French Open 2018: Is there any stopping the King of Clay as Dominic Thiem looks to overthrow Rafa Nadal

Nadal is in search of his 11th Roland Garros title on Sunday

Nadal has looked unstoppable so far (Getty)

Robin Soderling is one of only two men who have beaten Rafael Nadal here at the French Open but the Swede has an ominous message for those hoping eventually to end the reign of the king of clay, who meets Dominic Thiem here on Sunday in search of his 11^th Roland Garros title.

“If Rafa can stay injury-free, there is nothing that says he can’t win this two, three, four times more,” Soderling said. “I think he has actually improved his backhand a little bit [since I last played him seven years ago]. I’m really impressed with the way he plays his backhand now. Even when players put a lot of pace on his backhand, he’s defending really well.

“On the other hand, maybe he’s not moving as well as he did five, six, 10 years ago.But it’s very small difference. I would say he’s probably as good now as he was before. It’s just amazing.”

Soderling, whose career was eventually ended by glandular fever, has been back at Roland Garros this week for the first time since his last appearance here in 2011. He was beaten by Nadal in the quarter-finals that year, having also lost to the Spaniard in the final 12 months earlier.

However, the match for which the former world 4 will always be remembered was in 2009, when he beat Nadal, who was struggling with knee problems, in the fourth round. Soderling went on to reach the final but lost to Roger Federer, who has no doubt been forever grateful to the Swede for opening up the chance for him to complete his Grand Slam collection.

The only other defeat Nadal has suffered in his 87 matches on these courts was in 2015, when he was going through a crisis of confidence and lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic, who was in the middle of a 122-week reign at the top of the world rankings.

“Rafa’s still here and has a chance to win 11 times,” Soderling said. “I don’t think we’re ever going to see that again, at least not in my lifetime.It’s unbelievable. It says so much about him. What really impresses me is that although he has won it 10 times, he’s here to win it 11 times. He looks almost as hungry, or even hungrier, than when he won it the first time. He hasn’t lost any motivation at all. It’s amazing to see.”

Nadal has appeared all but unstoppable for most of this clay-court season (Getty)

Nadal, who needs to retain his title to avoid being overtaken by Federer at the top of the world rankings next week, is aiming to become only the second player in history to win 11 singles titles at the same Grand Slam event. Margaret Court won the Australian title 11 times between 1960 and 1973, though that was a very different era, when many of the top players rarely ventured Down Under.

In Thiem Nadal will be facing the only player who has beaten him on clay in the last two years. The 24-year-old Austrian beat the 32-year-old Spaniard in the Rome quarter-finals last year and in the Madrid quarter-finals last month. The latter result ended Nadal’s 21-match winning streak on clay and his sequence of 50 straight sets won on the surface. However, Nadal won both their previous meetings here, in the second round in 2014 and in the semi-final last year, in straight sets.

In total Nadal and Thiem have played each other on nine occasions – all of them on clay – with the Austrian’s only other victory having come in Buenos Aires in 2016. Djokovic and Gaston Gaudio are the only other players who have beaten Nadal at least three times on clay.

Thiem has won more tour-level matches (35) than any other player this year and his total of 26 match wins on clay in 2018 is one more than Nadal’s. The world No 8, who grew up playing on clay and has always regarded it as his favourite surface, is a ferocious trainer with a reputation as one of the game’s hardest workers.

(Getty (Getty)

Although Thiem has dropped three sets en route to the final and Nadal only one, the Spaniard has actually been on court nearly two hours’ longer. Nadal has not looked as consistently dominant as he did last year, when he did not drop a set in winning the title, and there have been periods in his matches when he has been struggling.

Nadal admitted that he was facing “a very difficult match against a player who is playing great”. He added: “I know I have to play my best if I want to have chances.The good thing is I played a lot of good matches this clay-court season. Sunday is the day to give my best, the day to increase my level even a little bit more.”

He added: “You know when you start the clay-court season that Dominic is one of these players who have the chance to win every tournament that he's playing, maybe even more here at Roland Garros because he’s strong physically. He has the power.”

Thiem said Nadal was “a big favourite against everybody” but insisted: “I know how to play against him. I have a plan. I will try everything so that my plan also works out a little bit here and not only in Madrid or in Rome.”

(Getty (Getty)

He added: “If I want to beat him, I have to play that way like I did in Rome and in Madrid, but I’m also aware that here it’s tougher. He likes the conditions more here than in Madrid, for sure. Best-of-five sets is also a different story, but I also think it’s a good thing that I’ve already faced him twice here.”

How would Soderling go about trying to beat Nadal today? “I would say the only chance for any player now is to be really aggressive,” the Swede said. “I see many, many players - even good players, top players - go on the court against Rafa on clay, or against Roger on a hard court or any other surface, and you can almost see that they don’t really believe 100 per cent that they can win. They hope that they will win, but they don’t really believe in it.

“So many times the top players have won half of the match almost before it starts because their opponent doesn’t really believe in it.I think it’s really important that you show everyone that you are on the court to win.”