Rafael Nadal claimed nine of the ten Roland Garros titles between 2005-2014 to completely dominate a clay Major. The Spaniard slowed down a bit due to injuries in 2015 and 2016, and was back at his best in Paris from 2017. Chasing his 11th Roland Garros crown, Rafa faced Dominic Thiem in the 2018 final and beat the Austrian 6-4 6-3 6-3 in two hours and 43 minutes.Thiem took out Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Still, he failed to produce another notable win against the king of clay, describing the match as the biggest challenge of his career. Thiem was the only player to defeat Rafa on clay in 2017 and 2018, but he was unable to pull off another upset on the most significant stage, unable to match Nadal’s pace a …