of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the French Open semifinals, being one of only four players to defeat him that year (along with Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, and David Nalbandian). Two days later he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the second man, after Mats Wilander in 1982, to win the French Open on his first attempt. He was the first male teenager to win a major singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Winning improved his ranking to No. 3. Three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal's 24-match winning streak was snapped in the first round of the grass court Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, where he lost to Alexander Waske. He then lost in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg. Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments, bringing his ranking to No. 2 on 25 July 2005. Nadal started his North American summer hard-court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the 2005 Canada Masters, but lost in the first round of the 2005 Cincinnati Masters. Nadal was seeded second at the 2005 US Open, but was upset in the third round by No. 49 James Blake in four sets. In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth Masters title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the 2005 Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup. Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four Masters titles in 2005. Nadal broke Mats Wilander's previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay, and the remainder were on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award. 2006: Second French Open title Nadal missed the Australian Open because of a foot injury. In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of