Rafael Nadal is renowned for his dominance on clay courts after winning a record number of Roland Garros titles.
Nadal has 14 Roland Garros victories to his name, having lost only four of his 116 matches at the clay court major.
The Spaniard’s most recent of those four losses came last year when Nadal lost to Zverev at Roland Garros, in what turned out to be his final appearance at the tournament.
His final appearance on a tennis court came in Malaga last year, when Nadal retired at the Davis Cup Finals in a defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp.
Nadal ended his decorated career on clay with 63 titles on the surface and a 90% win record on the dirt.
One of Nadal’s few clay court losses came in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Italian Open against a player that is soon to be joining him in the retirement scene.
Diego Schwartzman to retire at the Argentina Open this week
Diego Schwartzman will retire at his home tournament in Buenos Aires this week, where he is a former champion.
Having won a title in the Argentinian capital four years ago, Schwartzman will look to say a final farewell to bring a conclusion to his 15-year professional career.
Schwartzman has won a total of four titles in his career, with the biggest coming at the Rio Open in 2018.
| Year | Tournament that Schwartzman won |
| 2016 | Istanbul Open (ATP 250 – Clay) |
| 2018 | Rio Open (ATP 500 – Clay) |
| 2019 | Los Cabos Open (ATP 250 – Hard) |
| 2021 | Argentina Open (ATP 250 – Clay) |
The 32-year-old also reached a Grand Slam semi-final, alongside four quarter-finals, with Schwartzman peaking at a career-high ranking of world number eight in 2020.
Schwartzman will play his first round match at the Argentina Open against Nicolas Jarry, in what could be the last of his career.
What Diego Schwartzman said after beating Rafael Nadal at the 2020 Italian Open
One of the biggest moments of Schwartzman’s career came at the 2020 Italian Open, where he beat Nadal for the first time.
Having lost his nine previous meetings against Nadal, few gave Schwartzman a chance against the man dubbed the ‘King of Clay’.
However, Schwartzman was able to overcome those odds and beat Nadal, 6-2 7-5, en route to reaching his one and only Masters 1000 final.
After winning this match, Schwartzman described it as his ‘best ever’ at an Italian Open that was sparse of people due to the public health situation at the time.
“I played few times against the three big champions on tennis. I never beat them until today,” Schwartzman said in his post-match press conference. “I’m very happy.
“It’s sad to don’t have people watching the match today. Feeling like it’s a weird tournament and is not the best tournament do for the first time against Rafa, but it was my best match ever. I’m very happy.
“But also I have to recover and still focus, because I have a big match tomorrow, and I want to do the final here.”
Schwartzman would use this momentum to go onto reach his first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros, where he would face Nadal once again.
Nadal, who had just beaten Jannik Sinner, was not going to let Schwartzman beat him twice on clay and beat the Argentinian in straight sets before winning his 13th Roland Garros title.
They would meet one further time at Roland Garros in 2021, as Nadal finishes the head-to-head against Schwartzman with an 11-1 advantage.
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