PARIS: On June 11, Spain’s Rafael Nadal beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 6-1 to claim an unprecedented 10th French Open title.
Heading into the final, Nadal was the odds-on favourite, having decimated Dominic Thiem in the semi-final on Friday, who prior to the tournament had scored a crucial upset over the Spaniard in Rome last month. However, on the Grand Slam stage, the 23-year-old Austrian had no answers to Rafa’s devastating forehand and bowed out in straights sets with a bagel in the third.
Despite being familiar with Nadal’s dominance on clay, some had expected Wawrinka to utilise his heavy groundstrokes to push through his opponent’s defences. However, it wasn’t to be, as the Swiss World No. 3 looked completely out of sorts during the match, unable to mount any real threat to prevent Nadal from becoming the first man or woman in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam 10 times. Previously, Martina Narvatilova held the record with 9 titles at Wimbledon.
Nadal has now increased his impressive win-loss record at Paris to 79-2, with his only two losses coming against Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2014.
Given his invincibility on the surface, as Nadal unarguably stands today as the greatest Clay-court player ever, the two losses he has suffered since first playing the tournament in 2005, seem today like miraculous efforts by his opponents, in part made plausible by his litany of injuries.
Nadal’s total of Grand Slams now stands at 15, just 3 short of Roger Federer’s tally. His victory adds some drama to the narratives built around Wimbledon which begins the first week of July. Federer, who had decided to skip the entire clay season to focus on finding his best results on grass, will return to claim an 8th title. Nadal, on the other hand, will be looking to find an easy transition through the early rounds at SW19 which in recent years have been unkind to him. However, if he manages to make it to the latter stages, he will present a real challenge for the title, as he is no alien to winning the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back (he has previously completed the double in 2008 and 2010).
