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The present King of Clay, Rafael Nadal took the final step towards making that particular crown all his own as he equalled the past King of Clay, Bjorn Borg record of French Opens by winning his sixth title on the clay at Roland Garros today. The Spaniard defeated long time foe Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1 in an intense clash worthy of a final. In a magnificent display of adversity driven will married to clay court skill, the World no.1 turned around a difficult start, took control of the match with a consummate display, repelled the many advances that Federer made before keeping the pedal firmly depressed in a clinical run to the finish line. In a photo finish, Rafael Nadal sank to his knees in triumph, as the final Federer forehand sailed long, as he completed a special victory.
The Swiss maestro embraced an attacking philosophy that he hasn’t shown in the past when combating Nadal on clay, and hit some hit some real high notes doing so, but the 16 time slam champion just failed to keep it at that level on the big points and could not upend the Spaniard on his favourite surface. The scoreboard could well have read differently had a few points gone the other way. However it is on these margins that champions are defined and Federer who’s had many moments on the right side of these margins, came up a touch short on a day when Nadal touched the pinnacle of clay court prowess.
The finalists were gracious in defeat and magnanimous in victory during the presentation ceremony. Federer addressed the crowd in French and praised Nadal for his performance saying that he was always on top on clay. Nadal was equally appreciative, making an effort to get a few phrases in French too, before switching to English to thank his team and congratulate Federer on his display over the two weeks.
It could all have been different as Federer started off the final in style, serving strongly, hitting with the sort of pace he hit against Djokovic while simultaneously varying the placement. He mixed up the serve and volley to good effect helping him shorten the points and finish his service games. Infact he got off to the ideal start breaking Nadal in his very first service game. Nadal saved 3 break points but on the 4th, Nadal netted the short forehand to give Federer the early 3-0 advantage.
Nadal though is a notorious slow starter and tends to take a few games to really find his range. He began to play better as he held his serve and started getting into rallies on the Federer serve which in the long run has tended to favour him. Federer continued to pile on the pressure on Rafa’s serve taking on his backhand return and forcing Rafa to come up with some superb passes to stay in touch. Nadal eventually kept Federer to the one break and forced him to serve for the set at 5-3 and as Federer missed 5/6 first serves, made an outrageous running forehand pass to break the hitherto untouchable Federer serve to stay in the set. That was just the break that Nadal needed – he proceeded to dish out the best that he had all match as he first held to level the set and then on the back of a brace of blistering forehands proceeded to break the maestro to completely turn the set around. He then held on to steal what looked to be Federer’s set all the way.
By the end of the first set, Federer’s shots were just beginning to look a touch ragged. Nadal’s level had certainly gone up a couple of notches, but equally the sheer precision and clarity of Federer’s hitting had lost its cutting edge sense of purpose. This tends to happen when the mind is not quite focussed, the way it should be and Federer looked like he just was throwing caution to the wind and gave up the break in his opening service game netting a smash and smacking a forehand into the bottom of the net. At the other end, Nadal was just growing in confidence. He sprinted to balls that he wasn’t getting near earlier, he was picking up those balls and curling them in at pace and without any unforced errors either. To Federer’s credit he held in there often by the skin of his teeth as he staved off several breakpoints that would have pushed him further into the mire. Against the run of play he broke Nadal in the 8th game but promptly returned Nadal the advantage as he lost serve in the very next game. Nadal served for the set when at deuce a brief splash of rain sent the players off court back into the locker room. The interruption certainly didn’t work in Nadal’s favour as he dropped serve to allow Federer to level the set and the set went into the tie-break. Nadal took early control of the breaker, jumping into a 4-0 lead as Federer made errors as he pressed too early in the rally. Rafa kept that early momentum going as he setup 4 set points going up 6-2 with a ripper of a backhand pass before taking it with that Nadal special inside out forehand.
Federer has come back from a 2 set deficit to beat Nadal once before. But that was 6 years ago in Miami in 2005 when Federer turned the match around after slamming his racquet on to the turf. The Rafa of today is a completely different animal and it was Rafa who got the break in the 6th game as Federer made a clutch of errors to hand the advantage almost completely to Nadal. The Federer we saw today though stuck to his guns through thick and thin. He lived and died by the sword and again with some blistering shots broke straight back just when Nadal seemed to have the momentum that would carry him to the finish line. Instead it was Federer who stepped up the pace; seizing the initiative, he struck a purple patch hitting rasping forehands and gasping drop shots to break Nadal in the 11th game before holding on to give himself a shadow of a chance as he took the third set 7/5.
That was to be the last blaze from Federer though as he struggled to keep that form going. He lost serve early in the fourth set and this time he couldn’t construct the immediate riposte. Instead it was Nadal who managed to step it up a further gear broke Federer a second time to give himself that extra insurance before serving it out with little fuss taking the set and therefore the match 6-1.
The win today ensured that Nadal retained his top ranking for the 53rd consecutive week completing a year atop the tour, making it the first time that he has retained the top spot for a year at a stretch. It also gave Nadal his 10th slam entering into that rarefied air currently breathed by only Bjorn Borg, Roy Emerson, Pete Sampras and the man he beat in the final, Roger Federer. For Roger, it was his 23rd slam final and 5th at Roland Garros. This means that Federer, has contested atleast 5 finals at each of the slams – another high watermark of the maestro’s all court competence and capabilities. He will be glad with the change in scenery as the tour shifts to the green grass and where his re-invented all court attacking game will really pay dividends.
Final Score:
[1] R.Nadal (ESP) d [3] R.Federer (SWI) 7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1
