Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Ruud, French Open final, 2022

[Waspsting]

Rafael Nadal beat Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in the French Open final, 2022 on clay

It was Nadal’s 14th title at the event, record extending 22nd Slam and first clay title of the season. He’d won Australian Open earlier in the year. Ruud was seeded and playing his first Slam final final. The fifth seeded Nadal defeated 4 top seeds in winning the title

Nadal won 86 points, Ruud 55

Serve Stats
Nadal...
- 1st serve percentage (39/61) 64%
- 1st serve points won (32/39) 82%
- 2nd serve points won (10/22) 45%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (10/61) 16%

Ruud...
- 1st serve percentage (51/80) 64%
- 1st serve points won (27/51) 53%
- 2nd serve points won (9/29) 31%
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (9/80) 11%

Serve Pattern
Nadal served...
- to FH 7%
- to BH 93%

Ruud served...
- to FH 22%
- to BH 78%

Return Stats
Nadal made...
- 70 (20 FH, 50 BH), including 6 runaround FHs
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (1 FH, 3 BH)
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (70/79) 89%

Ruud made...
- 48 (10 FH, 38 BH), including 7 runaround FHs
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 BH)
- 7 Forced (7 BH)
- Return Rate (48/58) 83%

Break Points
Nadal 8/16 (9 games)
Ruud 2/3 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Nadal 35 (14 FH, 15 BH, 5 BHV, 1 OH)
Ruud 15 (9 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)

Nadal's FHs - 2 cc passes, 1 cc/inside-in, 3 dtl (1 at net), 7 inside-out and 1 drop shot
- BHs - 8 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl, 1 longline, 1 longline/cc pass at net, 2 running-down-drop-shot dtl at net (1 pass)

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV

Ruud's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 dtl/inside-out, 3 inside-out (1 at net), 1 inside-out/dtl and running-down-drop-shot ''cc'' at net (very finely played)
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass)

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV
- 1 swinging FHV

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Nadal 28
- 15 Unforced (10 FH, 4 BH, 1 BHOH)... with 1 FH at net
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 6 BH, 1 BH1/2V)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48

Ruud 40
- 27 Unforced (19 FH, 7 BH, 1 BHV)
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.6

(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)

(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Nadal was...
- 15/21 (71%) at net, including...
- 2/3 (67%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 0/1 forced back

Ruud was...
- 10/18 (56%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve

Match Report
Match of two neat halves - the first competitive with good quality, sound tennis from both players and things close to even, the second with Nadal at his absolute best crushing a heavily outmatched Ruud

After losing the first set, Ruud breaks to go up 3-1 in the second. At that stage, 13 games into match -

- Points won - Nadal 39, Ruud 38, with…
-Winners - Nadal 14, Ruud 11
- Errors Forced - Nadal 6, Ruud 9
(hence, aggressively ended points - both 20)
- UEs - Nadal 10, Ruud 14

That’s the last game Ruud wins as Nadal reels off the next 11 games. Across this period -
- Points won - Nadal 47, Ruud 17, with…
- Winners - Nadal 21, Ruud 4
- Errors Forced - Nadal 7, Ruud 4
- UEs - Nadal 5, Ruud 13

Sound stuff from both players in first half, Nadal a touch better
Ridiculously good stuff from Nadal in second half to squash Ruud

Nadal dominating play with his FH is very common. Here, his BH is just as commanding. There isn’t a safe spot for Ruud to go to. Ruud himself looks to play a steady BH, power hitting FH game. The BH stays steady enough, but gets bullied by Nadal’s stock FH cc’ng to give up weak balls that Nadal can attack. The power hitting FH isn’t too strong, but gets the job done in first half before faltering in second half

Key features of playing dynamics when Nadal has initiative are -
- Nadal FH cc’ng to Ruud’s BH (standard Nadal stuff)
- Ruud BH holding up (i.e. not giving up errors), but sooner or later yielding weak balls that Nadal moves over and attacks with FHs, usually inside-out but also apt to run Ruud side to side

When Ruud has lead position -
- takes big cut, swinging FHs and hits them in all directions. Hard hitting, moving-opponent around, beat down play. He does not stick to hitting cc to systematically target Nadal’s BH
- plays BH longline (to avoid Nadal’s FH) to Nadal’s BH. Not strongly hit. How and how well Nadal responds varies some

Essentially, Ruud looks to play a hammering FH, steady BH game. He hammers the FH, but doesn’t have enough power with it to be overly damaging. Neither Nadal’s movement or shot tolerance is exceptional, and Ruud’s able to aggressively win points hitting in all directions

Comparing Ruud’s beat down FH hitting to Dominic Thiem’s against Nadal in the period 2017-2019, the earlier match up is simply higher tier from both players; Thiem hit a lot harder and with greater spin than Ruud does (Ruud probably hits with greater variety of direction - an area where he’s exceptional and alternates between inside-out, line, inside-in and cc without much pattern) and Nadal’s resistance and defence against Thiem was correspondingly greater

It doesn’t take too much to force errors out of Nadal here. Against Thiem, nothing short of overwhelming would yield same result - and occasionally, not even that. This isn’t a ‘miracle’ wall showing from Nadal by any means

As for Ruud’s BH, it stays steady with just 7 UEs (only Nadal’s own has lower number, a stingy 4) and that’s against an above par breaking-BH-down FH cc’ng showing from Nadal; Not content with just routine heavy FH cc’s, Nadal goes extra wide to drag Ruud off court too

Ruud’s BH though lacks punch and yields weaker balls. Nadal steps around easily to thrash FHs to opposite side to finish points

Logically and wisely enough, when Ruud has ball on BH, he avoids going cc and plays line to Nadal’s BH. Still consistent and still not strongly. Nadal has time to move around to play FHs and in first half, usually plays it back inside-in. There are line rallies between Ruud’s BH and Nadal’s BH or FH inside-in - with Ruud the lighter hitter, but consistency a wash

In second half, Nadal goes to town with powerful BH cc’s and ends up crushing Ruud. Nadal’s BH play is standout feature of match, and he’s about as devastating with it as he often is with FH (and virtually never is off BH). Finishes points with BH cc (he’s got 7 winners and forces errors with it) or draws defensive reply. Either persists with more powerful BH cc’s or goes dtl to run Ruud around or finish the point. Almost exactly what he generally does with his FH

Features of Nadal’s showing -
- 35 winners to 28 total errors (15 UEs, 13 FEs) is ridiculous for a baseline clay showing
- more winners off both wings than UEs - FH 14-10, BH 15-4. FH figure isn’t unusual (though excellent), BH figure is beyond ridiculous
- more BH winners than total errors 15-10. Similarly ridiculous
- More BH winners than FH ones is unusual for him
- Just the very low 4 BH UEs would qualify as excellent, even if that side were just holding the fort. Having it doing the amount of damage it does on top of that is something else

The very best FH showings from the very best FHs like Nadal himself, Roger Federer or Juan Martin del Potro have winner/error ratios like Nadal’s BH here. More BH winners than UE showings are very rare to begin with and most are based on solidity (i.e very low BH UEs so not many winners necessary). Here, Nadal has that, but exceptionally high damage done too

Key to all this is Ruud’s BH being bullied to tune of giving up balls for Nadal to attack. Ruud’s BH isn’t strong, but it isn’t puny either. Nadal just happens to go about exploiting his hitting advantage from his FH cc’ng in particularly aggressive way, and his BH play is similarly powerful

Neutral UEs read Nadal 8, Ruud 17. A sound base to bleed Ruud out, but Nadal goes a much more aggressive route

Another day, another period, Nadal might just keep raining down FH cc’s to draw errors or limit attacking play to move around FH inside-outs, while responding to BH line with neutral BH line or non-aggressive cc - and then he’d have to deal with Ruud’s hammered FHs

Here, he responds to BH line with attacking BH cc’s - and runs Ruud around same way of the BH as he does off the FH

 

[Waspsting]

Defensively, things aren’t too far apart. Ruud is both quick and quicker than his opponent, but Nadal’s 1-2s and side-to-side play outdoes Ruud’s footspeed. Nadal isn’t particularly quick

Nadal is a little more stubborn in resisting powerful shots, which he faces regularly enough in first half and Ruud persists with it, usually to successful conclusion. Ruud’s not particularly good at resisting powerful shots - for that matter, Nadal’s showing is nothing to write home about either

Nadal serving 93% to BH is an indicator of what he thinks of the balance of strength across wings of Ruud’s game. He only directs 4/58 serves to FH. He used to follow patterns this extreme against Roger Federer in mid-to-late 2000s

Typical, wall like showing on the return by Nadal, with return rate of 89%. A decent serve from Ruud, he gets them out wide particularly in deuce court and the serve sets up much of his FH offensive, but he doesn’t get much by way of freebies

Odd stat given scoreline is Nadal's low 45% second serve points won. Ruud's runaround FH returns aren't initiative snatching and rallies start neutrally enough, with Nadal in much better position than he is after returning Ruud's first serve (where he wins similar 47% points)

Match Progression
First set is only competitive one of the match and its a sound showing from both players. Nadal leads with FH cc’s to breakdown Ruud’s BH, which holds up, and Nadal shifts to moving over to aim FH inside-outs to opposite side to finish

For his part, Ruud hammers big cut FHs in all directions to beat down/move Nadal around with success. Ruud avoids playing BH cc’s when he can and plays longline to Nadal’s BH. Nadal has time to move over and play FHs against it and in pretty hard hitting when using his BH

After Nadal holds to open, there are 3 breaks on the trot. Nadal moves ahead with a running FH cc pass winner to break first. Then plays a terrible game, missing a couple of routine FHs and double faulting in consecutive points to hand the break back. Then regains the break in a game where Ruud’s FH falters

No more breaks for the set and fairly comfortable holds amidst solid play from both players. Down 15-30 as he serves for the set, Nadal sends down 3 serves that don’t come back to finish

Ruud’s under the gun in opening game of second set, but holds after saving 3 break points - including to 2 Nadal winner attempt UEs (net-to-net BHOH and a FH inside-out). Nadal holds to 15 next game with 3 BH cc winners - 1 particularly good against a routine ball, and Ruud hits a very finely angled FH cc running-down-drop-shot winner too

Ruud throws in a serve-volley next game to hold, and then breaks to love to move ahead 3-1

Its the last game he wins. His standard drops some, with the FH power hitting faltering more often than not (Nadal’s resistance doesn’t improve much if at all). More pertinently, Nadal’s game improves to its best. Starting with forgetting how to miss a ball, while keeping the heat on with his FH, he gradually opens up to all out taking action by scruff of neck and pounding groundies off both sides, in both directions, running Ruud around and finishing with winners while barely missing anything

He finishes with a flurry of BH winners (8 in the last set), including 3 in the last game

Summing, devastating showing from Nadal, starting with picking on and drawing weak balls from Ruud's steady but outgunned BH. Stock FH cc'ng opens up court for Nadal to aim FHs into - which he does with great effectiveness. Just as effective and a lot more unusual, Nadal works up to taking Ruud's lead BH longline to the cleaners starting with powerful, wide attacking BH cc's. Its like he has his normal FH on both wings

Some success for Ruud hammering FHs against a not particularly strong of defence Nadal along with the steady BH keeps him in the match for awhile before Nadal takes over completely

 

[RS]

This is more refreshing than the match threads which are so negative