Rafael Nadal is one of the most successful tennis players to ever grace a court, but he holds an unfortunate record at the Shanghai Masters.
Nadal was successful in China, picking up the title in Beijing at the beginning of his career in 2005 and the latter stages in 2017.
The Spaniard played the Shanghai Masters eight times, but he failed to win the tournament on any occasion.
Nadal picked up an unwanted record after he lost the Shanghai Masters final to Roger Federer in 2017.
Rafael Nadal is the only player to lose multiple Shanghai Masters finals
Despite his dominance on the ATP Tour, there were a select number of tournaments that the King of Clay failed to win across his career.
Nadal never captured the ATP Tour Finals, the Paris Masters, or the Shanghai Masters in his illustrious tennis career.
The star’s record at the Shanghai Masters was decent, winning 16 of his 24 matches at the Chinese tournament, but he never won the competition.
Nadal is the only player in the tournament’s history to reach multiple finals in Shanghai without lifting the trophy.
The Spaniard lost the inaugural tournament in 2009 in straight sets to Nikolay Davydenko and followed it up with another final loss to Federer in 2017 in the same fashion.
To this day, no other player has reached more than one final at the Shanghai Masters without lifting the trophy.
Shanghai Masters 2017 was the last time Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal faced each other in a final
The Shanghai Masters will always have a place in history for the legendary rivalry between Federer and Nadal.
The two men dominated the sport in the 2000s and the 2010s, sharing 42 Grand Slam titles between them.
Their final-ever meeting in a final came at the Shanghai Masters in 2017, which went the way of the Swiss star.
After the match, Nadal said: “It was a very difficult match for me. He played very fast and he played well. I don’t know how many unforced errors he made.
“I could have done some things better, but that’s it. He just played too good. That’s my point of view. So congrats to him.
“I played a fantastic tournament, having very good wins. Very pleased the way I played the whole Asian tour for me. Beijing and Shanghai have been a very positive two weeks for me.
“A lot of points, a lot of victories against great opponents. I come back with very good personal satisfaction the way that I played.”
Federer and Nadal would play another three times after their Shanghai Masters meeting, but never in a final.
The two men played at Indian Wells and Wimbledon in 2019, which went the way of Federer, as well as Roland Garros the same year, which Nadal won.
