Nadal used to be the best defender in the world. Now he is an aggressive baseliner that serves at 125 MPH. Whenever he charges the net, he always wins the point.
PARIS – No other player in the history of the game has ever been more dominant than Rafael Nadal on clay. To everyone’s surprise, Nadal is an even better player now than when he was in his prime. For the first time since October 2014, Rafa will climb back to World No. 2 when the ATP publishes the new rankings on Monday. Every record is meant to be broken, but the only player that can break the Spaniard’s record of ten French Open titles is Nadal himself with a possible eleventh victory. I doubt that anyone will ever win more titles in Paris than Rafa.
Nadal’s tenth victory wasn’t really a surprise. Since winning his first title in 2005, he lost only two matches, one against Djokovic in the quarterfinals in 2015 and the other against Soderling in the round of 16 in 2009. At the beginning of yesterday’s final against Stan Wawrinka, Rafa was the overwhelming favorite, despite the Swiss’ immaculate record in Grand Slam finals with three wins out of three championship matches that he contested.
Stan reached the final after a grueling five-set win over world No. 1 Andy Murray, in a battle that lasted 4 hours and 35 minutes. The aftermath of that exhausting match perhaps affected Wawrinka’s lackluster performance against Nadal in the final. 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 was the final score in the Spaniard’s favor.
Former French Open finalist and Eurosport analyst Alex Corretja said: “This is the best Nadal that we have ever seen. In the past, he used to be a more defensive player and it could take him three hours to win three sets. Today he is much more aggressive, his backhand is much deeper and stronger and his serve is much faster. When he decides to charge the net, he always ends up winning the point. Now that he has 15 Grand Slam titles to his name, I am sure that he will try to surpass Roger’s record at 18. We will see an incredible fight from both legends at Wimbledon this year.”
The last time that Roger won the Australian Open and Rafa captured the French Open was in 2010. 7 years later with Roger at 36 years of age and Rafa at 31, the two “aliens” are even better and stronger than they used to be.
Sunday’s final was one-way traffic, with Nadal conceding only 14 points in his 12 service games. Besides a few incredible running forehands, the key to Nadal’s convincing win was the efficiency of his backhand. Despite the loss, Wawrinka will be the new world No. 3, while Djokovic will slip to No. 4 for the first time since 2009.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
