Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Thiem, French Open final, 2019

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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Rafael Nadal beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the French Open final, 2019 on clay

It was a repeat of previous years final, which Nadal also won. This was Nadal’s 12th title at the event, third in a row and he would go onto win the next one also. This was Thiem’s second and last final at the event. The two had recently met on the same surface in Barcelona, with Thiem winning en route to the title

Nadal won 116 points, Thiem 82

Serve Stats
Nadal...
- 1st serve percentage (78/106) 74%
- 1st serve points won (57/78) 73%
- 2nd serve points won (18/28) 64%
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (24/106) 23%

Thiem...
- 1st serve percentage (64/92) 70%
- 1st serve points won (37/64) 58%
- 2nd serve points won (14/28) 50%
- Aces 7
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (11/92) 12%

Serve Pattern
Nadal served...
- to FH 23%
- to BH 75%
- to Body 2%

Thiem served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 65%
- to Body 1%

Return Stats
Nadal made...
- 80 (27 FH, 53 BH), including 3 runaround FHs
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 4 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH)
- 2 Forced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- Return Rate (80/91) 88%

Thiem made...
- 82 (28 FH, 54 BH), including 13 runaround FHs
- 21 Errors, comprising...
- 14 Unforced (3 FH, 11 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 7 Forced (6 FH, 1 BH)
- Return Rate (82/106) 77%

Break Points
Nadal 7/13 (8 games)
Thiem 2/6 (5 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Nadal 35 (12 FH, 11 BH, 6 FHV, 4 BHV, 2 OH)
Thiem 24 (14 FH, 3 BH, 2 FHV, 5 OH)

Nadal's FHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 3 dtl (1 pass), 3 inside-out, 1 inside-out/dtl, 2 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BHs - 4 cc (1 return), 5 dtl (1 at net), 1 inside-out/dtl, 1 running-down-drop-shot drop shot at net

- 4 from serve-volley points - 3 first volleys (1 FHV, 2 BHV) & 1 second 'volley' (1 OH), on the bounce

Thiem's FHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl, 5 inside-out, 3 inside-in, 1 longline, 1 drop shot, 1 running-down-drop-shot dtl pass at net
- BHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl

- 1 FHV was a swinging, inside-in non-net shot & 2 OHs were on the bounce

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Nadal 47
- 34 Unforced (15 FH, 17 BH, 2 OH)... with 1 BH at net & 1 baseline OH on the bounce
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 5 BH, 1 BHV, 1 Over-the-Shoulder)
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.5

Thiem 56
- 41 Unforced (27 FH, 14 BH)
- 15 Forced (10 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV)
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.5

(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...
- 24/31 (77%) at net, including...
- 4/4 (100%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 1/4 (25%) forced back

Thiem was 10/13 (77%) at net, with...
- 1/2 forced back

Match Report
Solid showing from Nadal and he’s a little better than Thiem at almost everything, and considerably smarter. It all adds up - augmented by the smartness, to convincing win, in a match that progresses unevenly

There’s little in it between the two for two sets, though they’re very different sets

Regular chances for returner in set 1, after settling in phase and its Thiem who breaks first for 3-2. He doesn’t win another game, though challenging Nadal in one return game (in other words, Nadal wins with 1 break cushion, Thiem close to breaking in 1 game that Nadal ends up holding)
Set 2 is thoroughly server dominated. Especially for Nadal, who loses 1 service point for 5 holds (Thiem loses 5 for 6 holds) to move to 5-6. Only to get broken out of blue to give up the set
Set 3 is a complete blowout - Nadal wins 24 points, Thiem 7. At which stage, Nadal’s held serve to love 7 of last 9 games (the others being a hold to 15 and the out-of-blue break at end of last set)
Set 4 is again very different, though it has same 6-1 scoreline as last one, with tough holds for Nadal. One of those clay court breadsticks where there actually isn’t too much in it between the players

4 different types of set is likely to lead to deceptive overall match stats. As in, action at any given stage of match is liable to significantly different from the picture emerging from overall match stats. Like a player who averages a quarter-final showing per tournament - that’s made up of 50% first round losses, and 50% titles. No quarter-finals, but quarter-final is the summary

Nadal’s steadfast returning remains constant. Thiem serves better (the only things he does do better), but Nadal’s advantage on return is greater than Thiem’s on the serve to result in Nadal having better of serve-return complex

88% return rate for Nadal (Thiem’s is 77%). He’s got 4 return errors all match. While being aced 7 times. 4 return errors. Thiem has 21. 4 return errors. Just Nadal being Nadal

Nadal +11 on winners, -7 UEs and -2 FEs (in case of errors, meaning he has fewer and is doing better)
On winners front he’s balanced across wings with 12 FHs and 11 BH. Thiem with 14 FHs, just 3 BHs

High FH winners, low BHs is common fare for both players, so its Nadal being aggressive off BH that’s different in superior way to that. Thiem’s BH not only doesn’t fire offensively, but is rendered somewhat impotent, pushed back and reacting. Normal enough Nadal stuff

The brains thing shines on the FEs and UEs front. Nadal at net 31 times, Thiem 13 (winning rates equal and very large 77%). Nadal near token approaches behind big FHs that have high chance of ending points on its own without an approach. It’s a smart way to attack - retain more control of shot than going for outright point-ender (thus, lower chance of making error), with the approach enhancing its point-ending potential. Thiem hits all kinds of huge FHs - bigger than Nadal’s, but simply won’t come to net. The lesson is right there for him on full show on other side, but he insists on swinging for the hills big FHs (much of which come back even when they land in) while staying on baseline. His FH has match high 27 UEs (other 3 shots range between 14-17)

More Thiem brains on show in the returning. For reasons best known to himself, he takes different positions in the 2 courts. Usually well back in deuce, and just couple paces behind baseline in ad. For what reason, he knows. Not that he returns effectively from either of them, so its not too important

Nadal’s 64% second serve points won is higher than Thiem’s firsts of 58%
And he has run of winning 39/44 service points - starting in last game of first set and extending to first game of last set. Top calibre server would sign off on that for grass, let alone Nadal calibre server on clay

Serve & Return
Thiem serves better, with Nadal pretty good too. Nadal returns superbly, Thiem average at best. Nadal’s advantage on return > Thiem’s on the serve and Nadal with overall advantage

First serve in - Nadal 74%, Thiem 70%
Very good from both players. Especially Thiem, who at times, is serving huge. Nadal occasionally finds very wide serves (that he often serve-volleys behind), utilzes surprise serves to FH well and odd good body serve thrown in

Aces - Nadal 3, Thiem 7
First serve ace rate - Nadal 4%, Thiem 11%
Nadal’s low rate isn’t important. He’s not looking for aces (not that he could find them if he were) and doesn’t need to. Thiem’s decenet rate of aces is. He shifts gears some with the serve, cranking it up in second set where its most effective. He does need aces, because…

Return FEs drawn - Nadal 7, Thiem 2
Return UEs drawn - Nadal 14, Thiem 2

Nadal can’t seem to miss a return. However big Thiem serves. Most shiney part of it is making the return against, wide, very powerful serves that are potential aces, but just the sheer consistency of it is wonderous. Not abnormal for him, but still, him at his best in this area

Thiem can and does make return errors (which is normal). He looks to cover BH, which is sound since Nadal serves there 75% of the time. Few errors there is normal, especially with decent force serve at such high in count. Most of Nadal’s first serves qualify as unforceful (pacey, but not too wide, routine first returns). Tends to get caught out by change up serves to FH

11/14 Thiem return UEs are BHs (and 1 that isn’t is a runaround FH)
6/7 return FEs by contrast are FHs

Caught out by surprise serves to FH, and a few errors on the routine BH return
At 77% return rate, its not bad. Raw numbers look bad compared to Nadal’s, but that’s not reasonable basic of comparison

As mentioned earlier, he returns from well-back in deuce court and closer up in ad. For what reason? - to not get pushed too far off court by Nadal’s serve out wide to BH in ad court?

Whatever it is, he doesn’t return with any more heat in ad court and is more prone to giving up BH return UE. Though not returning with less heat is possibly a boon too, so perhaps the ‘benefit’ to him of earlier position is not giving up more ground than he otherwise would (as opposed to looking to gain ground). Is it worth higher lot of errors? Probably not. Nadal’s just as comfy with his third ball groundies in ad as in deuce court
 
W

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Gist - not bad 77% return rate from Thiem. Could be better, could be worse. Quality of returns perhaps slightly below average, leaving Nadal relatively short third balls more often than optimal. Stress on ‘slighlty’, he’s not leaving half-trackers first up. Against pretty good serve of pace

Extraordinary 88% return rate from Nadal against some big serving. Anything shy of untoucable comes back. Consistency is key, not force. He returns normally, leaving Thiem slightly less comfy third balls than Thiem leaves him (and is forced to return weakly against the bigger serves, which corresponds to Thiem missing returns). Just 3 runaround FH returns (Thiem has 13), so not much of those especially heavily spun returns that rise to shoulders

Play - Baseline (& Net)
Nature of action shifts quite a lot. Both players move over to play FHs more at some stages of match more than others. Early on, Nadal does it the most, but largely plays central position, dual winged game. Thiem shifts to it later on at different stages and is more pointedly aggressive with the FH when he does

Norm of right vs left cc rallies of whoever has ball on FH leads rally applies. Nadal’s FH bosses Thiem’s BH, gets Thiem to fall back and be ineffective in such rallies. Uses it some to target FH side (both with FH inside-out and BH cc), but not too powerfully or too much or systematically.

When shoe is on other foot, Thiem looks to overpower and overwhelm Nadal BH and looks to move over and finish with big FH (cc, inside-out or even inside-in). Does outhit it, but can’t draw many errors or push Nadal to defensive, and Nadal retains ability to swing a BH cc wide enough to be troubling

Nadal is effective with his dual winged play. Plays attackingly or court-openingly wide BH cc’s, and takes on dtl finishers and attacking shots. Thiem doesn’t - his BH is pushed out of match almost

Very importantly, Nadal couples approachs to his attacks. Follows potentially point ending shots to net. Almost a token approach, where he’s unlikely to face difficult volley. The brain-iac Thiem pounds groundies harder and harder, and never seems to think coming in behind a good strong one might be more efficient way of finishing

Nadal is that much more secure across spectrum of forcefulness. Less apt to give up routine ground error, less apt to give up pressured error against power or on the run. He’s not a wall and Thiem is rarely sloppy or easy to hit through, but Nadal is tougher in keeping ball in play

Winners - Nadal 35, Thiem 24
Errors Forced - Nadal 15, Thiem 13
UEs - Nadal 34, Thiem 41

Biggest difference in winners, and that’s down to BH (and net play)
Thiem FH with match high 14 winners, but closely followed by Nadal’s FH’s 12, ‘volleys’ 12 and BH 11
Thiem’s BH has 3 winners, and he has 7 ‘volleys’.

Thiem 1-dimensional of offence, Nadal dual winged aggressive from the back and augmenting it with coming to net from very strong positions (i.e. as an extension of dominating baseline rallies, not a product of net play in and of itself)

On BH, 3 cc winners (not counting a return) and 4 dtl. Handsome yield. In rallying, he is able to get wide cc shots off against more powerful Thiem FH to get on attack. And FHs in all directions - couple cc based, couple dtl, on top of the usual inside-in and inside-out stuff. Thiem’s mostly confined to “inside-in and inside-out stuff” with 8/14 winners in those directions - and usually, predictably going inside-out for the the kill shot

Neutral UEs - Nadal 13, Thiem 17
Not much difference, smaller than one would think, looking at scoreline. Those numbers can be taken just as they are, Thiem a little more prone to missing the regulation ball

Attacking UEs - both 13, to go with Errors forced of Nadal 15, Thiem 13 actually is interesting and gets to superiority of Nadal’s approaching over Thiem’s baseline blasting

With Nadal at net 31 times to Thiem’s 13 (both winning 77% points), Nadal forcing a lot more passing errors. And hard forced passing errors at that. Safe way to finish after getting better of baseline rally. So higher lot of Thiem’s errors forced are in baseline rallies

Neither player with good ratio here is little misleading. Neither are walls and are apt to give up tough errors that wouldn’t come as surprise for them not to. But on clay, attacking shots often don’t draw errors, but have hand in setting up follow-up winners. Plenty of ‘successful’ attacking shots and combos of shots by Nadal to lead up to his winner yield. Less so for Thiem. Blasting Nadal away from the back is tall order, even with Nadal not at his fleetest or most defensively stout. Toned down power + approach working better for Nadal, but only just

Winner attempt UEs - Nadal 8, Thiem 11
Winners - Nadal 35, Thiem 24

Extension of - and better indicator of - Thiem’s approach to finishing not being the best. Nadal excellent and that’s not due to net play. He’s better finisher from back too, sets up finisher better and picks when to go for it more wisely. Thiem occasionally goes into wanton territory of trying to blast the finisher, probably out of frustration or desperation (his BH getting offensively castrated is a handicap and limits what he can look to do)
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Net points - Nadal 24/31, Thiem 10/13, both winning 77%
… with Nadal’s yield including 4/4 serve-volleying

Very nice volleying from Nadal. He’s not tasked with too much, but misses nothing (1 OH, plus 1 BH at net) and is decisive in finishing. And is successful on rare occasion when he is tasked with something, including a lunging volley winner that spins back into the net on landing. Thiem misses just 1 volley (an FE) and has 6 winners (excluding a non-net FHV). Comes in rarely enough that his net play is unimportant. That he could do so a lot more when he’s got Nadal pinned back is the main takeaway - and he chooses not to

Gist - Nadal better in almost all areas. His being able attack with BH in classic fashion (wide cc shots and dtl finishers), while being outhit by Thiem’s FH is central to his superiority. On flip side, Thiem flays with BH, but is pushed back by Nadal’s FH and relegated to an offensive non-entity

Both players scoring with FH aggression, as expected. Thiem’s completely dependent on it and overstrains some at times to give up errors

Nadal using net in wisely when getting better of baseline rally. 1 more string to his offensive bow and a very handy one. Thiem just blasting away from back with FHs, which is part of the overstrained errors he gives up

Decent defending, scampering, shot tolerance from both players, but nothing to write home about. Nadal perhaps a touch better and a little more consistent too

Match Progression
Good set of tennis to get things started, with feeling out process taking score to 2-2. Both players keeping high in counts and following-up with balanced, appropriate aggression to hold. Nadal moderately moves over to play FHs and makes some insurance approaches to finish points off, with Thiem retrieving well when on defensive. Some nice, wide BH cc’s from Nadal too, which Thiem’s not too bothered by. Thiem’s BH is pressured by FH cc’s but doesn’t flag with errors. He moves and defens well and engages in power FH hitting inside-out and inside-in for offence. Occasionally, he lashes out and misses the odd routine return

Its Thiem who breaks first to reach 3-2. Couple of aggressive FH UEs by Nadal keeps score at 30-30. Not good drop shot by Nadal brings Thiem in and Nadal does very well to lunge out defensive passes to eventually force Thiem back, but Thiem maintains control and smacks FH inside-out winner to move to 30-40. Another overpowering FH inside-out sets up an OH on bounce finish at net to seal the break

He doesn’t win another game in the set

It takes Nadal multiple OHs (from net, from no-man’s land, on bounce and on full) to win first point of next game. Couple of FH blinks by Thiem (1 against a nice, deep slice) get him to break point, where he outdoes Thiem in cc rally and finishes with FH cc winner

Great game to follow that lasts 12 points, with Nadal saving a break point in it, with both players attacking and forced to defend in it. Thiem misses a not easy, slightly wide BH return on break point that’s nonetheless been marked UE. Many impressive rallies in the game, with pick of them being Thiem coming away with a FH running-down-drop-shot dtl winner at net. Nadal holds with a FH dtl - BH dtl 1-2 ending with a winner

FH dtl + approach gets Nadal to 15-30 next game and he hits a wonderful, running-down-drop-shot drop shot at net winner to reach break point. Greets Thiem with a low, wide pass that forces FHV error to snag the break/set

Nadal serves out to 15. After losing first point of game to a BH dtl, he serve-volleys for first time behind a wide serve to deftly put away BHV winner. Its start of remarkable streak of winning 25/26 straight service points

Action shifts in second set. Thiem isn’t far behind Nadal in dominating on serve. He serves bigger and goes in for more FH inside-out and inside-in power play to stay on top of serve

At 6-5 on serve, Thiem’s lost 3 service points for 6 holds, Nadal 1 for 5 holds
So its completely out of the blue that Nadal blinks up 4 ground UEs from 15-0 up to lose the set 7-5 - Thiem’s BH holds up to pinch a cc rally he’s reacting in to reach break/set point, and outdoes Nadal’s BH in another cc rally to even the match

Third set is blowout. Nadal continues thorough domination of serve and wins 12/12 service points. And adds thorough return domination, winning 12/19 return points
Thiem give up UEs in not long rallies, gives up not too tough FEs. Nadal with some high end offence too - decked BH cc winner, lovely angled drop FHV from feet leve and lunging BHV that spins back into the net stand out. 6-1 in quick time. 1 guy playing well, 1 guy not accounting for the thrashing

Fourth set is different, despite breadstick scoreline. Nadal has to serve 31 points or 7.75 per game for his 4 holds (as opposed to all love holds set before), with Thiem having 3 break points across 2 games, but remains ahead of the curve, with Thiem’s only hold coming from 0-40 down

Nadal actually plays BHs most of set, and Thiem leads action with big FH cc’s to start, with eye to moving over and bashing FH inside-outs and inside-ins from there. Nadal that much more consistent and that much tougher in holding out for UEs and resisting making FEs to come out on top in tough, competitive games to wrap up the match

Summing up, slightly up and down match with Nadal being a little better at almost everything

Thiem serves better (more powerfully and at not much less in-count than average serving Nadal), but Nadal’s at his toughest on the return and barely misses any. Thiem by contrast, misses the occasional routine return

In court action, Nadal largely playing dual winged game, with only some move-away FH’ng. He’s able to attack off both wings - gets wide cc shots off and successfully takes on dtl finishers off the BH (which holds up against the more powerful Thiem FH), while bossing Thiem’s BH with his own FH cc’s to tune of pushing it back and keeping it out of match’s offence page, using back-away combos of FH inside-out and inside-ins to attack and adding cherry of insurance approaches to top his attacking cake. While being a little more secure off the ground and a little tougher defensively

Thiem’s returning is ineffecitve, though not bad. With BH pushed out of match, FH is left to all the heavy lifting - big powerful cc shots to start and blasted inside-outs and inside-ins to crank it up (especially inside-out). He doesn’t play well, but not as badly as scoreline or his numbers might suggest and is competitive in 3/4 sets

Stats for Nadal’s semi-final with Roger Federer - Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Federer, French Open semi-final, 2019 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
nolefam_2024 said:
This was Nadal's toughest match ever...


According to few rotten apples.
Click to expand...
in French Open finals, that'd be Puerta in '05. Which I find slightly funny

Rafa4LifeEver said:
First set was one of the best clay sets ever.
Click to expand...
my favourite among these two is first set Madrid '17. Amazing stuff

The first set of the '05 final was same calibre too

I suppose that's where Thiem's difficulties lie; his very best (which he doesn't actually hit very often, and can't count on hitting any given match) just about matches Nadal's standard, good or solid game (which he hits 7 or 8 days out of 10)

Still, I think Thiem would have been a worthy French Open champion, and there've been considerably worse clay courters who have snagged a title there
 
Rafa4LifeEver

Rafa4LifeEver

G.O.A.T.
Waspsting said:
in French Open finals, that'd be Puerta in '05. Which I find slightly funny


my favourite among these two is first set Madrid '17. Amazing stuff

The first set of the '05 final was same calibre too

I suppose that's where Thiem's difficulties lie; his very best (which he doesn't actually hit very often, and can't count on hitting any given match) just about matches Nadal's standard, good or solid game (which he hits 7 or 8 days out of 10)

Still, I think Thiem would have been a worthy French Open champion, and there've been considerably worse clay courters who have snagged a title there
Click to expand...
Madrid 2017 final's first set was amazing as well, Rafa was fighting so hard throughout the entire set & didn't blink on any of the Thiem set points, CLUTCH stuff.

Tbh, Thiem's problems in big finals weren't just limited to running into Rafa at RG; the Austrian was 2-9 into big finals if I recall; and not all of them were against Rafa or Novak, he also lost to the trio of Medvedev - Zverev - Tsitsipas who were inferior players to him at that point in time. Thiem just couldn't mentally bring it together when it really mattered; and if not for the masterclass of choking by Zverev, he'd not have won his maiden slam as well.
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
Nadal started attacking Thiem fh after set 2. He started first shot. I/O Finish or BH CC followed by net play.
Thiem did not know what hit him. Complete blowout.

Brain over brawn.

Yet another reason why single handers are going extinct. Thiem stayed back , took deep cuts and even then Nadal had decent unreturned serves. But Nadal did what? That's right. Attack the net, go inside I/O on first shot. Double hander would get pushed less.
Even a clay courter BH like Thiem's is no match for massive fhs like Nadal's.
 
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
nolefam_2024 said:
Nadal started attacking Thiem fh after set 2. He started first shot. I/O Finish or BH CC followed by net play.
Thiem did not know what hit him. Complete blowout.

Brain over brawn.

Yet another reason why single handers are going extinct. Thiem stayed back , took deep cuts and even then Nadal had decent unreturned serves. But Nadal did what? That's right. Attack the net, go inside I/O on first shot. Double hander would get pushed less.
Even a clay courter BH like Thiem's is no match for massive fhs like Nadal's.
Click to expand...
"Nadal slayed" :D
 
aldeayeah

aldeayeah

G.O.A.T.
This looked like it was going to be a war after the first two sets, but then both players realized it was a RG final.
 
RS

RS

Bionic Poster
Sport said:
Sad to see the speed of decline. Just 5 years ago Nadal was an unstoppable machine at RG, and now he's heading toward obtaining Finnish citizenship.
Click to expand...
I think if you asked people after the 2019 F how many RG Nadal win I think 2 would have a been good guess. Turned out like that.
 
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