French Open 2020 Thoughts - Rafa Triumphs

In the year of COVID, the last thing on my mind was penning a sports commentary. But I had to, considering the incredible one-sided French Open final I had just seen. Incredibles and Unthinkables have kind of become the norm this year:

• We had a US Open before empty crowds
• We had the World No.1 being defaulted just when his 4th round match was beginning to catch some steam
• We had a French Open in the Fall
• We had false positive COVID tests with irate players threatening lawsuits 
• We had hand sanitizers being handed out to the presenters who had come to present the trophies
• We had a lop-sided final, where the world number 1 Novak Djokovic whose 36 (completed) match winning streak was broken and destroyed by one Rafael Nadal

I am a huge Rafa fan but a score line of 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 was far away even from my imagination. I still remember the disappointing 2019 Australian Open Final. I had woken up early to catch a glimpse of the final but could only watch the presentation ceremony after Djokovic snuffed out Rafa's challenge for the loss of just eight games.

Rafael Nadal savors the French Open triumph (Courtesy: ESPN)

This was the payback, Rafa walloped Novak and walked away with his 13th French Open championship after conceding just seven games. Here are certain numbers, stats and facts about the leadup to the match and the match itself:

• This was the first grand slam final that Novak lost since coming back from injury in 2018 (5-1 record in grand slam finals since his return). 

• The bagel in the first set was the second bagel that Novak collected during the course of his 50+ encounters with Rafa. The first was during their Italian Open final in 2019. 
  
  

• 'Live at Roland Garros' ran a poll, a day before the final. 73% of the respondents voted that Rafa was going to walk out as the champion. The panelists Fabrice Santoro and Daniela Hantuchova were split on who would win but voted for Novak as the slight favorite. Guess the people who were voting knew more than the former Mixed Doubles Champions of Roland Garros 😉
  
  

• Since 2015 Djokovic had never lost to a player with a two-handed backhand at Roland Garros. He had however lost four times in the same period to:
• Stan Wawrinka (2015)
• Marco Cecchinato (2018)
• Dominic Thiem (2017 and 2019)

            But as we found out today it only takes one Rafael Nadal to turn that stat on it's head. 

• Both Diego Schwartzman (more than 3 hours match time) and Jannik Sinner (2 hours and 49 minutes match time) won more games and lasted longer than Novak Djokovic (2 hours and 41 minutes match time) in their semi-final and quarter-final encounters with Rafa respectively.
  
  

• Djokovic recorded a very high tally of unforced errors in his match against Rafa. ATP has the total error (both forced/unforced) count for Novak's groundstrokes at 60 when compared to 23 winners. This is a humongous number of errors for someone who prides himself in playing an error free game. But the unforced error count for Novak has been high ever since his Cincinnati semi-final against Roberto Bautista Agut where he recorded 41 winners to 43 unforced errors, Bautista Agut served for the match at one time before Novak clawed his way back to victory. The Stefanos Tsitsipas match which Djokovic squeezed through yielded a ratio of 56 winners to 50 unforced errors (one of those unforced errors came on a match point extending the match by more than an hour and a half). If the default at the US Open is also counted as an unforced error then it can be conclusively argued that this result was always on the cards against an opponent who stood his ground with Novak.

• Novak's drop shots effectively disrupted Tsitsipas' rhythm during their semi-final encounter but against Rafa this trick did not work. Novak hit 28 drop shots during the course of the entire match but only won 13 points (46% success rate). This drop shot success rate fell further to 20% in the third set with Rafa finding a way to counter the shots with his angled volleys. 

• With this win Rafa has managed three different streaks of four championships or more at Roland Garros. All of his streaks feature at least one victory over the world number one in the finals.
• Streak 1 (2005 - 2008): Roger Federer (lost to Rafa in 2006, 2007 and 2008)
• Streak 2 (2010 - 2014): Novak Djokovic (lost to Rafa in 2012)
• Streak 3 (2017 - Present): Novak Djokovic (lost to Rafa in 2020)

• Novak hasn't beaten Rafa on clay since 2016 but was the last man to defeat him at Roland Garros in 2015. This defeat has now been avenged by Rafa in addition to the one which was avenged by beating Robin Soderling in the 2010 French Open final. Rafa thus stands unconquered on the Roland Garros turf. A feat which for sure will go down into the annals of tennis history as a gold standard.

Rafa's eyes betray his emotions after his 13th French Open Championship victory (Courtesy: ESPN)  

• The final salvo of the night comes from Brad Gilbert when he famously declared in 2006 that Novak taking on Rafa on clay was like a middleweight trying to push through a heavyweight. I saw this video yesterday and thought if we could ever go back to a time where Rafa was the outright favorite. What a difference 24 hours hours does? That statement rings true today as it did when he first said it 14 years ago.
  
  

When Dominic Thiem missed two consecutive forehands to gift away his match points in the US Open Final, John McEnroe exclaimed, "You can't make this up". You were bang on the money John! You can't make any of this up. Somewhere when the 2019 Australian Open Final was being played out, Gods were scripting a diving revenge for Rafael Nadal and that script played out today on a cold Roland Garros final night in October. The final grand slam of this year is done and we the mere mortals are still coming to terms with what we've just watched. Incredible can be ridiculously fun!      

Until Next Time,

Your Sports Commentator,

Chaitanya J.J.