2012 Rafael Nadal tennis season
Full nameRafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera
Country Spain
Calendar prize money$4,997,448[1]
Singles
Season record42–6 (87.5%)
Calendar titles4
Year-end rankingNo. 4
Ranking change from previous yearDecrease 2
Grand Slam & significant results
Australian OpenF
French OpenW
Wimbledon2R
US OpenDNS
Doubles
Season record7–1 (87.5%)
Calendar titles1
Current rankingNo. 66
Ranking change from previous yearDecrease 7
Injuries
Injuriesknee injury
Last updated on: September 10, 2012.
← 2011
2013 →

The 2012 Rafael Nadal tennis season officially began on 2 January with the start of the 2012 ATP World Tour.

Year summary

Asian/Pacific hard court season and Australian Open

Nadal during the finals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters

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.[2] In the semifinal he played poorly and lost to Gaël Monfils in two routine sets.[3]

Australian Open

In the Australian Open Nadal began the tournament by breezing past qualifier Alex Kuznetsov of United States.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] He then beat Roger Federer, who was riding a 25-match win streak heading into the match, in a four-set match in the semifinals.[7] With his win, he reached the finals of all four Grand Slams consecutively. 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.[8]

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.[9]

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.

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 and was the defending champion.

But on 19 July, Nadal stated that he will be withdrawing from the Olympics citing 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).[10] 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[...]."[11]

All matches

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# P# DNQ A Z# PO G S B NMS NTI P NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Singles matches

Tournament Match Round Opponent Rank Result Score
Qatar ExxonMobil Open
Doha, Qatar
ATP World Tour 250
Hard, outdoor
2 – 7 January 2012		 1 / 658 1R Germany Philipp Kohlschreiber 43
Win
 6–3, 6–7(2–7), 6–3
2 / 659 2R Germany Denis Gremelmayr 189
Win
 6–2, 6–2
3 / 660 QF Russia Mikhail Youzhny 35
Win
 6–4, 6–4
4 / 661 SF France Gaël Monfils 15
Loss
3–6, 4–6
Australian Open
Melbourne, Australia
Grand Slam
Hard, outdoor
16 – 29 January 2012		 5 / 662 1R United States Alex Kuznetsov 167
Win
 6–4, 6–1, 6–1
6 / 663 2R Germany Tommy Haas 205
Win
 6–4, 6–3, 6–4
7 / 664 3R Slovakia Lukáš Lacko 113
Win
 6–2, 6–4, 6–2
8 / 665 4R Spain Feliciano López 19
Win
 6–4, 6–4, 6–2
9 / 666 QF Czech Republic Tomáš Berdych 7
Win
 6–7(5–7), 7–6(8–6), 6–4, 6–3
10 / 667 SF Switzerland Roger Federer 3
Win
 6–7(5–7), 6–2, 7–6(7–5), 6–4
11 / 668 F Serbia Novak Djokovic 1
Loss (1)
7–5, 4–6, 2–6, 7–6(7–5), 5–7
BNP Paribas Open
Indian Wells, United States
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Hard, outdoor
12 – 18 March 2012		 – 1R Bye
12 / 669 2R Argentina Leonardo Mayer 78
Win
 6–1, 6–3
13 / 670 3R Spain Marcel Granollers 26
Win
 6–1, 6–4
14 / 671 4R Ukraine Alexandr Dolgopolov 21
Win
 6–3, 6–2
15 / 672 QF Argentina David Nalbandian 74
Win
 4–6, 7–5, 6–4
16 / 673 SF Switzerland Roger Federer 3
Loss
3–6, 4–6
Sony Ericsson Open
Miami, United States
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Hard, outdoor
21 March – 4 April 2012		 – 1R Bye
17 / 674 2R Colombia Santiago Giraldo 57
Win
 6–2, 6–0
18 / 675 3R Czech Republic Radek Štěpánek 25
Win
 6–2, 6–2
19 / 676 4R Japan Kei Nishikori 16
Win
 6–4, 6–4
20 / 677 QF France Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6
Win
 6–2, 5–7, 6–4
– SF United Kingdom Andy Murray 4 Withdrew N/A
Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
Monte Carlo, Monaco
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Clay, outdoor
15 – 22 April 2012		 – 1R Bye
21 / 678 2R Finland Jarkko Nieminen 48
Win
 6–4, 6–3
22 / 679 3R Kazakhstan Mikhail Kukushkin 68
Win
 6–1, 6–1
23 / 680 QF Switzerland Stanislas Wawrinka 26
Win
 7–5, 6–4
24 / 681 SF France Gilles Simon 15
Win
 6–3, 6–4
25 / 682 W Serbia Novak Djokovic 1
Win (1)
 6–3, 6–1
Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell
Barcelona, Spain
ATP World Tour 500
Clay, outdoor
23 – 29 April 2012		 – 1R Bye
26 / 683 2R Spain Guillermo García López 78
Win
 6–1, 6–2
27 / 684 3R Colombia Robert Farah 246
Win
 6–2, 6–3
28 / 685 QF Serbia Janko Tipsarević 8
Win
 6–2, 6–2
29 / 686 SF Spain Fernando Verdasco 20
Win
 6–0, 6–4
30 / 687 W Spain David Ferrer 6
Win (2)
 7–6(7–1), 7–5
Mutua Madrid Open
Madrid, Spain
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Clay, outdoor
7 – 13 May 2012		 – 1R Bye
31 / 688 2R Russia Nikolay Davydenko 54
Win
 6–2, 6–2
32 / 689 3R Spain Fernando Verdasco 19
Loss
3–6, 6–3, 5–7
Internazionali BNL d'Italia
Rome, Italy
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Clay, outdoor
13 – 20 May 2012		 – 1R Bye
33 / 690 2R Germany Florian Mayer 28
Win
 6–1, 7–5
34 / 691 3R Spain Marcel Granollers 26
Win
 6–1, 6–1
35 / 692 QF Czech Republic Tomáš Berdych 7
Win
 6–4, 7–5
36 / 693 SF Spain David Ferrer 6
Win
 7–6(8–6), 6–0
37 / 694 W Serbia Novak Djokovic 1
Win (3)
 7–5, 6–3
French Open
Paris, France
Grand Slam
Clay, outdoor
28 May – 10 June 2012		 38 / 695 1R Italy Simone Bolelli 111
Win
 6–2, 6–2, 6–1
39 / 696 2R Uzbekistan Denis Istomin 43
Win
 6–2, 6–2, 6–0
40 / 697 3R Argentina Eduardo Schwank 192
Win
 6–1, 6–3, 6–4
41 / 698 4R Argentina Juan Mónaco 15
Win
 6–2, 6–0, 6–0
42 / 699 QF Spain Nicolás Almagro 13
Win
 7–6(7–4), 6–2, 6–3
43 / 700 SF Spain David Ferrer 6
Win
 6–2, 6–2, 6–1
44 / 701 W Serbia Novak Djokovic 1
Win (4)
 6–4, 6–3, 2–6, 7–5
Gerry Weber Open
Halle, Germany
ATP World Tour 250
Grass, outdoor
11 – 17 June 2012		 - 1R Bye
45 / 702 2R Slovakia Lukáš Lacko 58
Win
 7–5, 6–1
46 / 703 QF Germany Philipp Kohlschreiber 34
Loss
3–6, 4–6
Wimbledon Championships
London, United Kingdom
Grand Slam
Grass, outdoor
25 June – 8 July 2012		 47 / 704 1R Brazil Thomaz Bellucci 80
Win
 7–6(7–0), 6–2, 6–3
48 / 705 2R Czech Republic Lukáš Rosol 100
Loss
7–6(11–9), 4–6, 4–6, 6–2, 4–6

Doubles matches

Tournament Match Round Opponents Ranking Result Score
BNP Paribas Open
Indian Wells, United States
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Hard, outdoor
12 – 18 March 2012
Partner: Spain Marc López		 1 / 150 1R France Michaël Llodra
Serbia Nenad Zimonjić		 #5 / #6 Win 6–4, 6–4
2 / 151 2R Ukraine Alexandr Dolgopolov
Belgium Xavier Malisse		 #50 / #26 Win 6–4, 6–3
3 / 152 QF India Leander Paes
Czech Republic Radek Štěpánek		 #7 / #22 Win 6–4, 7–6(7–5)
4 / 153 SF Poland Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Poland Marcin Matkowski		 #13 / #13 Win 6–2, 6–0
5 / 154 W United States John Isner
United States Sam Querrey		 #33 / #35 Win 6–2, 7–6(7–3)
Sony Ericsson Open
Miami, United States
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Hard, outdoor
21 March – 4 April 2012
Partner: Spain Marcel Granollers		 6 / 155 1R Croatia Marin Čilić
Croatia Ivo Karlović		 #80 / #128 Win 6–1, 6–3
7 / 156 2R India Mahesh Bhupathi
India Rohan Bopanna		 #13 / #12 Loss 4–6, 3–6
Gerry Weber Open
Halle, Germany
ATP World Tour 250
Grass, outdoor
11 – 17 June 2012
Partner: Spain Marcel Granollers		 8 / 157 1R Czech Republic Michal Mertiňák
Serbia Viktor Troicki		 #78 / #76 Win 5–7, 6–2, [10–8]
– QF Germany Michael Kohlmann
Germany Florian Mayer		 #77 / #62 Withdrew

Tournament schedule

Singles schedule

Nadal's 2012 singles tournament schedule is as follows:

Date Championship Location Category Surface1 Outcome 2011 Points 2011 Points 2012 Outcome 2012
02.01.2012–07.01.2012Qatar ExxonMobil OpenQatarATP World Tour 250HardSF9090SF
16.01.2012–29.01.2012Australian OpenAustraliaGrand SlamHardQF3601200F
08.03.2012–18.03.2012BNP Paribas OpenUSAATP World Tour Masters 1000HardF600360SF
21.03.2012–01.04.2012Sony Ericsson OpenUSAATP World Tour Masters 1000HardF600360SF
15.04.2012–22.04.2012Monte-Carlo Rolex MastersMonacoATP World Tour Masters 1000ClayW10001000W
23.04.2012–29.04.2012Barcelona Open Banco SabadellSpainATP World Tour 500ClayW500500W
06.05.2012–13.05.2012Mutua Madrid OpenSpainATP World Tour Masters 1000ClayF60090R16
13.05.2012–20.05.2012Internazionali BNL d'ItaliaItalyATP World Tour Masters 1000ClayF6001000W
27.05.2012–10.06.2012French OpenFranceGrand SlamClayW20002000W
11.06.2012–17.06.2012Gerry Weber OpenGermanyATP World Tour 250GrassDNS45QF
25.06.2012–08.07.2012Wimbledon ChampionshipsUKGrand SlamGrassF1200452R
27.08.2012–09.09.2012US OpenUSAGrand SlamHardF12000DNS
29.10.2012–04.11.2012BNP Paribas MastersFranceATP World Tour Masters 1000Hard (i)DNS
05.11.2012–12.11.2012Barclays ATP World Tour FinalsUKATP World Tour FinalsHard (i)RR200
Points earned at Davis Cup 280
Points earned at Non-Countable Tournaments 45
Total year points 11010 Decrease 4320 2
Overall points 6690[12]

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ El patrimonio de Rafael Nadal
  2. ↑ "Federer and Nadal stay on course for final showdown". Yahoo! Sports. January 5, 2012.
  3. ↑ Matt Smith (6 January 2012). "Monfils upsets Nadal to set up all-French Qatar final". Reuters.
  4. ↑ "Nadal eases to 1st-round win at Australian Open". Yahoo! Sports. January 16, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Nadal beats Haas as Federer puts feet up at Aussie Open". Yahoo! Sports. 18 January 2012.
  6. ↑ Tennis.com (2012-01-24). "Australian Open: Nadal d. Berdych". Tennis.com. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  7. ↑ Mitchell, Kevin (2012-01-26). "Rafael Nadal triumphs over Roger Federer in epic Australian Open semi". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  8. ↑ "Longest Men's Singles Championship Final". ESPN Sports. January 30, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Stars not happy with Madrid". Archived from the original on 2012-11-23. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  10. ↑ Quinn, Sam R. (15 August 2012). "Rafael Nadal's Withdrawal from US Open Reason for Tennis Fans to Worry". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  11. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). rafaelnadal.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ↑ Rafael Nadal at the ATP website
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