rg17nadal_wawrinka

Total points [ 34-23, 29-18, 31-16 ]
Points won directly on serve:
26 % Nadal – 17 of 65
16 % Wawrinka – 14 of 86

It was already something absolutely incredible when Nadal won the French Open in 2013 for the 8th time becoming the first man to capture a major so many times (both Pete Sampras & Roger Federer triumphed seven times at Wimbledon). In 2014 he added another Parisian title, and after a two-year drought he came back stronger than ever as a 31-year-old man to win for the 10th time making off this achievement something beyond description: en route to the title he dropped just 35 games, challenging unimaginable record of Bjorn Borg’s 32 games lost in 1978.
Wawrinka [3] began his second French Open final in a good shape, but once Nadal [4] established a *4:2 lead, dreams about a balanced encounter actually evaporated, given their H2H (15:3) and Wawrinka’s four-and-half hour thriller vs Murray in the semifinal. 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 Nadal beat Wawrinka on the same court four years before, nonetheless the Swiss stated after the final that he’d never faced Nadal playing so well. I didn’t bother to watch Nadal in his first five matches against much inferior opponents. Seeing him in the last two matches (Thiem, Wawrinka) I’d say he was playing like a robot, enormously focused on every point until the last one. In the 2nd set for instance he played a phenomenal forehand down the line on the run which impressed even Wawrinka, but Nadal didn’t show any reaction, it was a point giving him only 30/40 on Wawrinka’s serve being one break ahead… he lost that game in the following point…

Nadal’s route to his 73rd title (10th at Roland Garros):
1 Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-4, 6-1
2 Robin Haase 6-1, 6-4, 6-3
3 Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1, 6-0
4 Roberto Bautista 6-1, 6-2, 6-2
Q Pablo Carreno 6-2, 2-0 ret.
S Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4, 6-0
W Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1

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