“To play Rafael Nadal on Phillipe-Chatrier is probably the toughest job in tennis…he made me suffer” – Yannick Hanfmann

Yannick Hanfmann, ranked 53rd in the world, recently shared his experience of playing against the ‘King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal in the opening round of the 2019 French Open.

Hanfmann, a German tennis player, made it into the men’s top 50 for the first time in the previous year. Throughout his career, the experienced player has achieved runner-up positions at the Swiss Open in 2017 and the Austrian Open in 2020, both of which took place on clay courts.

Despite being a skilled player on clay, Hanfmann was unable to compete with Nadal during their encounter at the 2019 French Open. In an interview with ‘CLAY – Historias de Tenis’, the German admitted that playing against Nadal on the Phillipe-Chatrier, the center court of Roland Garros, was “one of the most challenging tasks in tennis.”

The 32-year-old was also disappointed by the fact that the 22-time Major winner outplayed him at the French Open that day, defeating him 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in less than two hours.

“I think so. I think to play Rafa on that court is probably the toughest job in tennis. Or was, I don’t know. I felt weird when I saw I got Rafa in the first round. Because I played really well in qualifying and then the draw put such a difficult challenge,”Yannick Hanfmann said.

“It was, in one way an amazing match, an amazing experience. But on the other way I felt a little bit sad, because I knew most likely this was going to be the end,”he added.

Furthermore, Hanfmann provided more details on the matter.

“I didn’t feel great. Like, he made me just suffer. You know, he just plays such a different kind of ball to anyone else on tour. And especially on that court, on these conditions, it’s elevated by 10. And so, yeah, it was tough to adjust to his game. And, yeah, so he gave me a good lesson.”

“The Unstoppable Dominance of Rafael Nadal”

In the same interview, Yannick Hanfmann was asked how many times a player would need to compete against Rafael Nadal before feeling comfortable on the red clay.

The response from the German was:

“I don’t know. Well, you’ve got to ask some of these other guys that maybe played him there so many times. I only played him there one time. That was plenty enough. It takes a lot to beat him. He only lost, what, two matches there?”

Since his debut at the French Open in 2005, Nadal has been the most successful player in a single Grand Slam tournament, winning an impressive total of 14 titles.

Additionally, he boasts a remarkable record of 112 victories and only three defeats on the clay courts of Paris, with two of those losses coming at the hands of Novak Djokovic in 2015 and 2021, and the other at the hands of Robin Soderling in 2009.