# 2008 Rafael Nadal tennis season
The 2008 [Rafael Nadal](https://www.edgepedia.org/rafael-nadal) tennis season was the year in which the Spanish player Rafael Nadal won his fourth consecutive [French Open](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-open), took the Wimbledon title from five-time champion [Roger Federer](https://www.edgepedia.org/roger-federer), added an Olympic singles gold medal in Beijing, and replaced Federer as world No. 1 after 160 consecutive weeks ranked No. 2. He compiled an 82–11 record across 93 matches, an 88.2% win rate, and finished the year ranked No. 1.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Season record | 82–11 in 93 matches (88.2%)[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008) |
| Titles | 8: Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Hamburg, Roland Garros, Queen's Club, Wimbledon, Canada Masters, Beijing Olympics[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008) |
| Surface splits | Hard 46–10 (82.1%), clay 24–1 (96.0%), grass 12–0 (100%)[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008) |
| Historic firsts | First French Open–Wimbledon double since Borg in 1980; second Spanish man to win Wimbledon, after Manuel Santana in 1966[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html) • [5](https://www.itftennis.com/media/10468/2023-wimbledon-mens-singles-final-match-notes.pdf) |
## Season overview
Nadal won eight titles in 2008: the Monte Carlo Masters, Barcelona, the Hamburg Masters, Roland Garros, Queen's Club, Wimbledon, the Canada Masters, and the Beijing Olympics.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008) Victories in two of the season's first three [Grand Slam](https://www.edgepedia.org/grand-slam-tennis) tournaments made the first half of the year his by a wide margin; the New York Times noted the week after Wimbledon that Federer would still be ranked No. 1 on Monday, but that the season to that point was Nadal's.[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html)
The season also had a statistical shape unusual for a player once labeled a clay specialist. His losing records came almost entirely on hard courts (10 of his 11 defeats), yet he still won 46 of 56 hard-court matches, more than his totals on clay or grass.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008)
## Wimbledon: the Federer final
On 6 July 2008, the second-seeded Nadal beat the top-seeded Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–7(8), 9–7 in the Wimbledon final, a match lasting 4 hours and 48 minutes.[3](https://www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/player.cgi?p=104745%2FRafael-Nadal) At 4 hours 48 minutes it was the longest singles final in Wimbledon's 131-year history, finishing at 9:16 p.m. in near darkness on [Centre Court](https://www.edgepedia.org/centre-court).[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html) A BBC retrospective describes a rain-delayed match that ran nearly seven hours overall from its scheduled start before concluding as darkness descended.[4](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo)
The decisive moment came with Federer serving at 7–7 in the fifth set. Federer took a large swing at a short forehand and hit it just long, giving Nadal the break, and Nadal converted 4 of his 13 break-point chances in the match.[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html)
The result carried several markers of its weight. No man had beaten Federer at Wimbledon since 2002, and Federer had not dropped a set until that final.[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html) Nadal, at 22, became the first man to complete the French Open–Wimbledon double in the same year since [Björn Borg](https://www.edgepedia.org/bjorn-borg) in 1980, and the second Spanish man to win Wimbledon, after Manuel Santana in 1966.[2](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html) • [5](https://www.itftennis.com/media/10468/2023-wimbledon-mens-singles-final-match-notes.pdf) He arrived on a 23-match winning streak that included the Queen's Club title and his fourth straight French Open, while Federer was a five-time defending champion who had beaten Nadal in the 2006 and 2007 finals.[4](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo)
## Clay, grass and the winning streak
Nadal's clay season was close to perfect at 24–1 (96.0%), and he went 12–0 on grass.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008)
## Beijing gold and the ascent to No. 1
After Wimbledon, Nadal won the Canada Masters and then the Olympic singles gold medal in Beijing.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008)
## By the numbers
Nadal's aggregate serve and return figures for 2008 underpin the win totals. He held serve in 87.76% of his service games and broke in 33.49% of return games, won 68.29% of service points and 54.98% of total points, and went 23–11 in tiebreaks (67.65%).[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008)
## All-surface credentials and the rivalry's turn
Wimbledon 2008 is the point at which the perception of Nadal as a clay specialist gave way to that of a complete player, and Nadal himself framed it that way in a retrospective BBC interview: "2008 was an amazing step forward in my career, because I showed myself that I was able to win outside of clay in a Grand Slam."[4](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo) He added that the win "helped me to become number one in the world, without a doubt," and that he had long believed he needed to play well on every surface to become a complete player.[4](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo)
The season's hard-court numbers support the reclassification. A 46–10 record (82.1%) on hard courts in 2008, alongside the 24–1 clay and 12–0 grass records, gave Nadal a strong multi-surface season.[1](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008) In the rivalry with Federer, the 2008 final reversed the Wimbledon order of 2006 and 2007 and, weeks later, Nadal replaced Federer as world No. 1.[4](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo)
## References
1. [Rafael Nadal 2008 ATP Season – Match Results & Stats](https://stats.tennismylife.org/players/rafael-nadal/season/2008), TennisMyLife stats archive.
2. [Nadal Ends Federer's Reign at Wimbledon](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/tennis/07tennis.html), The New York Times, 7 July 2008.
3. [Tennis Abstract: Rafael Nadal Match Results, Splits, and Analysis](https://www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/player.cgi?p=104745%2FRafael-Nadal), Tennis Abstract.
4. [Wimbledon: Rafael Nadal on 2008 win over Roger Federer](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/c0k2e63lypdo), BBC Sport.
5. 2023 Wimbledon Mens Singles Final Match Notes.pdf, itftennis.com, https://www.itftennis.com/media/10468/2023-wimbledon-mens-singles-final-match-notes.pdf
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Other team and ball sports › Racket and precision ball sports › Tennis › Tennis players and seasons › Elite player seasons and rivalries › Rafael Nadal seasons and match archives*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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