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Rafael Nadal wins French Open without dropping a set

(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Expert
11th June, 2017
11

Rafael Nadal has completed the fairytale, winning his tenth French Open crown without dropping a set as he recorded a triumphant victory over Stan Wawrinka in the final.

Nadal dominated the contest from start to finish against Wawrinka, who was simply helpless to get into the match, with all the key points going the way of the Spaniard.

Coming into the final having not dropped a set all tournament, Nadal needed only a tick over two hours to get the job done and complete ‘La Decima’.

After the heartbreak of losing the Australian Open final to Roger Federer earlier in the year, emotion overcame Nadal after the match, but he was ruthless for its entirety.

He fought all the way through the third set, picking up a double break when he didn’t necessarily need to in what was ultimately the final game of the match – but it characterised what Nadal did – fought for every point, as he has done throughout his career and made Wawrinka work for everything.

It seemed Wawrinka was going to be in the fight early in the contest, as his second service game went for more than ten minutes, but after six deuces he held serve to make it 2-2 early on.

That would be just about where the joy ended for the Swiss national. Nadal continued to hold serve with ease and then, getting his groundstrokes right and playing with plenty of depth, broke on Wawrinka’s very next service game to take the lead 4-2.

It was the beginning of the end for Wawrinka, who would have felt he needed to take the first set to be a chance. Instead, Nadal held serve and then broke convincingly to win the first set against serve.

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Wawrinka lost the game mentally early in the second set, going right off the boil. Not helped by some outrageous stroke making from Nadal, he quickly found himself down 3-0.

Despite somewhat getting back into the match, Wawrinka again struggled to hold serve and despite doing so, found himself down 5-3.

It was then the final nail went into the coffin, despite it being only the second set. At 30-15, Wawrinka had an easy passing opportunity as Nadal came to the net, but made an absolute mess of it before slamming his racquet into the court, ruining it. With it went his resolve as Nadal quickly wrapped up the second set.

The third set was simply clinical from Nadal. He barely made an error and turned what seemed like every point in his favour.

In many ways, it was fitting that he turned defence into attack one last time on match point to take it, crushing Wawrinka one last time.

Rafael Nadal the winner then, with a tenth French Open crown in just 13 years as the tennis world now turns its collective attention to the grass-court season and Wimbledon.

Final score

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Stan Wawrinka 2 3 1
Rafael Nadal 6 6 6

Rafael Nadal French Open 2017 Tennis tall

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

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