Rafael Nadal Retains French Open Title

The French Open proved, once again, to be the achilles heel of the 25 year-old Swiss who holds the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian titles coming into Paris, as he did last year, and would have been only the third person in tennis histroy after Don Budge (1938) and  Rod laver (1962, 1969) to hold a coctail of all four trophies in his trophy chest.

All credit to the Spaniard who showed a lot of determination and focus as Federer squeezed 10 break points from him in the first set but was unable to convert.Once Nadal saved from 0-40 and twice from 15-40. In the sixth game Nadal failed to convert six break points and with that possibly playing on his mind, lost his next service game to love. In the 8th game Nadal was again down 0-40 but won five straight points to take a 5-3 lead, winning the set on his first break point.

The world champion again started the second set nervously, framing two backhands but managed to keep his serve. Federer held on and finally broke Nadal in the seventh game with a reverse crosscourt forehand that drew the error but failed to convert several set point opportunities on Nadal's serve at 3-5 to put himself at the pole  position to begin the third set.

The clay court king carried on like a good, tactical long distance runner hanging over the leader's shoulders and waiting for his opportunity to overtake. When the chance came in the third set and he broke to take a 3-0 lead, the match was all but over.

The significance of  winning three consecutive Roland Garros titles and closing in on Bjorn Borg's four consecutive record wins ( 1978-1981) was not lost on the Spaniard who is the fourth yongest champion at the tournament  in the open era.

"For me to win three Grand Slams is a dream." said Nadal. "When I started the season in Australia, I was not playing very well and I couldn't imagine something like this at this momemt - winning five titles and three masters series events and now this one. So I am very happy with my game not only on clay but on hard court too before the caly season. While Nadal appear eager to erase the impression that he is only good on clay, he would have to deal with Federer, the king of grass who is gunning for his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title, if they both get to the finals of the grasscourt championship starting in a forthnight. For sure, Federer can count on the points being shorter and the courts being faster as against what he had to deal with in Paris.

Said Federer: " It was a very physical match from the start and the points were long. I knew that was going to happen and I was ready for it but I missed too many opportunities and it was kind of tough on me from the beginning. Rafael is tough on breakpoints, you know. He's the toughest guy on clay so I knew that I would have to take my chances. It is one thing to create the chances and is another to convert. I couldn't get that done in the first set and in the long run I think that hurt me."  

Nadal left One million euros richer but both players will have no changes to their ranking points or position.

Godwin Kienka in Paris