Lob and Smash
Fansided

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

By Siddhant Guru

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 09: Rafael Nadal of Spain consoles opponent Dominic Thiem of Austria following the mens singles final during Day fifteen of the 2019 French Open at Roland Garros on June 09, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 09: Rafael Nadal of Spain consoles opponent Dominic Thiem of Austria following the mens singles final during Day fifteen of the 2019 French Open at Roland Garros on June 09, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /
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PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 09: Rafael Nadal hits a forehand smash against Dominic Thiem of Austria in the final of the men’s singles during Day 15 of the 2019 French Open at Roland Garros on June 09, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by TPN/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 09: Rafael Nadal hits a forehand smash against Dominic Thiem of Austria in the final of the men’s singles during Day 15 of the 2019 French Open at Roland Garros on June 09, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by TPN/Getty Images) /

Throw out Plan A: Here comes Plan B.

The third set was a blowout. Nadal won 5/5 net points, he broke Thiem twice in succession to go 4-0 up and then calmly served out the set 6-1. The statistics were scary.  Nadal lost 0 points in his service games. You read that right. In a Grand Slam final against the second-best Clay court player of the year, Rafael Nadal didn’t lose a service point for an entire set.

So, what changed? Nadal changed his strategy. For 2 sets in the final, Nadal stuck with the formula of long rallies. For the next set, he turned the rules on its head. There were 22 rallies in the first set that were longer than 9 shots. In the third set, there were only 3. Nadal dialed up the aggression on his serve and his strokes.

The result? It took Nadal all of 24 minutes to dismantle Thiem in the third set.  He won 12 out of 16 points in between the 1-4 shots rallies. Consider this: The average rally length in the first set was 7.75 shots. The average rally length in the third set was 4.3 shots.

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