Rafael Nadal won a mind-boggling 14 singles titles on the French Open’s clay courts.

Holding Court

Former tennis world No. 1 Rafael Nadal was as much a worrier in his sport as he was a warrior, his nervous habits extending from elaborate pre-point rituals to clocking issues with the courts he won Grand Slams on

By Christopher Clarey

I did not choose the title to my new book, The Warrior, lightly. Rafael Nadal was a tennis warrior, to be sure: a competitive beast dripping with sweat and relentless in-the-moment ambition who could give the opposition a faraway gaze in a hurry. “It felt like the Sahara, and you just see the hills and there’s no ending,” said American Kevin Kim after losing to Nadal in straight sets at the 2006 French Open.

But then, just about everybody lost to Nadal in straight sets at the French Open, where he won a mind-boggling 14 singles titles on the clay, far more than any player had won at any tennis major or had even thought about winning at any tennis major. “To win a Grand Slam title, this is something you dream of,” Feliciano Lopez, his friend and fellow Spanish star, told me. “To win the same Grand Slam 14 times is not even something you dream of. It’s insane.”