Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer Set Records With New Victories In French Open

Rafael Nadal at the French Open Tennis Championships in 2019
Rafael Nadal at the French Open Tennis Championships in 2019. Photo by Ella Ling/BPI/Shutterstock (10266531ad)

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer blew our minds again during this French Open, passing to the fourth round for a record 14th time. Both of the tennis players surpassed former US world number one Budge Patty in fourth round appearances in the French Open. 

Nadal scored a victory over the Belgian David Goffin with 6–1 6–3 4–6 6–3, delivering a brilliant game, while Roger Federer, who is now 37 years old, set another world record by being the oldest tennis player to reach this stage of a Grand Slam since 1991 with the appearance of Jimmy Connors. 

It has been another year of big round numbers for Federer, who won his 100th career singles title in Dubai in February. Last week, on a luminous afternoon, when springtime Paris felt like the place great poets used to write poems about, the Swiss star also became the first player, male or female, to play 400 Grand Slam matches.

After beating the Norwegian player Casper Ruud with 6–3 6–1 7–6 (10–8), Federer said he felt that his 20 years on the tour went too fast and commented that at the time he started Ruud was hardly born.