No Place Like Home: Nadal owns Parisian turf

Each week, Baseline will take a look at a player who has thrived at one of the stops on the ATP and WTA tours during their career.

As a teenager rocketing up the men’s rankings in 2004, Rafael Nadal was forced to miss the French Open that year due to injury.

When he made his debut at the second leg of the Grand Slam a year later, the Spaniard started a run of dominance at one tournament that might never be equaled. Since that title-winning debut, Nadal has won the French Open a total of 12 times—an all-time record for most triumphs at a single major.

In 2005, Nadal entered the tournament on a tear, with five titles on clay already that year. His streak continued through Roland Garros as he captured the first major of his burgeoning career over Mariano Puerta. His undefeated run in Paris stretched through the next three years, defeating his chief rival Roger Federer in each of those finals.

It seemed as if the streak was unbreakable, but in 2009, Robin Soderling of Sweden stopped the Spaniard in the fourth round. A year later, eager to erase that blemish from his record, Nadal was lifting le Coupe des Mousquetaires once again as he exacted revenge upon Soderling in the final.

From there, Nadal completed the five-peat that was denied him in 2009 as he topped Federer, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Djokovic once again in the next four finals. Surprisingly, he failed to capture the title the next two years as he experienced the longest drought in Paris of his career. He resumed his winning ways in 2017, defeating the 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in the final for his 10th career victory at the tournament.

And just like that, Nadal cemented the notion that the title would once again be running through him.

He repeated his march to the victor’s podium in dominant fashion, dropping only one set throughout the tournament and defeating the rising Austrian Dominic Thiem in the championship match.

Going for another three-peat in 2019, questions about his form leading up to the French Open arose as he suffered losses in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Barcelona before righting the ship with a victorious run in Rome. Proving that he had a short memory in regard to his earlier struggles on the clay, Nadal won his 12th title in Paris, beating Thiem once again in the final.

With the future of this year’s event up in the air, it’s unclear if the Spaniard will get to add to his title-winning haul any time soon. Whenever the French Open is played, though, a 13th title won’t be a far-fetched notion.