2003 Rafael Nadal tennis season

Main article: Rafael Nadal

2003 Rafael Nadal tennis season

Full name	Rafael Nadal Parera
Country	Spain
Calendar prize money	$243,238 (Singles $222,813, Doubles $20,425)
Singles
Season record	14–11 (56%)
Calendar titles	0
Year-end ranking	No. 49
Ranking change from previous year	151
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	DNQ
French Open	A
Wimbledon	R32
US Open	R64
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	DNQ
Doubles
Season record	5–6 (45.45%)
Calendar titles	1
Year-end ranking	No. 185
Ranking change from previous year	757

The 2003 Rafael Nadal tennis season started in January. The year saw Nadal mostly tackle Challenger series tournaments (36 of his 61 singles matches), but mix in many more top-level ATP tournaments compared to the prior year. Notably, he attended Wimbledon and the US Open for the first time - his first appearance at any majors. Nadal also won his inaugural ATP doubles title in 2003, at the Croatia Open in Umag. He finished the year with a singles ranking of 49.

Singles

January - March, Challenger Series

Nadal began the year with Challenger Series events, continuing on from the Futures events that made up most of his 2002 season. He competed in 6 tournaments, reaching the final of 4, and winning 1 on clay.

April, testing the ATP top flight again

Nadal entered the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters tournament in April, the first Masters series tournament of his career, only the second at the top ATP level, and first in a year. He was knocked out in the Round of 16 by eventual runner-up Guillermo Coria, but not before defeating defending French Open champion Albert Costa in the Round of 32, in the first big upset of Nadal's career. Nadal then moved on to Barcelona, also on clay courts, where he lost his second-round match to Alex Corretja.

April - May, back to Challenger Series

Nadal rejoined the Challenger Series for a clay-court tournament in Aix En Provence, where he reached the final before falling 3-6 7-6(6) 6-4 to Mariano Puerta. Nadal would later defeat Puerta in the 2005 French Open final.

May - July, Injury, First Major Appearance

Nadal entered his second Masters series event at Hamburg in May, on clay, where he lost to Gaston Gaudio in the Round of 16. Then, an elbow injury kept Nadal from attending the 2004 French Open. As a result, he entered his first major tournament at Wimbledon on grass shortly thereafter, at the age of 17. The 76th ranked Spaniard defeated 2 opponents before losing to Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand in the Round of 32, 6-4 6-4 6-2. Nadal then competed in three clay tournaments in July. At Bastad, he lost to Nicolas Lapentti in the quarterfinals. At Stuttgart, he lost to Fernando Gonzalez in the Round of 32. Finally, at Umag, he lost to Carlos Moya in the semifinals.

July-August, Final Challenger Series tournaments, first US Open appearance

Nadal finished the month by entering a hard-court Challenger series event at Segovia, where he defeated Tomas Zib in the final, 6-2 7-6(1). Nadal took a break from Challenger events and entered the US Open for the first time, losing on the hard courts in the Round of 64 to Younes El Aynaoui, 7-6(6) 6-3 7-6(6). In September, Nadal entered the final Challenger Series event of his career (as of July 2018), on hard courts in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. He lost in the Round of 16 to Richard Gasquet.

October, finishing the year in the top flight

Nadal closed his 2003 season by participating in three more ATP top-level tournaments. In all three, he lost his first match. At Lyon, he lost to Dominik Hrbaty on carpet. At Madrid, he lost to Alex Corretja on hard courts. Finally, at Basel, he lost to Feliciano Lopez on carpet, ending his season.

Doubles

ATP Top-Level Matches, first ATP (doubles) title

Nadal competed in 7 tournaments in doubles in 2003. He partnered with Feliciano Lopez to lose in the Round of 32 at Barcelona on clay, Carlos Moya to lose in the quarterfinal at Bastad on clay, and Andreas Beck to lose in the Round of 16 at Stuttgart. He then won his first ATP title (doubles or singles) at the clay-court Croatia Open in Umag, where he partnered with fellow Spaniard Alex Lopez Moron to defeat Australian Todd Perry and Japanese Thomas Shimada 6-1 6-3 in the final. Nadal then partnered with David Sanchez for a first-round loss at the US Open on hard courts, Thierry Ascione for a first-round loss at Lyon on carpet, and finally Tommy Robredo for a first-round loss on carpet at Basel.

Challenger Series

Nadal competed in 2 doubles tournaments on the Challenger circuit. At Hamburg, on carpet, he lost with Nikolai Soloviev in the first round. At Cagliari, on clay, he made it to the quarterfinals with partner Juan Antonio Marin.

Year-end rankings and statistics

Nadal finished his singles season with a 14-11 record (56% win rate), no titles, and a ranking of 49. This was a significant improvement over his 200 ranking from the end of 2002. On clay, his ATP top-level record was 11-6 (64.7% win rate). In doubles, Nadal finished the year 5-6 (45.5% win rate), with one title. On the Challenger circuit, he had a 29-7 singles record (80.6% win rate), with 2 titles, and a 1-2 doubles record (33.3% win rate), with no titles.

References

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📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• 2001 Rafael Nadal tennis season
• 2002 Rafael Nadal tennis season
• 2004 Rafael Nadal tennis season

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