Spain’s Rafael Nadal made history by winning a record 10th French Open men’s singles title, with victory over Stan Wawrinka in the final on the famous red clay courts of Roland Garros in Paris. GARY LEMKE reports.
Nadal, 31, came through 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 against the Swiss third seed to claim his 15th Grand Slam title, and in doing so he became the first man or woman in the Open era to have won a Grand Slam tournament 10 times.
Nadal now moves above Pete Sampras on the list of all-time Grand Slam winners into second place behind Roger Federer, who beat the Spaniard to win his 18th at the Australian Open in January.
The Spaniard won the title for the loss of just 35 games over the course of seven matches, second only to six-time champion Bjorn Borg’s 32 at the 1978 French Open.
He extended his record at Roland Garros to 79 wins and two losses since his first victory in 2005, the only defeats coming against Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2015.
Despite a 15-3 career record against Wawrinka, and an imperious run to the final over the last two weeks, Nadal still had questions to answer heading into the final.
He responded in emphatic fashion, proving he was back to the kind of form that saw off all comers in Paris for the best part of a decade.
Wawrinka’s firepower off both forehand and backhand had seen off world No 1 Andy Murray in the semi-finals, but he could not dominate Nadal in the same way.
The Spaniard’s relentless depth and power left Wawrinka trying for his spectacular winners from too wide and too deep, opening up the court for Nadal’s forehand to deliver the decisive blows.
A scrappy start from both men in hot conditions saw Wawrinka miss the first break point in game three, and fail to earn another.
Four winners and 17 errors from Wawrinka told its own story, and he found himself 3-0 down in the second as Nadal stretched his run to seven games in a row.
Wawrinka’s frustration boiled over as he smashed his racquet on the clay – snapping it over his knee – moments before losing the second set.
Another fizzling forehand winner swept Nadal through to a love break of serve at the start of the third, and the nine-time champion had too much experience to let such a commanding lead slip.
The Philippe Chatrier Court crowd did their best to haul Wawrinka back into the match, but Nadal was now simply unstoppable, breaking serve twice more before collapsing in joy when the Swiss netted on the second match point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY_10rQ2eqs
