Rafael Nadal’s dominance at the French Open was recently discussed by Dominic Thiem, Casper Ruud, and Alex de Minaur in an edition of Ultimate Tennis Showdown’s All On The Table.

In Oslo, Norway, on February 9–11, 2024, the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) held its inaugural event. Andrey Rublev emerged victorious. He competed against De Minaur in the championship match after the pair outperformed Thiem and Ruud.

On the fringes of UTS Oslo, Thiem, Ruud, and De Minaur had an open discussion about a wide range of topics pertaining to their personal and professional lives.

The trio’s experiences playing against Rafael Nadal, particularly at Roland Garros, came up throughout the discussion. Since De Minaur was the only person there who had not seen the Spaniard at Claycourt Major, he brought up the subject to get the other two to respond.

De Minaur remarked, “Well, you guys have both played Rafa at French.”

Then, it seemed as though Ruud was reminded of his dreadful 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 defeat in the Roland Garros final in 2022 against the 14-time French Open winner.

“Start at zero… You should ask Domi [Dominic Thiem] for advice because he performed far better than I did, but he can get started. Ruud stated, “You [Thiem] played him multiple times. You defeated him on clay, but not in Roland Garros.

In addition, Thiem recalled his four defeats against Nadal, stating:

“I believe I saw Roland Garros five times… 4, 17, 18, 19, and so forth. Roland Garros takes it to a whole other level. You no longer know how to win a point, therefore it can be nasty in one instance.”

In his 115 French Open matches to date, Rafael Nadal has only lost three. At the Paris Major, he was first defeated in 2009 (R16) by Robin Soderling, and subsequently in 2015 (QF) and 2021 (SF) by Novak Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal has lost four times to Dominic Thiem on clay.
Dominic Theim

In their 16 duels, Rafael Nadal has lost six times to Dominic Thiem. Those six victories have come on clay courts four times.

In their first encounter, Thiem lost to Nadal 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the 2014 French Open, where Nadal went on to win his ninth championship at Roland Garros.

Two years later, at the Argentina Open, Thiem faced the Spaniard and prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4). Additionally, it was his first victory over the Spaniard on clay. From then on, Thiem won three more clay matches against him.

In the Italian Open 2017 quarterfinals, the Austrian defeated the 22-time Grand Slam champion 6-4, 6-3. A year later, in the Madrid Masters quarterfinals, the Austrian defeated him 7-5, 6-3. In the Barcelona Open semifinals in 2019, he defeated the Spaniard 6-4, 6-4.

The final two matches Thiem had against Rafael Nadal occurred in 2020, at the ATP Finals and the Australian Open. The Spaniard won in straight sets to take a 10-6 advantage in the head-to-head match at the Brisbane International 2024, where the two most recently faced off.