“The worst thing about playing against him in Paris?”: Dominic Thiem reflects on the challenge of facing Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros

Dominic Thiem spoke about the toughest challenge when facing Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. The Austrian, recently retired, faced the Spaniard in two consecutive French Open finals. Nadal frustrated Thiem's first two chances of winning his first major, which he achieved in the 2020 US Open against Alexander Zverev.

Thiem spent several years as one of the main contenders for the title at Roland Garros, reaching the semifinals in 2016 and 2017, and the final in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, he reached the quarterfinals and had the chance to face Nadal again, this time in the semifinals, but ended up losing to Argentine Diego Schwartzman in five sets.

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The Austrian ended his career in late 2025, but unfortunately could not compete in the main draw of Roland Garros, having reached the second round of qualifying. Thiem finished his career with a 28-10 (74%) record, the Grand Slam where he performed the best.

"What’s the worst thing about playing against him in Paris? Well, one of the most frustrating things is when you're warming up on the court just before the match starts," the Austrian said. "The announcer begins listing all his titles at Roland Garros. It’s like... '2015, 2016...' The crowd gets crazier and crazier, and the noise keeps rising. It’s very frustrating for the opponent."

Back in 2018, with his one-handed backhand, Thiem defeated rivals like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, Kei Nishikori, and Alexander Zverev. The 7th seed ended up losing in the final to Nadal 4-6, 3-6, 2-6. "The first one wasn’t as good, it was my first Grand Slam final, and I didn’t have much experience."

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"Playing a single Grand Slam final is an incredible achievement. It’s very difficult to get there. It's two weeks of tough competition, and when I think about it, I had the opportunity to play against the best player in history at Roland Garros twice. Rafa won the tournament 14 times, and two of those were against me. It's something I’m proud of."

A year later, Thiem had the chance for revenge against the Spaniard, but again lost 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. "Honestly, now, from a distance, I’m very proud of those two finals against him," Thiem said in an interview with Spanish media Relevo.

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"The second one, however, was a great match. I tried to play my best tennis in both, and I’m very proud of that, especially the second one. I prepared really well, and I think both of us played at a very high level,” Thiem added.

"For me, it was somewhat easy," Thiem surprises. "When you're in a Grand Slam final, it's because you're playing well. Your fitness is on point, fresh, and between Rafa and I, there were no secrets. We played 15 times (it was actually 16, with a 10-6 record), and we both knew what the other would do on the court. There were no special instructions, really. I knew what I was facing. It’s just that at Roland Garros, Rafa was too good for me."

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