PARIS – He deceived us again, which in itself is a great feat at this stage of the game.
Maybe Rafael Nadal really means it when he talks about his chances at Roland Garros, and there was certainly no falsification last month when he limped and grimaced in the final set of defeat in the early round of the Italian Open and looked particularly tired from digestion and chronic pain in the left leg.
Nadal really found himself in unfamiliar territory when he returned to his favorite place to tread on Roland Garros. He was very short in clay matches and without any clay titles this season when the tournament started. Novak Djokovic seems to be gaining momentum again. Carlos Alcaras, a young Spaniard, seemed to rise like a rocket.
But there is no tonic like the red clay of Paris for Nadal. And on Sunday, after making his way through the busy upper half of the draw, he was too much, even with less than his best, to be ranked No. 8 by Casper Ruud in the French Men’s Open final. 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in a match that lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes.
The victory secured Nadal his 14th men’s singles title in the tournament, extending the record of the French Open, which seems unsurpassed with each passing spring.
He also increased his lead in the three-way race with Djokovic and Roger Federer. Nadal already has a record 22 men’s Grand Slam titles, two more than Djokovic, whom Nadal defeated in the quarterfinals here, and Federer, who is still recovering from his last knee operation at the age of 40.
Sunday’s triumph with Billy Jean King and King Felipe VI of Spain made Nadal the 36-year-old oldest man to win the French Open, beating his compatriot Andres Jimeno, who won the title in 1972 at the age of 34.
“I certainly never believed that I would be here at 36 to be competitive again, to play on the most important court of my career once again in the final,” said Nadal. “It means a lot to me, it means everything. It just means a lot of energy to try to keep going. “
Nadal’s tone has been notorious lately: he has repeatedly mentioned the possibility of playing in his last French Open. But after slamming Ruud’s door on Sunday and then embracing him in the net, Nadal made it clear that this would not be the tennis equivalent of a grand slam.
“I don’t know what might happen in the future, but I will continue to fight to keep trying,” he said as 15,000 people sold, apparently familiar with the speculation, roared in approval.
He definitely looked ready for more against Ruud, gaining speed and precision as the game progressed. Nadal was not the best early and at times was far from his best: he lost his serve in the third game with two double faults and a forced forehand error at the wrong pace in the middle of the net. But Ruud was also struggling to find his way, looking sharp and limited on key points in the starting set, and then beating key points in the later stages after working his nerves.
His only real surge came at the start of the second set, when he again broke Nadal’s serve to lead 3-1, but at 30-30 in the next game, Ruud ordered a forehand from the inside out and perhaps feeling that superiority was a must. , went for too much and missed. Nadal broke it at the next point and would not lose another match: he shook 11 in a row and ended the victory with a backhand in the line of the sun.
Nadal is in the midst of one of his most remarkable seasons, despite the chronic pain that left him so sad in Rome and required intensive treatment in Paris.
After missing almost the entire second half of the 2021 season due to a foot problem – he has a condition known as Mueller-Weiss syndrome – he returned to win the Australian Open by defeating Daniil Medvedev in a five-set final.
He started the season with 20 straight victories before losing in the final of the BNP Paribas Open in March to American Taylor Fritz, partly due to a new injury: a stress fracture in the ribs. This forced Nadal to take another long break and miss most of the clay season before returning to Madrid last month.
He was defeated by Alcaras in the quarterfinals and then defeated by Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals in Rome. But Nadal arrived at Roland Garros with his longtime doctor Angel Ruiz-Kotoro, who managed to help Nadal cope with the pain and very rough draw.
Nadal had to beat four of the top nine placed to win the title: № 9 Felix Oger-Aliasime, № 1 Djokovic, № 3 Alexander Zverev and № 8 Ruud in what turned out to be the most incorrect of all these matches.
Nadal has won not only 14 French Open singles titles, but also all 14 singles finals he has played at Roland Garros.
So many records. Such a long-lasting superiority, and Ruud, a kind 23-year-old Norwegian, certainly needed no reminder of his opponent’s achievements when he entered Philip Shatrie’s court as the first Norwegian to play in a Grand Slam single final.
Ruud, who entered the top 10 last year, had two main role models when he came out of a nation better known for its superiority over snow than clay. There was his father Christian, who coached him and was a touring player, ranked to 39 in 1995. And there was Nadal, with his exceptional topspin forehand and tough fighting spirit.
He started training regularly with his team at Nadal’s Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain, in 2018 and even played – and lost – training kits against Nadal.
He also played golf with Nadal, thinking that a peaceful experience awaited him, only to find that Nadal’s racing series was not limited to the tennis court.
But Sunday was Ruud’s first chance to face Nadal on tour.
“Playing with Rafa in the Roland Garros final is perhaps the biggest challenge in the sport,” Ruud said.
That was before the final, and on Sunday afternoon, after a quick finish, Ruud made it clear in his second-place speech that he had not changed his mind.
“It’s not easy, I’m not the first victim,” Ruud told Nadal. “I know it’s been a long time.”
And let’s not be fooled again, but it will be intriguing to see, in light of Nadal’s age and growing nostalgia, whether Ruud will be the last.
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