Trying to beat Rafael Nadal at the French Open is, without a doubt, the toughest task in tennis. Indeed, it must be among the greatest challenges in all of sports.
The pressure he applies, from set to set, game to game, point to point, shot to shot. That bullwhip of a high-bouncing, topspin lefty forehand. Those quick-reflex returns that help him break an opponent’s serve — and his will.
Doing what he does so well on the red clay of Roland Garros, a surface and site he dominates so completely, No. 1 seed Nadal wore down No. 2 Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday to win his ninth French Open championship and fifth in a row, both records.
Photo: AFP
“For me, playing here in Roland Garros is just unforgettable, forever,” Nadal said.
It was also his 14th Grand Slam title overall, tying the 28-year-old Spaniard with Pete Sampras for the second most by a man, behind only Roger Federer’s 17.
That includes Nadal’s two trophies apiece at Wimbledon and the US Open, along with one from the Australian Open, proving he can beat the best on grass and hard courts, too, but it’s on the clay of Paris where Nadal reigns supreme: He has won 66 of 67 career French Open matches.
Since the only loss, against Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009, Nadal has won 35 consecutive matches at Roland Garros. No other man has won more than seven titles at any of tennis’ four majors.
“It’s not impossible, but it’s very, very difficult to stay with Rafa in this court, throughout the whole match, on the highest level of performance,” said Djokovic, who was broken in the final game of each set, including with an anticlimactic double fault on match point.
Nadal ensured that he, not Djokovic, would be ranked world No. 1 yesterday and in the process he again prevented six-time major champion Djokovic from completing a career Grand Slam.
“He deserves to win this tournament,” Nadal said. “I am sure he will do it in the future.”
Djokovic had won their four most recent matches, including on clay in the best-of-three-sets final in Rome last month. Beating Nadal in a best-of-five match is a whole other matter.
Nadal also topped Djokovic in the 2012 final and the last year’s semi-finals. In all, Nadal leads Djokovic 6-0 at the French Open, 9-3 at major tournaments and 23-19 in total. No other pair of men has played each other as often.
The defeat in Rome was one of three this season on clay for Nadal, raising questions about whether he would be unbeatable at Roland Garros this time. There was also the matter of his troublesome back, which flared up during a loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the Australian Open final and slowed his serve at times during the French Open.
For three-and-a-half hours on Sunday, when the sky was crystal clear and the temperature touched 27?C, Djokovic gave everything he had, even spitting up on court.
“I played at the maximum of my power, my strength and my capability, but Rafa was the best player,” Djokovic said.
Using his backhand to great effect against Nadal’s forehand early on, Djokovic grabbed the first set and got to 5-5 in the second.
“I felt the match was more in his hands at the beginning,” Nadal said.
Knowing that overcoming a two-set hole might be too much even for him, Nadal raised his level, taking 20 of 26 points to claim that set and a 3-0 lead in the third.
“Without that second set, I don’t know if I have this trophy with me now,” Nadal said.
When a down-the-line forehand winner ended the second set, Nadal leaped and shook both fists, his first sign of real emotion.
“The momentum went [to] his side,” Djokovic said. “I started playing quite bad and didn’t move as well. Struggled a little bit physically throughout that third set.”
That was apparent. His cheeks were flushed. He put his hand on his heaving chest. He wobbled and nearly fell over while sitting on his changeover bench.
Still, after trailing 4-2 in the fourth set, Djokovic made one last stand. As skilled a retriever as his formidable foe — Djokovic won 10 of the first 15 points that lasted at least 10 strokes — he came up with a desperation defensive lob that landed right near the baseline, drawing a netted overhead from Nadal to earn a break point.
Soon, it was 4-4, but Nadal steadied himself to hold to 5-4, then broke one last time. Soon enough, he was clutching the French Open trophy, his trophy.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier