For Rafael Nadal it is almost a routine winning the Roland Garros after conquering the major for 12 times! Over the last 15 years, the Spanish legend had to face and defeat all sorts of players in Paris. In the beginning, his biggest threat was Roger Federer, then Novak Djokovic and recently Dominic Thiem seems to be the most menacing opponent on the dirt.
Rafa stopped the Austrian in Paris for the last 3 years and the last 2 encounters took place in the final. This day last year (9th of June) Nadal beat Dominic 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1. Thiem managed to stay with the King of Clay for the first 2 sets, but then he was not able to offer proper opposition anymore. Dominic was probably tired after beating Djokovic in 5 sets in the previous semifinal and fighting with Nadal for 2 sets was already too taxing. As soon as the world no.2 saw the opportunity to push on the accelerator, he gave no chances to Thiem.
Here the highlights.
Rafael Nadal in 2020
Ranked world no.2, Nadal played his last match on the 29th of February when he beat Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-2 in the final in Acapulco to win his 85th career title.
This season the Spaniard has a 13-3 win-loss record. The Spaniard clinched 1 title in Acapulco.
Dominic Thiem in 2020
Ranked world no.3 (career-high), Dominic played his last match on the 22nd of February when he was overcome by Gianluca Mager 7-64 7-5 in the quarter in Rio De Janeiro.
Dominic Thiem’s best performance of the current year was getting to the final at the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem played each other 14 times. The head to head is 9-5 for Nadal. The last time that they locked horns, Dominic Thiem won 7-63 7-64 4-6 7-66 in the quarter in Melbourne (Australian Open) on the 29th of January 2020.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.
