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French Open 2020 review

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12th October, 2020
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The champions always find a unique way to prove their doubters wrong, don’t they? The greatest virtue of any champion is that they adapt to any conditions or situations to achieve the desired result.

The ‘King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal did exactly that to win his 13th Roland Garros title. His straight-sets win in the final over the world no.1 Novak Djokovic also marked his 100th win at the Parisian clay and now has 20 Grand Slams titles to his name alongside Roger Federer.

The cold and wet conditions, courts being slower, use of different balls, the fact that the final was played with the newly installed roof being closed at Phillipe Chatrier in the final could not deny the Spaniard his moment of glory at his most beloved destination on the tour.

In what many thought would be an epic French Open final, Nadal comprehensively diffused Djokovic’s game to return home with the title 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in two hours and 41 minutes, bamboozling the tennis world with his clinical clay court excellence. His sealing the title with an ace, which is a somewhat uncharacteristic way for Nadal to end the match, was like icing on the cake for the 34-year old.

This is the fourth time the Spaniard has won the French title without dropping a set as he reserved his best for the last, losing just a meager seven games to cap off his dominant run.

In the final, Nadal was sensational on both the wings, especially impeccable on the forehand side, and never gave Djokovic any chance to make a possible comeback. He did stumble a little in the middle of the third set where he was broken, the only time when he was broken in the match, but regrouped immediately to record one of the most dominant wins to complete another chapter of their fancied rivalry.

For Djokovic, while it is true that he defaulted at the US Open earlier this year, he entered this year’s French Open undefeated in 2020 (excluding his default) and his title triumph at Rome was an indication of his ominous form. In fact, as a result of his form, unfamiliar conditions at this year’s French Open and Nadal’s loss to Diego Schwartzman at Rome, many experts had tipped Djokovic as the favourite. But that was not the case, as he was no match for Nadal’s prowess on clay in the final and succumbed to his first loss this year (in a completed match).

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While the much-hyped Nadal-Djokovic showdown in the final turned out be a lop-sided affair, the quarterfinal contest between Diego Schwartzman and the reigning US Open champion Dominic Thiem was perhaps the best match at this year’s French Open. After being two sets to one down, the Argentine won the next two to complete a sensational win over Thiem in over five hours in the quarterfinal and in the process reached his first-ever major semi-final.

After struggling in his first-round match against Juame Munar, Stefanos Tsitsipas was sensational in his next four rounds to seal a spot in the semi-final for the first time in his career at Roland Garros. In the semi-final against Djokovic, while he was on the brink on a straight-sets defeat, the 22-year old Greek elevated his game to the next level to win the next two sets, thereby forcing the deciding set. While he was out of steam in the fifth set, eventually succumbing to relentless pressure from Djokovic, he certainly could take home a lot of positives.

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On the women’s side of the draw, the 19-year old Iga Swiatek created history by winning the French Open title this year in just her second attempt and did not drop a single set en route her path to glory. With her triumph at Paris, she becomes the first player born in this century to win a Grand Slam title. The Polish teenager inflicted a straight-sets defeat to the 2018 French Open champion and the world no.2 Simona Halep in their fourth-round encounter and outclassed the reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in the title clash to lay her hands on that coveted Roland Garros title.

The other top seeds in the women’s side of the draw Elina Svitolina and Petra Kvitova were eliminated in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively.

This year’s French Open was another disappointing Grand Slam outing for the 39-year old Serena Williams as she had to retire before her second-round contest owing to an achilles injury.

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With Nadal now tied at 20 Majors with Federer for the most Grand Slam titles won by a male player in the history of the game and Federer set to return for the Slam down under early next year, it will be interesting to witness how the story of Australian Open unfolds in 2021!

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