The fact that explains Nadal’s superiority in Paris

That Rafa Nadal is the clear dominator of Roland Garros for almost two decades is nothing new. This is what his 13 titles in 17 participations say, and his record of 108 games won by only three lost on the Parisian clay. Nevertheless, With each passing year, Rafa is in charge of obtaining records that explain even better the superiority that he has always had in the tournament.

In his three matches played in this edition of Roland Garros, Rafa has not dropped a set. And it is that seeing the Balearic side close a match 3-0 in this tournament is something very common. So much so that 86 of Nadal’s 108 victories have been by this result, without losing a set. This figure means that the Spaniard has won more matches in three sets in the French Grand Slam than any other tennis player in the number of sets. Djokovic, the second player who has won the most matches at Roland Garros, has 84 wins, obviously not all of them in three sets.

Only 18 times has Rafa won his matches losing a set, while two of his three defeats have been 1-3. Y Only twice has Nadal needed a fifth set to win (Isner 2011 and Djokovic 2013), while he has never lost in five sets in this tournament. And he has only lost 0-3 once (Djokovic 2015). The remaining two wins came after the abandonment of his rival during the duel. The list of players who have been able to win at least one set against Nadal at Roland Garros is very small: Diego Schwartzman (2), Dominic Thiem, David Goffin, Jack Sock, Novak Djokovic (10), David Ferrer, Martin Klizan, Daniel Brands, Lleyton Hewitt, Paul Henri Mathieu, Mariano Puerta, Sebastien Grosjean, Roger Federer (4), John Isner (2) and Robin Soderling (3).

Of the 355 sets that Nadal has faced at Roland Garros, he has won 324, and has only yielded 31, which represents 91.2% of sleeves won over the total of those disputed. Going to the games, the Balearic has participated in 3,168 of them, having won 2,106 and lost 1,062, a 66.5% effectiveness. These are numbers that speak for themselves about how superior Rafa Nadal is when he steps out onto a clay court in Paris.