Six Facts About The French Open Final Between Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem

It is a case of deja vu for tennis fans on the final day of the 2019 French Open.

For the second year in a row Rafael Nadal will lock horns with Dominic Thiem for a chance to win the most prestigious prize in clay-court tennis. Nadal has rallied to the final by dropping one set on route. Meanwhile, Thiem has spent an extra two hours on the court and will be playing for the fourth day in a row after poor weather caused havoc with the scheduling during the second week of the tournament.

All the experts are pointing to another Nadal win, but Thiem will not go down with a fight. A lot is at stake for both men and here are six key storylines to watch out for on Sunday.

The perfect 12

Nadal boasts one of the most perfect records at a grand slam in the history of tennis. Since making his debut at the 2005 French Open, the Spaniard has won 92 out of 94 matches. His only losses were to Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2015.

Should Nadal prevail in Sunday’s final, he would claim a record 12th title. Becoming the first player – man or woman – in history to do that at the same major. He is currently tied with Margaret Court, who claimed 11 Australian Open titles between 1960-1973.

In the Open Era only one player has won a tour-level tournament 12 times. That was Martina Navratilova at the Chicago Open between 1978-1992.

Thiem hopes to achieve the double

Out of active players on the ATP Tour, Stan Wawrinka in the only one to have defeated both the top two ranked players at the same grand slam. The Swiss player achieved the milestone twice at the 2014 Australian Open and the 2015 French Open.

Thiem could join Wawrinka if he defeats Nadal. The Austrian previously defeated world No.1 Novak Djokovic in what was his first ever five-set match played at the tournament in his entire career. Overall, he has a 7-6 win-loss record when it comes to five-set matches.

In the Open era, only eight players have defeated the two two seeds at a grand slam and only three since 1990. Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker are some of the players who have managed to achieve the double.

Nadal’s joins the old-man’s club

Victory at Roland Garros would make Nadal the oldest man to win the title since Andres Gimeno back in 1972. At the age of 33 years and six days, the world No.2 world be the third oldest winner in the French Capital in the Open Era. Gimeno claimed the trophy when he was 34 and Ken Rosewall was 214 days older than Nadal at the time of his triumph in 1968.

Nadal would also become only the fourth man in the Open Era to win four or more grand slams after turning 30. Joining Rosewall, Roger Federer and Rod Laver. Furthermore, he would become the ninth oldest grand slam champion in men’s tennis since 1968.

Thiem aims to emulate Muster

The fourth seed is hoping to become only the second player from his country to win a major title. The only Austrian victory took place back in 1995 at the French Open when Thomas Muster defeated Michael Chang in the final.

Thiem has won 54 grand slam matches so far in his career. The third highest ever achieved by a male player from his country. Muster holds the record at 77, followed by Jurgen Melzer at 59.

Target 950 for Nadal

Should Nadal win, he would become only the fourth player in history to win a 950th match on the tour. Only Federer (1207), Jimmy Connors (1156) and Ivan Lendl (1069) have won more than him.

Victory would also reward the 11-time French Open winner his 260th in a grand slam. Placing him third on the all-time list behind Federer (347) and Djokovic (270).

Nadal’s first ever win was back in 2002 when he was only 15 -years-old. Granted a wild card into the Mallorca Open, he defeated Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado 6-4, 6-4, in the first round. He was then knocked out of the tournament by Olivier Rochus.

Overall, Nadal has a win-loss record of 949-194 before today’s final. This equates to a 83% winning rate.

Thiem’s record

Whilst the odds are against him, Thiem knows what it takes to defeat Nadal on the clay. He has done so on four previous occasions, including this year’s Barcelona Open. To put that into context, only Djokovic has managed to defeat him more times on the dirt.

One of the most impressive things about those victories is the consistency. He has defeated his rival once a year since 2016. However, Nadal does lead their head-to-head 8-4 and, more crucially has won all of their four meetings at grand slam level. Three of which were at the French Open.

The head-to-head

The men’s French Open final will take place at 15:00 local time on Sunday.