The 2008 French Open or Roland Garros has ended recently and it was the world No. 2,Rafael Nadal who once again showed why he has the nickname of the 'king of clay'. Rafael Nadal became the second man to win four successive French Open titles on Sunday after crushing world No. 1 Roger Federer in straight sets in the final in Paris.
The Spaniard triumphed 6-1 6-3 6-0 to hand Federer a third straight defeat in the final at Roland Garros, with the Swiss top seed still seeking to win the only Grand Slam crown missing from his collection. And the manner of his comprehensive victory left little doubt that Federer, who has won 12 other Grand Slam titles, may struggle for many years to come in his bid to defeat his nemesis. Second seed Nadal, who did not drop a set all tournament and has never lost at the clay-court event, matched the feat of Bjorn Borg's four successive wins from 1978-81. He moved to a 28-0 winning record at the tournament, having won 84 of 92 sets played. It was the first time Federer had been whitewashed in a set since 1999 on grass at Queen's in England. Nadal has now won 11 of their 17 encounters, and 10 of 11 on clay, and will be seeking to continue his rivalry with Federer on his less-favored grass surface at the upcoming Wimbledon. And it was only fitting that Nadal was presented the French Open trophy by six-time winner Borg.
I watched the match yesterday and there is no doubt that Nadal deserved to win it. His performance in clay-court surface is exceptional, and his performance in every Roland Garros he has partipated in has been outstanding. I think out of all the matches that he has played with Federer in the tournament, this has to be his best performance yet and the most rewarding. If you have a look back during the time they had played against each other, Nadal had triumphed over Federer in their last three meetings at Roland Garros, each time in four sets and twice in the final. But this time round,he did it in straight set and not only that,the scores are pretty impressive. I dont know what happened to Federer yesterday,he made some good shots, but he made a lot of unforced errors as well which is not usual of him. Roland Garros I think is probably the most difficult grand slams out of the 4 and to win it four consecutive times in a row is an impressive achievement. He can now be compared with the likes of Bjorn Borg but Borg is a six time champion of the French Open. And considering Nadal is only 22, I think he will be able to achieve the same success and even creating his own history by winning it five or six times in a row.
As far as Roger Federer is concern,he definitely need to do some soul searching if he ever wants to win the Roland Garros. He is a great player undoubtedly but his age his catching up with him and if he is ever going to retire without winning the Roland Garros, then that failure will always overshadow his other achievement and many people will have second thoughts about whether he should be considered as the greatest tennis player ever. While he will be focusing on how he can win the French Open, Nadal on the other hand will have to think how he is going to beat Federer or any other top players in the other grand slam starting with Wimbledon which is going to get underway in 2 weeks time on the June 23rd. You might also want to know that Federer will be aiming to make history of his own by winning the tournament for a sixth consecutive time. And before I end, for those of you who didn't know yet, for the women's single, Ana Ivanovic is the new champion with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Dinara Safina, and at the same time, she will be the new world No.1 when the new ranking is out due to Justine Henin retirement recently.
It has been another great season of Roland Garros. I always enjoy it, and this year is no different although Im tired of seeing Nadal winning the tournament year after year, no disrespect to him, he fully deserve it but I would love to see someone breaking that trend of his. I am much more please with Ana Ivanovic win though because I have been a huge admirer of her since she made her tennis debut some years ago. I cant believe how quickly she has improved and I really hope she can continue her good form at Wimbledon. Well thats about it, see you at Wimbledon!
*The report was taken from CNN.
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