At some point, with so many mind-boggling stats and so much history having been accomplished, you almost just have to shake your head and shrug your shoulders at what Rafael Nadal has done at Roland Garros since 2005, when, as an enthusiastic 19-year-old, the Spaniard held his first Coupe des Mousquetaires. But wait, there’s more, as there always is with Nadal, who is still improving at 32.

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Nadal vs Thiem

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When he meets Dominic Thiem – the only man to beat him on clay the past two seasons – in Sunday’s Roland Garros final, Nadal will try to mark a few more historical boxes on his Hall of Fame application. The 10-time Roland Garros champion can become only the second player to win 11 singles titles at one Grand Slam. Margaret Court won 11 Australian women’s singles titles before 1974.

Most singles titles at the same Grand Slam tournament (men and women)

* Known as Australian Championships before 1969

Nadal also will attempt to become the first player in the Open Era (since April 1968) to win 11 titles at three different tour-level events, having won his 11^th titles at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters earlier this year.

But Thiem, the 24-year-old Austrian making his Grand Slam final debut, should stride onto Court Philippe-Chatrier with his chest out and head nodding. The seventh seed beat Nadal last year in Rome and earlier this year in Madrid, accounting for 100 per cent of Nadal’s two clay-court losses in 2017 and 2018 (49-2). Their Madrid quarter-final on 11 May was their ninth and most recent FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting (Nadal leads 6-3).

“On Sunday I have a very difficult match against a player that is playing great. I know I have to play my best if I want to have chances. Good thing is I played a lot of good matches this clay-court season,” Nadal said. “So Sunday is the day to give my best, is the day to increase even a little bit more the level.”

Thiem will try to become only the second Austrian player – man or woman – to win a Grand Slam title when he and Nadal, 2018’s clay-court match-wins leaders, face off for the third time this year. Thiem’s countryman Thomas Muster won the 1995 Roland Garros title.

“He’s a role model for every Austrian tennis player. He’s the biggest in our sport in Austria,” Thiem said.

2018 Tour-level match wins on clay

No man has won his maiden Grand Slam final since Marin Cilic at the 2014 US Open (d. Nishikori). Thiem (24 years, 3 days) can also become the youngest Grand Slam champion since Novak Djokovic (24 years, 252 days) at the 2012 Australian Open.

“I know how to play against him. I have a plan,” Thiem said of facing Nadal. “If I want to beat him, I have to play that way like I did in Rome and in Madrid. But I’m also aware that here it’s tougher. He likes the conditions more here than in Madrid, for sure. Best of five is also different story.”

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Two of their nine FedEx ATP Head2Head matchups have come at Roland Garros, and Nadal has won both of them, including a straight-sets defeat during last year’s semi-finals. The Spaniard will need to improve to 3-0 against Thiem at Roland Garros if he wants to stay No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Lose, and Roger Federer will overtake the top spot. Thiem will rise to No. 7 regardless of Sunday’s final, which the Austrian is trying to approach pressure-free and relaxed.

“Of course there is pressure, especially in Grand Slam finals, because I went a very long way now and I don’t want to lose the finals,” Thiem said. “But on the other hand… I’m facing Rafa, I’m not the one who has the pressure.”

Did You Know?
Thiem, who beat second seed Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals, could become just the ninth man in the Open Era to beat the top two seeds at a Grand Slam.

Rafael Nadal and Roland Garros go together like thunder and lightning. Any time the Spaniard competes on the Parisian terre battue, you know something special will happen. The evidence is clear: a record 11 finals (10-0), an 85-2 record and more shouts of ‘Vamos!’ than one can count.

But just because Nadal has won on the red dirt at Roland Garros an unprecedented 97.8 per cent of the time does not mean that the World No. 1 takes his appearance in Sunday’s final for granted.

“Being in a final here is something I should rejoice about and be happy about. It may sound easy and logical, but I don’t want it to be. It’s not a routine. I don’t want anyone to think that it’s a routine,” Nadal said. “It’s a day that I should rejoice about, enjoy. And from tomorrow on, I will do what I have to do to get ready for Sunday.”

So even though winning another Roland Garros semi-final is nothing new for Nadal, he is enjoying it just the same. He maintains the same mentality that helped him lift his first Coupe des Mousquetaires as a 19-year-old in 2005.

“The motivation to play here always is high, [as] high as possible,” Nadal said. “But for me, every tournament… there [are] limited chances in your career. So when I had the chances, I just tried to convert. Then [if] you lose, you lose, but I’m going to play with my highest passion and love for the game and for the sport to try to have success.”

Sure, Nadal has been dominant this clay-court season, going 25-1 thus far, with his only loss coming in the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals against his opponent in the championship match, Dominic Thiem. But it’s easy to forget that Nadal had to withdraw from Acapulco, Indian Wells and Miami just a few months ago due to a right hip injury.

“I lost a lot of opportunities for injuries, and I know the years are going quickly,” Nadal said with a smile. “There are not 10 more chances to keep playing here. So I’m just enjoying the fact that I am here again.”

Nadal has long been credited for his fight on the court, and his relentless pursuit of every point. The Spaniard ‘takes a point off’ as often as the sun fails to rise in the morning — it simply does not happen. And the reason why is clear.

“I love what I am doing. I love the competition. I love the sport,” Nadal said. “If it’s not that way, it’s sure that I will not be here… It’s a lot of years of playing and doing the same things every year. But the only way to keep doing that and keep going on court every morning with the motivation to improve something [is] because you feel the game. You feel the sport and you appreciate [it].”  

Matching his career-high of No. 4 in the ATP Rankings: Add it to the list of milestones that Juan Martin del Potro thought he’d never achieve after enduring three left wrist surgeries from March 2014 to June 2015.

But, following his second Roland Garros semi-final run (2009), del Potro will be back in the Top 4 on Monday when the new ATP Rankings are released.

“[It] is something special for me, for my family, for the people who were behind me all the time. I like to keep surprising myself,” Del Potro said after falling to No. 1 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in Friday’s semi-final.

“Any person who follows my recovery knows that when I came back to play tennis, [I] would have never thought I would become No. 4 again. I was feeling that because my body was going through these difficult times. But now I’m here, and I’m enjoying and thanking all these people who didn’t let me retire a few years ago. They encouraged me to continue fighting.”

Del Potro was last at No. 4 eight years ago when he spent two weeks, 19 April 2010 to 2 May 2010, at his career-high. This time, it seems likely he will get to spend more than just a couple of weeks inside the Top 5. Del Potro will be defending only 90 ATP Rankings points during the next two months.

The 6’6” Argentine was close to taking a set off Nadal, like the Tandil native’s countryman Diego Schwartzman did in the quarter-finals. Del Potro saw six break points in the first set, including two on Nadal’s serve from 4-4, 15/40, but the Spaniard erased them all.

“That was my chance of the match. I had a lot of break points. I couldn’t make it. Rafa served well, played good points in those break points, and I got unlucky in that moment. Could be different match if I win the first set,” Del Potro said.

“But then he made me run a lot. Intensity is too high the whole match, and I couldn’t stay there after the first set… When you don’t take your chances against the No. 1 in the world, you’re in trouble.”

Del Potro leaves Roland Garros feeling confident about the remainder of his 2018. He’s currently No. 4 in the ATP Race To London.

“I did a beautiful tournament, better than expected,” he said, ”and losing against Rafa on his best surface, his best court, I’m quite relaxed about that.”