Rafael Nadal chooses the most cherished of his 14 Roland Garros victories

In a chat shared on Roland Garros’ official X account, Nadal did not have to think too far back.

He chose the 2020 final as his favourite. It was a match played under unusual circumstances during the pandemic.

“Maybe the first two sets of the 2020 final. Very, very special,” he replied.

Nadal went on to describe what made that match stand out: “It was the year of COVID. We played Roland Garros much later in the season, much colder conditions against Novak [Djokovic] in the final, with the feeling that probably was the year that I was, you know, less favoured.

“I was able to get to the final and then in the final, I was able to increase my level of tennis in a very special way, so that two sets I think are so special.”

Interestingly enough, it had only been six years before when Nadal said he felt grateful for Djokovic’s existence as a competitor. Given how one-sided that 2020 final turned out to be, there is a bit of irony there.

All-time men’s Grand Slam finals blowouts

Nadal may have picked up a convincing victory over Djokovic at Roland Garros in 2020, but it does not crack the list of most lopsided Grand Slam finals.

The Spaniard handed out a few of them himself. He dropped just six games to Casper Ruud and Stan Wawrinka in their respective French Open finals in 2022 and 2017.

The win over Roger Federer in 2008 was not far behind, either. Nadal gave up just four games in a one-sided match against an all-time great opponent.

John McEnroe’s performance against Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon stands out as another example of pure dominance.

Still, the most one-sided major final victory in history occurred in 1974, when Connors utterly annihilated Ken Rosewall. The Australian only managed to win two games in the overwhelming 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 defeat.