Rafael Nadal claims yet another French Open title
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Rafael Nadal has just added to his supreme French Open record by winning the title here at Roland Garros for the fifth time. He won the title today be overcoming seventh seed Robin Soderling of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, finally avenging last year’s quarterfinals defeat.
Nadal won the tournament without dropping a single set, and clearly deserved his success. Soderling played far better today than he did in last year’s final against Roger Federer, but Nadal simply seemed to have an answer for everything. Soderling hit plenty of ferocious shots, and many strokes that would probably have been winners against anyone other than Nadal, but today this wasn’t quite enough.
The Spaniard now climbs up the rankings yet again, and has become the world number one, reclaiming the position from Federer who was just a few weeks shy of breaking Pete Sampras’s record for spending the most weeks at the top. Nadal is likely to hold this position for some time, as he has no rankings points to defend at Wimbledon, whereas Federer is the defending champion. If Nadal avoids injury, it’s likely that he’ll be the number one for a fairly long time.
This victory also means that Nadal has completed the clay-court Slam, having won the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid. He finishes his clay court season unbeaten, and has once again proven that he’s the best clay-court player on the tour. His next big mission will be to once again win the Wimbledon title, a feat that he is certainly capable of if things go his way.
As for Soderling, he’s had another great run in the French Open, and might be a serious contender for a number of grass-court titles, perhaps even Wimbledon. His temperament has shown great improvements in recent years, whilst his tennis is as explosive as ever. He may have been second best today, but he still demonstrated that he can be a threat to anyone.
This year’s French Open has been thrilling, and it’s perhaps only fitting that Nadal should have won, having performed so immaculately throughout. The excitement wont be stopping anytime soon though, as the Tour moves to Halle and London this week, kicking off the grass-court season.
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