Rafael Nadal survives Lopez scare in Paris to claim 1,000th win

TIL Desk Sports/ Top seed Rafael Nadal was handed an opening night fright by his good friend Feliciano Lopez at the Paris Masters on Wednesday, but rallied to beat his fellow Spaniard 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 and claim his 1,000th ATP Tour win.

Nadal becomes just the fourth man to achieve 1,000 singles victories in the Open Era, behind Jimmy Connors (1,274), Roger Federer (1,242) and Ivan Lendl (1,068). “One negative thing about 1,000 wins is you are very old because to win 1,000 matches you need to have a very long career, but I am super happy,” Nadal said in courtside.

“It means I’ve done a lot of things right.“I’m proud of a lot of things, but I faced some challenges in my career in terms of injuries … It’s a big achievement to be playing at the age of 34.” Nadal, who was handed a bye in the first round, got off to a terrible start, losing his opening service game and never really coming to terms with Lopez’s blistering serve.