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Opinion
The French Open has wrapped up for another year and it is barely a surprise to see Rafael Nadal on the championship dais once again.
The 36-year-old continues to break records at will, claiming a record-extending 14th title at Roland Garros and 22nd major title, the latter record seeing him pull two clear of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Norwegian eighth seed Casper Ruud became the ‘King of Clay’s’ latest victim in a French Open final, winning only six games (three each in the first and second sets) as the Spaniard ruthlessly exposed the gulf between himself and the rest of the men’s playing field.
After Nadal took the opening set 6-3, he fell behind early 1-3 in the second set, but from that point it was a procession as he won the final 11 games without reply to romp to his 14th French Open title since his debut in 2005.
Ruud later admitted after the match that playing Nadal in a French Open final was akin to “being eaten alive”.
To put that all into context, Pete Sampras won 14 majors between 1990 and 2002 inclusive – a record that would stand until Roger Federer won his 15th major at Wimbledon in 2009.
However, the American never won the French Open, let alone reached a final, with his best result at Roland Garros coming in 1996 when he reached the semi-finals where he lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
It would be fair to say that even a peak Sampras would get destroyed by Nadal on the Parisian clay courts, such is the unprecedented dominance the Spaniard has enjoyed here over the past near-two decades, something that’s never been seen elsewhere.
(Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)
His latest French Open triumph comes exactly 17 years to the day since he won his first title at the tournament, when he defeated little-known Argentine Mariano Puerta in four sets, after defeating then-world number one Roger Federer in the semis.
Nadal has now spent nearly half his lifetime dominating this tournament, and next year will have the chance to make it a record-extending 15 titles at his favourite tournament, that’s provided his body is up for the demands of another gruelling French Open campaign.
Further, it is also the first time ever he has won both the Australian and French Open titles in the same calendar year, something that Novak Djokovic has twice achieved in the intervention, in 2016 and last year.
Prior to this year, the only other time the Spaniard won the Australian Open, in 2009, his bid for a fifth straight French Open title was shockingly ended in the round of 16 by unheralded Swede Robin Soderling, who went on to reach his first major final before losing to Roger Federer.
History will tell us that Federer finally managed to complete his set of grand slam titles that year, after several years of being denied by Nadal.
In the short term, it now remains to be seen whether Nadal will risk further injury and participate at Wimbledon, a tournament he has won twice, but not since 2010, for the first time since 2019.
He had battled through a chronic foot injury in Paris and many fear it could see him sit out the grass court major where he has been cursed in the decade that has followed his most recent appearance in a final, in 2011 (when he lost to Novak Djokovic).
Between 2012-15, the Spaniard suffered four consecutive embarrassing defeats at SW19, the worst of which was a straight-sets loss to unheralded Belgian Steve Darcis in the first round in 2013, which immediately followed his eighth French Open title.
(Fred Lee/Getty Images)
He sat out the 2016 and last year’s tournaments. In between he suffered gut-wrenching semi-final defeats to Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Although this year’s Wimbledon Championships will not offer rankings points due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, the 36-year-old will not want to risk further injury, which could potentially bring his retirement forward.
Nadal’s demolition job in Sunday’s men’s final came 24 hours after Iga Swiatek reinforced her status as the top female player in the sport, with a similar thrashing of first-time major finalist Coco Gauff in the women’s final on Saturday night (AEST).
The Pole went into her second major final as the rampaging hot favourite and continued to show just how dominant she has become since Ashleigh Barty’s retirement, quickly securing a double break in the opening set and not being headed thereafter.
Try as she could, Gauff – appearing in her first major final nearly three months after turning 18 – was no match for her 21-year-old opponent, who added to the title she unexpectedly won two years ago when she defeated Sofia Kenin in the final.
Still, reaching the final was a good achievement for the American, who only made her major debut at Wimbledon in 2019 and beat Venus Williams twice before turning 16 in 2020.
As for Swiatek, her win equalled Williams’ record of 35 consecutive victories from 2000. At that point in time, neither Swiatek nor Gauff were even born yet.
Having completed an undefeated run on the European clay courts, her next challenge will be Wimbledon, where, even if she wins, she will not be able to extend her lead at the top of the rankings, for the reasons mentioned above.
(Photo by Tnani Badreddine/DeFodi Images via Getty Images )
With no rankings points on offer, and all Russian and Belarusian athletes banned from SW19, this year’s Championships will effectively be an exhibition tournament. But even so, players who enter will still want to show their best tennis form in front of the British crowds.
Another point of discussion will be who will open play on Centre Court on Tuesday, the slot usually reserved for the women’s defending champion, with Ashleigh Barty having retired in March.
This will be the second year in a row that the women’s defending champion has not returned to Wimbledon, after Simona Halep opted not to defend her 2019 title last year due to injury (the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19).
Swiatek could be given that honour as the current world number one, but that’ll be a matter for SW19 officials to discuss later.
To finish off, congratulations to Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek, who swept all before them to claim their 14th and second men’s and women’s titles at Roland Garros respectively.
And commiserations too to the beaten finalists Casper Ruud and Coco Gauff, who I’m sure we’ll continue to see a lot of in the not-too-distant future.
The next major isn’t too far away, with Wimbledon starting on Monday June 27. A major change to the tournament is that there will be play on the middle Sunday, the traditional rest day having been scrapped.
Men’s singles championship result: [5] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated [8] Casper Ruud (NOR) 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.
Women’s singles championship result: [1] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated [18] Coco Gauff (USA) 6-1, 6-3.
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