Rafa won his second title No. 10—is he the favorite to do it in Paris?

We know that certain points mean more than others in tennis. Sometimes, if they’re long enough and exhausting enough, and they come at just the right time, they can send a match off into an entirely new direction.

In Rafael Nadal’s 6-4, 6-1 win over Dominic Thiem in the Barcelona final on Sunday, that point came with Thiem serving at 4-5, 40-30, in the first set. Until then, the Spaniard and the Austrian had been trading holds and forehand winners, with neither gaining an advantage for long in the entertaining and hard-fought rallies. When Thiem reached game point at 4-5, it looked like the pattern was destined to continue. The set seemed destined to be decided in a tiebreaker.

But it never made it there. That’s because Nadal, playing on a court that had recently been named after him, reached back for some of the form that made him 9-0 in finals in Barcelona over the last 11 years.

First Rafa ran to his left to track down a powerful Thiem ground stroke, and neutralized the point with a high, deep defensive forehand. Then he ran to his right to track down another strong Thiem shot down the line. This time Nadal counterpunched with a crosscourt backhand in the open court; now he had the advantage in the rally, and he would win it a few shots later. This was the type of point that defined Nadal in his prime. He didn’t merely play defense and get the ball back; he put it in difficult places for his opponent, and gave himself a chance to attack.

That, essentially, was that. Two points later, Nadal broke Thiem for the first set, and he would lose just one more game. When he broke again at 2-1 in the second with an inside-out forehand winner, Tennis Channel commentator Ted Robinson called it “vintage Rafa brilliance,” and even Thiem’s player’s box had to hang their heads. It’s the rare opponent who escapes once Nadal has him in his clay-court clutches. Even the scores—tight through 10 games, one-sided after that—were old-school Rafa.

“It was a close first set and a good quality of tennis,” said Nadal, who won his 71st career title, and men’s-record 51st on clay. “Anything could have happened, but then I started playing at a very high level in the second set, and Dominic probably started making a few more mistakes.”

Nadal didn’t a drop a set in Barcelona, and was broken just twice all week. While he recorded only one Top 10 win, it was an important one. The 23-year-old Thiem reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year, and had beaten Andy Murray in three sets on Saturday (that match didn’t help his cause on Sunday).

Thiem’s win over Nadal on clay in Buenos Aires last year was widely seen as part of a changing of the ATP guard. Thiem was the future of clay, it was assumed, while Rafa was starting to look like its past. Fifteen months later, that change has turned back in the 30-year-old’s favor. While Nadal played the percentages and worked for his openings on Sunday, Thiem tried for outright winners from deep in the court, while leaning backward. He was desperate to take over the points as quickly as he could, something that’s almost never true of the methodical Nadal.

“He was hitting to my backhand and I couldn’t come out of it,” Thiem said. “The next time I play him I have to change something.”

This was the second time in as many weeks that Nadal won his 10th title at a tournament. Is it time to make him the favorite to do one more time at the French Open?

It’s tempting. Nadal’s new nemesis, Roger Federer, is skipping everything until Paris. Murray, who won their last meeting on clay, in 2016, is still working his way back from injury and hasn’t looked like a world No. 1 so far this year. And Novak Djokovic, the defending champ in Paris, has struggled.

Still, Nadal has to prove that he can beat Djokovic again before he can be considered the favorite. He’s lost his last seven matches to the Serb, including three on clay, dating back to Roland Garros in 2014. In those seven matches, Nadal has been unable to win a set.

Last year Rafa said his only regret was that, just at the moment when he was playing his best, during the clay swing, he hurt his wrist. Like last year, he has started that swing with wins in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. In 2016, Nadal finally met Djokovic in the semifinals in Rome, and he lost a classic. I could go for another showdown like that in the next couple of weeks.