For the first time in his career, Rafael Nadal has won the first two majors of the season, putting him in a unique position to take a shot at the calendar Grand Slam.
Rafael Nadal lifts the French Open trophy after winning the final match against Casper Ruud. AP
The result of the French Open final wasn’t really a mystery. The bigger suspense was would Rafael Nadal continue or would he call it day. Social media, that repository of conspiracy theories, was rife with speculation that one of Nadal’s biggest rivals, Roger Federer, had flown into Paris to present the Spaniard with the trophy before Nadal announces his retirement.
Thankfully for tennis fans, that turned out to be just speculation.
“I don’t know what can happen in the future, but I’m going to keep fighting to try to keep going,” Nadal assured the crowd after, incredibly, winning his 14th French Open title. That announcement drew the biggest roar from the crowd all afternoon.
On a mild day in Paris, with the sun beating down, Nadal completed one of the spring time rituals by winning the French Open. He defeated first-time finalist Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in two hours and 18 minutes to reclaim his French Open crown.
It was also the 22nd Grand Slam title for Nadal, who has now further distanced himself from his closest rivals Federer and Novak Djokovic, who have won 20 majors each. Nadal extended his French Open win-loss record to 112-3 and became the oldest men’s champion at Roland Garros. The 36-year-old also became only the third player – after Mats Wilander and Federer – to beat four top-10 opponents en route to a Grand Slam triumph.
This is what people had come in for, to witness history.
Of the thousands that came to Court Phillippe Chatrier for the final on Sunday, not many gave the Norwegian a chance. Unfortunately, Casper Ruud was one of them.
The 23-year-old had grown up idolising Nadal and had watched all his French Open campaigns diligently. He has also been training at the Spaniard’s Academy in Mallorca since 2018. Ruud came in with the knowledge that even bigger names like Federer and Djokovic, hardier clay-courters like Dominic Thiem had been ground to dust by Nadal on this court.
Ruud ended the match just like he started it: overcome by nerves and letting Nadal bully him all over the court. As history has proven over and over again, taking on Nadal at the French Open is the toughest task in men’s tennis. Ruud had to at least give his best, but the Norwegian fell well short. His serve, which had got him out of a hole a few times this tournament, was not accurate enough, his forehand not punchy enough. There was a hint of a fightback in the second set, but Nadal was quick to slam the door shut.
Operating in cruise mode, Nadal won the 11 games on the trot to finish another astonishing campaign.
“I never believed I would be here at 36, being competitive again, playing in the most important court of my career one more time in a final,” the Spaniard said.
This year and this tournament have seen the already legendary player scale new heights. He had shut down his 2021 season early due to a foot injury but started 2022 looking invincible again. At the Australian Open, his least successful Slam till January, Nadal rallied from two sets down for the first time in a Grand Slam final to beat Daniil Medvedev.
The 20-0 start to the season came to a halting end in Indian Wells, where he was set back with a rib injury. An undercooked Nadal – he played only five matches in the entire clay season – arrived in Paris with questions over his form and fitness.
By his own lofty standards, this wasn’t Nadal’s best. “My worst moment in this tournament was after my second-round match against (Corentin) Moutet,” he said on Sunday. “I couldn’t walk anymore. I had to have my foot anesthetized to be able to keep going. A special thanks to my doctor.”
While nerve injections allowed him to play, it was his competitiveness that kept him going. In three back-to-back matches, against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round, World No 1 Djokovic in the quarterfinal and Alexander Zverev in the semifinal, Nadal found himself in a spot of bother. But that’s when he rose to the occasion, lifting his game to a level his rivals couldn’t touch.
Nadal believes he can’t lose on the terre battue of Roland Garros, and as it happened, neither did his opponents. As Nadal stamped his authority on the big points, all the three, in their individual matches, faded away. Auger-Aliassime had the momentum going into the decider but ended up losing 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6. Djokovic served for the fourth set and Alexander Zverev was 6-2 up in their first-set tie-break. Neither of them, however, could drive home the advantage.
By the time the final came around, Nadal was ready to seize the day. Earlier in the tournament, before he took on Djokovic, Nadal had wondered if it would be his last match at the French Open. But on Sunday, after winning his 14th French Open title, he expressed renewed hope to keep going.
For the first time in his career, Nadal has won the first two majors of the season, putting him in a unique position to take a shot at the calendar Grand Slam. Onward to Wimbledon.
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