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How Rafael Nadal broke tennis math: Titles, stats, and more

Related Topics: Rafael Nadal

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Rafael Nadal broke math. That is the best compliment I can possibly think to give to an athlete in any sport.

Numbers are how I make sense of the world. Through them, you can come to understand how a game is played and what matters the most within it. Each sport has its statistical guidelines, its must-win categories and its unbreakable records. And throughout what will end up going down as about a 23-year career, as Roger Federer was breaking geometry and Novak Djokovic was breaking the laws of flexibility and fitness -- and Andy Murray, pushing so hard to reach the top of the sport, ended up breaking himself -- Nadal made absolute nonsense out of the numbers that define tennis.