French Open 2018 men's final: Recapping Rafael Nadal's dominant win against Dominic Thiem

Nick Birdsong

French Open 2018 men's final: Recapping Rafael Nadal's dominant win against Dominic Thiem image

Rafael Nadal has won his 17th grand slam tournament title. 

The 32-year-old Spaniard took on 24-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem, who was playing in his first career major final. Quite simply, Nadal is the greatest player ever to grace the courts at the French Open, having won the tournament a record 11 times, including four victories since 2013. A victory Sunday would've given Thiem his first career title. The two aren't strangers. Nadal and Thiem have played 10 times, all on clay, with elder winning seven. However, Thiem won the last meeting between the two prio to Sunday's titl defeating Nadal in the quarterfinals in Madrid last year. 

FRENCH OPEN 2018: Results, schedule, how to watch live at Roland Garros  

Recap every meaningnful moment from the match below. 

French Open 2018 men's final: TV info, live streaming

The match began at Sunday  at 9 a.m. ET. It will be broadcasted live on NBC.  NBC Sports Live   and fuboTV ( free 7-day trial ) will stream the action from Roland Garros. 

French Open 2018 men's final matchup

Top-ranked Nadal has exhibited the brilliance tennis fans have come to expect from him on the path to yet another French Open title. He's dropped just one set and downed a pair of ranked opponents, No. 11 Diego No. 5 Schwarzman (quarterfinals) and Juan Martin del Potro (semifinals) on his way to a second-straight final. Thiem, ranked No. 7 in the world, upset second-ranked German Alexander Zverev, winning in straight sets to advance to the final. 

French Open 2018 men's final: Live updates, highlights

Scroll down to see live updates and highlights. 

Third set 

11:55 a.m.— It took him five tries, but Nadal finally converts a championship point and wraps up his record 11th French Open title. 

11:46 a.m.— Nadal breaks Thiem's serve to go up 5-2. He'll serve for the championship shortly. 

11:31 a.m.— Up 30-0 and 2-1 on serve, Nadal takes time out as trainers tend to him courtside. It appears his hands are cramping but he returns to the court to finish the match. 

Second set 

11:04 p.m.— Nadal is smelling blood as he takes the second set 6-3 and needs just one more to close out his 11th French Open title. 

10:56 p.m.— Despite winning a 16-stroke rally to earn his break-point chance of the set, Thiem can't crack Nadal's serve and the 10-time French Open champion goes up 5-2. 

10:20 a.m.— Thiem finds himself down 2-0 to start the second set after a crucial double-fault leads to his serve being broke during a long, hard-fought game that included four deuces. 

First set 

10:10 a.m.— Nadal takes the first set 6-4 after Thiem loses four-straight points on his serve. Nadal won 76 percent of his first-serve points compared to 58 for Thiem. Thiem also committed six more errors (18) than Nadal (12). 

 

 

9:52 a.m.— Thiem fights off to break points and wins a game that lasts more than 13 minutes to hold serve and knot the match at 3-3. 

9:26 a.m.— Thiem shows life, earning a break point and capitilzing on it by ripping a run-around forehand down the line to get back in the set, trailing 2-1. 

9:20 a.m.— Thiem is already beginning to crack under the pressure against Nadal, losing eight of the first nine points, including back-to-back errors in his first service game. The youngster trails 2-0 out the gate. 

Nick Birdsong