The 2020 Rafael Nadal tennis season officially began on 3 January 2020, in the first round at the inaugural 2020 ATP Cup Group B venues in Perth.

Yearly summary Early hard court season

ATP Cup Nadal started his season at the inaugural ATP Cup as part of the Spanish squad. Nadal will be playing in singles along with compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut, while the doubles team will consist of Feliciano López and Pablo Carreño Busta. Spain was placed in Group B and will play their round-robin matches against Japan, Uruguay, and Georgia in Perth.

In Nadal's round-robin singles matches, he defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili, Pablo Cuevas and Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets. Nadal also played in the doubles match against Japan, along with Carreño Busta, and won the match in three sets. The Spanish team then moved on to Sydney to play in the QF. In the singles in QF, Nadal faced David Goffin, to whom he lost the match in straight sets. However, because compatriot Bautista Agut won his singles match, and Nadal and Carreño Busta won in the doubles, Spain moved on to the SF against Australia. There, Nadal defeated Alex de Minaur in the singles in 3 sets, and combined with Bautista Agut's defeat of Nick Kyrgios in straight sets earlier, moved Spain to the ATP Cup Final. In the final, they played against Serbia, with Nadal's singles match against World No. 2 Novak Djokovic. Nadal lost the match in straight sets to Djokovic, and with Spain's loss in doubles, Team Serbia won the ATP Cup.

Australian Open

Nadal's second tournament of the season will be the 2020 Australian Open. He won his first two matches against Hugo Dellien and Federico Delbonis in straight sets. He defeated compatriot and the 27th seed Pablo Carreño Busta in the 3rd round, again in straight sets. He defeated Nick Kyrgios in 4 sets the 4th round. However, he lost to World No. 5 Dominic Thiem in 4 sets at the QF.

Mexican Open Nadal's first tournament following the Australian Open was the Mexican Open. He defeated Pablo Andujar, Miomir Kecmanović, and Kwon Soon-woo, all in straight sets to set up a semi-final encounter with Grigor Dimitrov. He was able to defeat Dimitrov easily in straight sets to reach his first final in Acapulco since 2017, and his first final for the 2020 season. He defeated Taylor Fritz in the final in straight sets, to win his third title in Acapulco and his first title in 2020.

Season hiatus On March 8, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season went on indefinite hiatus. The following measures were taken:

The ATP and WTA announced the suspension of their 2020 tournaments until July 13. On March 18, the ATP froze their player rankings. On March 17, the French Tennis Federation announced the decision of postponing the French Open, to be held now from September 20 to October 4, 2020. On March 24, after talks between Japan's prime minister and the International Olympic Committee president, the 2020 Summer Olympics were officially postponed to 2021. On March 30, the various organising entities reached an agreement to hold the Olympics between July 23 and August 8, 2021. On April 1, the All England Club announced the decision of cancelling Wimbledon, opting to focus on the 2021 edition of the tournament.

Clay Court Season

Nadal opted to skip the Western and Southern Open and the US Open to prepare for the clay court season.

Italian Open Nadal's first match back was against fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, which he won 6–1, 6–1. In the next round, he played Serb Dušan Lajović, whom he defeated 6–1, 6–3. In the QF, he lost to Diego Schwartzman 2–6, 5–7.

French Open

Nadal won his 13th Roland Garros title, beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the tournament's final, only losing seven games. In doing so, he won his 20th Grand Slam title, equalling Roger Federer's record as the man with the most number of Grand Slam titles. It also marked his 100th win at the tournament, losing only twice in 16 years. His straight-sets victory over Djokovic marked also the 4th time that he won a Grand Slam without losing a set, all at the French Open doing it also in 2008, 2010 and 2017. Nadal also became the first player to defeat Djokovic in a completed match all year, Djokovic being 37–1 on the season prior to the loss to Nadal, with his only loss being the us open default.

European indoor hard court season Paris Masters Nadal lost to Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.

Nitto ATP Finals

Nadal defeated Andrey Rublev in his first round robin match. Two days later he lost to Dominic Thiem in two incredibly tight sets. He qualified for the semifinals with a three set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. In the semis he faced Daniil Medvedev, and despite serving for a straight sets win, he lost in three sets, ending his bid to win his first ever title at the season ending event.

All matches This table chronicles all the matches of Rafael Nadal in 2020.

Singles matches

Doubles matches

Exhibition matches Singles

Doubles

Schedule Per Rafael Nadal, the below was his 2020 schedule.

Singles schedule DateTournamentLocationTierSurfacePrev.resultPrev.pointsNewpointsResult 3 January 2020–12 January 2020 ATP Cup Perth & Sydney (AUS) ATP Cup Hard N/A N/A 250 Final (lost to Serbia, 1–2) 20 January 2020–2 February 2020 Australian Open Melbourne (AUS) Grand Slam Hard F 1200 360 Quarterfinals (lost to Dominic Thiem, 6–7(3–7), 6–7(4–7), 6–4, 6–7(6–8)) 24 February 2020–29 February 2020 Mexican Open Acapulco (MEX) 500 Series Hard R16 45 500 Champion (defeated Taylor Fritz, 6–3, 6–2) 9 March 2020–22 March 2020 Indian Wells Masters Indian Wells (USA) Masters 1000 Hard SF 360 360 Tournament cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.13 April 2020– 19 April 2020Monte-Carlo MastersMonte Carlo (MON)Masters 1000ClaySF360360 22 April 2020- 28 April 2020Barcelona OpenBarcelona (ESP)500 SeriesClaySF180180 4 May 2020– 10 May 2020Madrid OpenMadrid (ESP)Masters 1000ClaySF360360 29 June 2020– 12 July 2020WimbledonLondon (GBR)Grand SlamGrassSF720720 27 July 2020– 2 August 2020Summer OlympicsTokyo (JPN)Olympic GamesHardN/AN/A0 Tournament postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.10 August 2020– 16 August 2020Canadian OpenMontreal (CAN)Masters 1000HardW10001000 Tournament cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.31 August 2020– 6 September 2020US OpenNew York (USA)Grand SlamHardW20002000 Chose not to participate amid COVID-19 concerns.14 September 2020– 20 September 2020Italian OpenRome (ITA)Masters 1000ClayW10001000 Quarterfinals (lost to Diego Schwartzman, 2–6, 5–7) 28 September 2020–11 October 2020 French Open Paris (FRA) Grand Slam Clay W 2000 2000 Champion (defeated Novak Djokovic, 6–0, 6–2, 7–5)2 November 2020– 8 November 2020Paris MastersParis (FRA)Masters 1000Hard (i)SF360360Semifinals (lost to Alexander Zverev, 4–6, 5–7)15 November 2020– 22 November 2020ATP FinalsLondon (GBR)Tour FinalsHard (i)RR400400Semifinals (lost to Daniil Medvedev, 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 3–6)Total year-end points 9985 9450 -495 difference

Doubles schedule DateTournamentLocationTierSurfacePrev.resultPrev.pointsNewpointsResult 3 January 2020–12 January 2020 ATP Cup Perth & Sydney (AUS) ATP Cup Hard N/A N/A 95 Final (lost to Serbia, 1–2) 9 March 2020–22 March 2020 Indian Wells Masters Indian Wells (USA) Masters 1000 Hard SF 360 N/A Tournament cancelled due to the CoronavirusTotal year-end points difference

Yearly records Head-to-head matchups Rafael Nadal has a ATP match win–loss record in the 2020 season. His record against players who were part of the ATP rankings Top Ten at the time of their meetings is . Bold indicates player was ranked top 10 at the time of at least one meeting. The following list is ordered by number of wins:

Pablo Carreño Busta 3–0 Pablo Andújar 1–0 Nikoloz Basilashvili 1–0 Pablo Cuevas 1–0 Federico Delbonis 1–0 Hugo Dellien 1–0 Grigor Dimitrov 1–0 Taylor Fritz 1–0 Egor Gerasimov 1–0 Miomir Kecmanović 1–0 Sebastian Korda 1–0 Nick Kyrgios 1–0 Dušan Lajović 1–0 Feliciano López 1–0 Mackenzie McDonald 1–0 Alex de Minaur 1–0 Yoshihito Nishioka 1–0 Andrey Rublev 1–0 Jannik Sinner 1–0 Kwon Soon-woo 1–0 Jordan Thompson 1–0 Stefano Travaglia 1–0 Stefanos Tsitsipas 1–0 Novak Djokovic 1–1 Diego Schwartzman 1–1 David Goffin 0–1 Alexander Zverev 0–1 Dominic Thiem 0–2

* Statistics correct .

Finals Singles: 2 (2 titles) CategoryGrand Slam (1–0)ATP Finals (0–0)ATP Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP Tour 500 (1–0)ATP Tour 250 (0–0)Titles by surfaceHard (1–0)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–0)Titles by settingOutdoor (2–0)Indoor (0–0)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Feb 2020Mexican Open, Mexico (3)500 Series Hard Taylor Fritz 6–3, 6–2Win 2–0French Open, FranceGrand Slam Clay Novak Djokovic 6–0, 6–2, 7–5

Team competitions: (1 final) ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartner(s)OpponentsScoreFinal 0–1 Jan 2020ATP Cup, AustraliaATP Cup Hard (i) Roberto Bautista Agut Pablo Carreño Busta Feliciano López Albert Ramos Viñolas Nikola Čačić Novak Djokovic Dušan Lajović Nikola Milojević Viktor Troicki 1–2

Earnings Bold font denotes tournament win Singles Event Prize money Year-to-date ATP Cup $595,650 $595,650 Australian Open A$525,000 $956,483 Mexican Open $372,785 $1,329,268 Italian Open €75,000 $1,418,097 French Open €1,600,000 $3,278,577 Paris Masters €100,000 $3,397,127 ATP Finals $459,000 $3,856,127 $3,856,127 Doubles Event Prize money Year-to-date ATP Cup $25,075 $25,075 $25,075 Total $3,881,202 Figures in United States dollars (USD) unless noted. source：2020 Singles Activity source：2020 Doubles Activity

Television

At the ATP Cup, Nadal's semifinals match versus Alex de Minaur averaged 320,000 viewers on Teledeporte,El cine de Trece lidera con "El reino de los cielos" y "Robin Hood: El magnífico" - Fórmula TV, 13 January 2020 and his final match versus Novak Djokovic averaged 953,000 viewers on RTVE's La 1.TVE empieza con buen pie 2020 gracias a la ATP Cup - Diana E. Orozco, As, 16 January 2020

At the French Open, his semifinals match versus Diego Schwartzman averaged 403,000 viewers on DMAX and 232,000 viewers on Eurosport.Nova arrasa con las seis emisiones más vistas del día, encabezando el ranking 'Fugitiva' con un 4,2% - Fórmula TV, 10 October 2020Rafa Nadal puede contra Schwartzman en el Roland Garros que triunfa con un 2% en Eurosport - Fórmula TV, 10 October 2020 His final match versus Djokovic averaged 1.5 million viewers on DMAX and 628,000 on Eurosport, combining for a 16.8% share.La victoria de Rafa Nadal en la final de Roland Garros lidera en DMAX con un fantástico 14,5% - Fórmula TV, 13 October 2020Eurosport lidera ampliamente con la victoria de Nadal en el Roland Garros - Fórmula TV, 13 October 2020

At the ATP Finals, his semifinals match versus Daniil Medvedev averaged 274,000 vewiers on #Vamos.El partido Atlético de Madrid-Barcelona lidera en Movistar LaLiga con un 6,3% - Fórmula TV, 23 November 2020

See also 2020 ATP Tour 2020 Novak Djokovic tennis season 2020 Dominic Thiem tennis season

Notes

References

External links

ATP tour profile