the finals of all four Grand Slams consecutively. It was one of two times in which Nadal reached consecutive hardcourt major finals, later doing so between the 2013 US Open and 2014 Australian Open. In the final, on 29 January, he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in five sets, the match being the longest ever match for a Grand Slam title. The epic final lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes. They set a new world record, breaking the latest longest major singles final between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, which lasted 4 hours and 54 minutes, at the US Open in 1988.

US hard court season

At Indian Wells, Nadal made it to the semifinals, where he was beaten by Roger Federer, who went on to win the tournament. However, he won the Doubles event of the tournament for the second time in succession after beating John Isner and Sam Querrey in the final.

He also made the semifinals in Miami, but withdrew because of problems with his knee, the hard-court season taking its toll on his weak spot once again.

European clay court season and the French Open

As the clay court season started, Nadal was seeded 2nd at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in April. He was troubled in his opening round by seed number 47, Nieminen of Finland, but prevailed in two sets. He then went on to clinch his 8th Monte Carlo trophy in 9 tries by beating Qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin, easing through Stanislas Wawrinka, and defeating Gilles Simon in the Semifinal, before topping World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final. This ended a streak of 7 straight final losses to Djokovic, which began at the 2011 Indian Wells Masters Final. Novak admitted that Nadal was just a better player, when asked whether the death of his grandfather early at the beginning of the tournament was affecting his whole play.

A day after the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Final, Nadal traveled to Barcelona where he received a 'bye' in the first round. His tremendous record on clay continued as he beat compatriot David Ferrer to clinch his seventh title in eight years at the Barcelona Open.

The Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open did not go very well for Nadal since he lost early in the 3R to Fernando Verdasco. Nadal stated that he was very unhappy with the new blue-colored clay and threatened not to attend in the future if the surface was not changed. Several other players such as Novak Djokovic agreed with Nadal in his criticism.

In the last tournament before the French Open Nadal went to Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. He won every single match in two sets finishing with his second victory over Novak Djokovic and his third title in 2012.

French Open

At the French Open, Nadal managed to win all six matches before facing Novak Djokovic in the final, in which Nadal won in four sets. During the entire tournament, Nadal only lost a single set (against Djokovic in the final). With his seventh championship victory at Roland Garros, Nadal became the most successful tennis player at the French Open. It was his fifth consecutive major final, his personal best streak of reaching a major final.

Throughout the entire Clay court season, Nadal did not drop a single set on the red clay across 3 tournaments and 23 matches, which started in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, BNL d'Italia and was ended by Novak Djokovic in the Final of the French Open. He collected 5 bagels along the way (a bagel is a score of 6–0 in a set of a tennis match).

European grass court season, Wimbledon Championships and the Summer Olympics

For the first time since his debut in 2005, Nadal revisited the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. There he enrolled in both the Doubles and Singles events. He partnered up with Marcel Granollers as his Doubles teammate as well as "hitting company." After disappointing Quarter Finals losses at both the Singles and Doubles events of the Gerry Weber, Rafael Nadal took a week off from the tour and took a visit to his hometown, Manacor.

Wimbledon Championships

Wimbledon Championships did not go well for Nadal and was a disaster for him. He lost early in the second round to Lukáš Rosol in 5 sets in one of the greatest shocks in Grand Slam history. Rosol then succumbed to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the following round. After his loss, Nadal was off into yet another rest, this time in Sardinia.

London Olympics

Nadal's second appearance at the Summer Olympics, saw him chosen by the Spanish Sports Federation as the flag-bearer of Spain. He gained automatic entry to the Men's Singles Event, was the defending champion, and was the pre-tournament favourite to retain the gold medal, despite his early exit from Wimbledon in June.

But on 19 July, Nadal stated that he will be withdrawing from the Olympics citing a knee injury as his issue.

Summer US hard court season

After he withdrew from the London Olympics due to knee tendinitis, Nadal missed the rest of the US Open Series, leading up to the US Open, stating that he will not return to court before the recovery.

U.S. Open

On 15 August, Nadal announced via Twitter that he was withdrawing from the 2012 US Open (tennis). He had already withdrawn from the 2012 Rogers Cup and the 2012 Western & Southern Open.

Autumn season

On 3 September, Nadal announced on his homepage that he would not play for the next two months in order to rest and allow his knee to recover. He ultimately missed the remainder of the 2012 season, having received qualification for the ATP World Tour Finals in London after his second round exit from Wimbledon, before pulling out due to injury. Despite missing the final four months of the season, Nadal managed to finish ranked No. 4 in the world, his lowest year-end ranking in eight years.

Nadal stated in his announcement: "I have missed the Olympics and the US Open in the last few weeks, two of the most important tournaments of the year and that I really wanted to play. I really want to be back competing and enjoying the tennis tour, but I have many years in front of me and my knee needs some rest. I will be back when I have no pain and able to compete with guarantee[...]."

All matches

Singles matches

Doubles matches

Tournament schedule

Singles schedule

Nadal's 2012 singles tournament schedule is as follows:

1 The symbol (i) = indoors means that the respective tournament will be held indoors.

2 Difference between new points and previous points. ATP Points Distribution.

Yearly records

Head-to-head matchups

Ordered by number of wins

• ESP David Ferrer 3–0
• SRB Novak Djokovic 3–1
• CZE Tomáš Berdych 2–0
• ESP Marcel Granollers 2–0
• SVK Lukáš Lacko 2–0
• USA Alex Kuznetsov 1–0
• SRB Janko Tipsarević 1–0
• GER Denis Gremelmayr 1–0
• GER Tommy Haas 1–0
• GER Florian Mayer 1–0
• RUS Mikhail Youzhny 1–0
• RUS Nikolay Davydenko 1–0
• JPN Kei Nishikori 1–0
• CZE Radek Štěpánek 1–0
• ARG Juan Mónaco 1–0
• ARG David Nalbandian 1–0
• ARG Leonardo Mayer 1–0
• ARG Eduardo Schwank 1–0
• FIN Jarkko Nieminen 1–0
• KAZ Mikhail Kukushkin 1–0
• SUI Stanislas Wawrinka 1–0
• UKR Alexandr Dolgopolov 1–0
• ITA Simone Bolelli 1–0
• UZB Denis Istomin 1–0
• COL Robert Farah 1–0
• COL Santiago Giraldo 1–0
• FRA Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 1–0
• FRA Gilles Simon 1–0
• ESP Feliciano López 1–0
• ESP Guillermo García López 1–0
• ESP Nicolás Almagro 1–0
• BRA Thomaz Bellucci 1–0
• GER Philipp Kohlschreiber 1–1
• ESP Fernando Verdasco 1–1
• SUI Roger Federer 1–1
• CZE Lukáš Rosol 0–1
• FRA Gaël Monfils 0–1

References

References

1. [https://deportesinc.com/ganancias-de-rafael-nadal/ El patrimonio de Rafael Nadal]
2. (January 5, 2012). "Federer and Nadal stay on course for final showdown". Yahoo! Sports.
3. (6 January 2012). "Monfils upsets Nadal to set up all-French Qatar final". [[Reuters]].
4. (January 16, 2012). "Nadal eases to 1st-round win at Australian Open". Yahoo! Sports.
5. (18 January 2012). "Nadal beats Haas as Federer puts feet up at Aussie Open". Yahoo! Sports}}{{Dead link.
6. Tennis.com. (2012-01-24). "Australian Open: Nadal d. Berdych".
7. Mitchell, Kevin. (2012-01-26). "Rafael Nadal triumphs over Roger Federer in epic Australian Open semi". The Guardian.
8. "Ultimate Tennis Statistics - Rafael Nadal".
9. (January 30, 2012). "Longest Men's Singles Championship Final". ESPN Sports.
10. "Stars not happy with Madrid".
11. "Ultimate Tennis Statistics - Grand Slam Final Streak".
12. Carroll, Michael. (19 June 2012). "London 2012: Why Rafael Nadal Will Sport Gold at 2012 Olympic Games". Bleacher Report.
13. Quinn, Sam R.. (15 August 2012). "Rafael Nadal's Withdrawal from US Open Reason for Tennis Fans to Worry". Bleacher Report.
14. "Archived copy".
15. [http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Rafael-Nadal.aspx?t=rb Rafael Nadal at the ATP website]