The trials and determination of Nadal’s record 12th French Open victory

On June 9, 2019, Rafael Nadal won his record 12th French Open title in just over 3 hours with a 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 win against Dominic Thiem.

On paper, it looked like a comfortable win for the Spaniard winning 23 games to Thiem’s 12. Yet, after two hours of play in the first two sets, it was anything but.

Rafael Nadal came into the final of the French Open, having lost only one set throughout the tournament, beating perennial rival Roger Federer in straight sets in the semi finals.

Dominic Thiem entered the final on the back of a 5-set win over World No 1, Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. The final on Sunday would be the fourth consecutive day in which Thiem played. This was down to the rain washing out the play on Day 11. The task in front of the Austrian was daunting enough, and with no rest-day for him, it seemed well-nigh impossible.

Before we delve into the match, it’s necessary to mention that Rafael Nadal’s go-to strategy at Roland Garros is based primarily on the baseline. The longer the rally goes, the more you favor Nadal to win it. While this is obviously very simplistic and need not always be the case, we can say with some certainty that Rafael Nadal is hardly ever outmatched from the baseline on a Clay court.

For years, Clay court tennis has been touted as one for the grinders, with long atrocious rallies. Nadal challenged that notion with his, at times, spell-binding performance.