I was in Chicago visiting my great Aunt when this match took place. I remember watching it on their small tv in a corner of the guest room I was staying at. Even then something was special about Nadal - mostly his speed and ability to track down ridiculous shots that no one else would even come close to. Overtime many players became as audacious in their defense as Nadal was but then it was new - as were the capris and the muscles and the grunts. The real star match was the semifinal win over Federer in four sets, but here too he was challenged but got his reward: for some reason Zinedine Zidane - a full year before he would rule the world at the World Cup - being the guest of honor handing out the trophy. A great respect and friendship started that day, between those two, and between me and Rafa.
2.) 2006 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer 1-6 6-1 6-4 7-6
By this point Nadal was probably already being hailed as well on track to being the best clay court player ever, but still seeing him lose the first set 1-6 is staggering. He quickly, as in immediately, reversed course rolling Federer 6-1 in the next set. Overtime I came to appreciate this weird foible of all the rivalries of the big-3, that every now and then, even within the same match, one would just randomly put on 'God' mode for a set or two. The last two sets were somewhat forgettable but overall looking back I just love the symmetry of those two 6-1 sets.
3.) 2007 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-4
This was the match that made me, and probably many, think that yeah, at some point he's going to beat him on other surfaces. About a month before this match Federer hammered Nadal at th Hamburg masters. I believe Federer was the betting favorite entering this match for some reason. Instead, Nadal won a calm, if well played, four setter. My memory of the match is somewhat hazy aside from the growing sense that Rafa is just inevitable on this surface and on this court, and finally the French crowd was starting to realize that their favorite boy Roger wouldn't be able to beat him.
4.) 2008 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0
The scoreline 6-1, 6-3, 6-0, will always be my paragon of Nadal's clay dominance. And it was every bit as dominant - with the first and third sets taking abuot 30 minutes each - hyper-fast in Nadal's world. I remember Federer just being passed so easily time and time again, he started going up to the net already with slumped shoulders knowing it was pointless. Rafa ended up winning this tournament without dropping a set -- a feat he would match three more times -- but never at the level of play that he did here. His scorelines against great players is just insane - none much more than when he just eviscerated Federer to a level heretofore unimaginable.
5.) 2008 Wimbledon - def (1) Roger Federer 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7
I wrote a Nostalgia Diaries piece about this game, namely how we watched the epic match across the four and a half hours of gameplay, and multiple rain delays, with my Aunt who would die a few months later. She was a Nadal fan. We entered this one confident, given it came a month after the massacre at Roland Garros, and moreso after Nadal calmly won two sets. But of course Federer rose to the occasion and gave us what will always be known by anyone who isn't a Novak fan as the Greatest Match of All Time. Maybe more than any of these pre-2010 major wins, this one is seared in my mind.
6.) 2009 Aussie Open - def (2) Roger Federer 7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2
I wrote about this one as well, and the lasting moment will be either the best single point the two ever played, where each hit about two winners before Rafa's outstreched actual winner, or of course Federer's breakdown at the end. Seeing Federer burst into tears was a mix of harrowing and hilarious at the time, but you can understand it. Nadal broke him. In seven months he blasted him embarrisingly on clay, stole his glory at Wimbledon and now beat him on hard court. That said, what has now become a truly close friendship probably started that day too, with Nadal consoling Federer, arm around his shoulders, before publicly reassuring the world that he felt Federer would pass the '14 of Sampras.' How little did we know how prescient those words would be.
7.) 2010 French Open - def (5) Robin Soderling 6-4 6-2 6-4
This was the first of many 'Nadal comes back and wins his first slam after a prolonged injury' wins for Nadal, but to me the most memorable. His injury that forced him out of Wimbledon and made him play at about 80% thereafter was novel, it was scary and seemed to confirm many of the fears or projections many had about Rafa's style of play. But then he came back and won the French Open again without losing a set, and this time doing it by exacting revenge on teh guy that beat him the year before. It wasn't his most dominant run - in truth he had more dominant runs where he lost a set or two - but it was maybe the most fulfilling.
8.) 2010 Wimbledon - def (12) Tomas Berdych 6-3 7-5 6-4
For whatever reason, I have this match taped on VCR then converted to DVD. I have no idea why. It wasn't a particularly close match (obviously) and Rafa seemed so preordained to win it seemed a bit ordinary. His real test was the Semifinal against Andy Murray which he also won in five sets. At this point, Nadal did seem like the best grass court player in the world too - winning it for the second straight time he played the event. Little did we know how much of a horror show he would soon become on grass, for what are still inexplicable reasons given how he turned it around in 2018-19.
9.) 2010 US Open - def (3) Novak Djokovic 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2
I would posit Nadal's peak as a player was this tournament run. He won the US Open dropping just that one solitary set in the final. He maxed out the one 'weakness' of his game, suddenly smashing 130+ mph serves routinely, including three straight service winners to close out the third set. He never really served that fast again (Nadal claims it impacted his shoulder), but in that moment he had no weakness. How good was he? He dropped serve one time period prior to the final. Every now and then I do wish Nadal brings back the huge serve again. It really made him for a two-week stretch the perfect player.
10.) 2011 French Open - def (3) Roger Federer 7-5 7-6 5-7 6-1
This was the tournament where this Nadal fan finally started to come around on Roger - I even think I wrote something about it at the time. Why? Because Roger beat Djokovic in the semifinals - Novak's first loss of the year. Nadal was 0-4 that year against Djokovic losing in the finals of Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Madrid. I guarantee Djokovic would've won again, but instead Federer took him out - and Nadal beat Federer as he does. This was a treat though I don't think I ever would've imagined it would be the last fnal between the two for six years.
11.) 2012 French Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-3 2-6 7-5
Honestly, I don't know if Rafa was ever as content and pleased after a win than this one. He had lost the prior three finals all to Djokovic. As good as Djokovic was in 2011-12, Nadal was like 95% as good, but lost the key matches. Here he won the key match getting a bit of help with rain that came right after he lost the third set. He steadied in the 4th, which I followed on my phone on the NJ Transit heading up to my internship. This was before network was nearly as good to watch it on the phone, so I was maddeningly refreshing the French Open's score app. Not a fun way to watch a final.
12.) 2013 French Open - def (5) David Ferrer 6-3 6-2 6-3
This match took place two days after I returned to the US from my 'Around the World' trip. It was a letdown given the real final was Rafa's semifinal marathon win over Djokovic in a weird mirror version of their 2012 Oz Final epic. That match took place the day I returned, and I had my parents DVR-it. For whatever reason teh DVR failed and when I got home, Nadal was serving for the match. That was quite a welcome-home gift after four months away. People talk about that match being this close epic, and it certainly was, but I'll never forget that Nadal had more winners than Novak, less errors, and won way more points.
13.) 2013 US Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-1
The final took place on a Monday which coincidentally was my 2nd day of work as an adult having started the Friday before. We were at a pasta making class & dinner while it was going on. I wasn't the only one very interested, and I do remember we reached back to the hotel the company put us all up in that week in time to watch the ending getting drunk at the bar in the hotel. It was an amazing first week, and while this wasn't the highlight, it wasn't too far behind. I definitely bonded with a few colleagues over our shared love of Rafa, who pulled off a miracle in the 3rd set before just rolling and finishing off his most dominant year yet.
14.) 2014 French Open - def (2) Novak Djokovic 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4
Five years after Nadal reduced Fed to tears, he reduced Djokovic to tears here - not as pronounced but every bit as real, as for years of getting closer to beating Nadal at the French, he won a set but then was overwhelmed. Of course, just like how Federer would go on to win three of the next four slams post-bawling, so too would Novak. Separately, it was after this win that I bet my friend the $200 that Nadal would beat Fed. Who could blame me, Nadal was three behind having won three of the last five slams, and Federer hadn't won one in two years. It took seven years, and ten combined slams, but finally I was right.
15.) 2017 French Open - def (3) Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 6-1
The fact that there is this two-and-a-half year gap in Nadal's run will never not amaze me. Same with Djokovic's similar gap from 2016 Wimby through 2018 French. But rise like a Phoenix he did. If any tournament has a claim to match his dominance in 2008 it was this one where he won by similarly lopsided scores, admittedly against lesser players. The final over Stan was also cathartic given his loss to Stan in the 2014 Australian Open final. The real memory for me was it was Rafa's 10th French Open, a fact Roland Garros basically assumed would happen given the vast amounts of '10' signage they immediately unfurled when it was over.
16.) 2017 US Open - def (24) Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-3 6-4
The final was fairly routine here - once again the Semifinal was the real test, this time against Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal look flustered early against Delpo, before rolling off 10 straight games while winning the 2nd and 3rd sets 6-0, 6-3. My real memory of this tournament was actually Delpo's win over Federer, which I watched on my computer in a bar in Wallingford, chatting with my friends. I was about 30 seconds behind which they used to hilariously evil impact. For a pretty mediocre project, memories like that night at that bar will always be with me.
17.) 2018 French Open - def (7) Dominic Thiem 6-4 6-3 6-2
I think this is maybe the only final on this list that I know I didn't watch any of. I was in Vancouver, and given the time difference it was largely over by the time I woke up at 9am or whatever. It wasn't too surprising. Thiem was a great clay court player, but Rafa was on a roll and beat him rather easily. At this point, him winning the French was basically a guarantee, so honestly I was perfectly fine sleeping in my Vancouver AirBNB while this was going on.
18.) 2019 French Open - def (4) Dominic Thiem 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1
Things seemed a bit more tricky this time around. Thiem survived a five-set war with Djokovic in the semifinal and really played Rafa to a draw in the first two sets. Then Rafa unleashed a level of clay court playing who would rarely match with its brutality. Double breadsticks to end it absolutely encapture just how great Rafa was on the day. I left thinking Thiem would be the next non-Rafa player to win the French. While that sadly isn't true, I do for sure hope he wins one.
19.) 2019 US Open - def (4) Daniil Medvedev 7-5 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-4
I watched this match in its entirety, sitting in the same old chair we brought over one year from India, barely getting up or moving for the run of its nearly five hours. It was a thrilling match because of how new it was. This was the first time (not including 2017 against Anderson which was a fait accompli) that Rafa was facing a serious contender in a non-French Open final that wasn't Djokovic or Federer. Daniil was excellent. He played excellently. He was the fresher guy in the 5th. But Nadal pulled it out. Around this time, an old college friend nad I started chatting mosly around our shared love of Nadal - or at least that is how it started. I remember furiously pinging DMs back and forth throughout this incredible match, easily the best of his non-historic wins (e.g. teh 21st, his first Wimbledon and Australian/hard court, etc).
20.) 2020 French Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic 6-0 6-2 7-5
This was the sequel to his 2008 massacre twelve years later and maybe more brutal in its efficiency. To see Nadal go 6-0, 6-2, against Djokovic was stunning. He was insanely good in this one, that just ike Federer reacted after 2008, I still remember Novak's post-game speech saying 'well, I guess this is why your are the king of clay'. There's no agument, even after the events of the French Open the following year. You can play the French Open in winter, in a closed roof, all things that were supposedly to Djokovic's advantage, and it didn't matter. The king stay the king.
21.) 2022 Aussie Open - def (2) Daniil Medvedev 2-6 6-7 6-4 6-4 7-5
What more to say - I just wrote a few thousand words on this yesterday. The only thing I'll mention is truly how much I expected Medvedev to win. And not even in any weird reverse jinx way. I felt it going in and seeing Medvedev race to a 6-2 first set just compounded that feeling. Which is then to say how gleeful, much like Rafa himself at the end, I was that he pulled it off. The 21st, the 2nd career slam, all incredible memories that can help block out bad ones, and it all crested in the craziest way possible. Insane, as Rafa is, was and will always will be.
