Rafael Nadal reached the final defeating Simone Bolelli, Denis Istomin, Eduardo Schwank, Juan Monaco, David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro. He lost no sets. He’s at his seventh final at Roland Garros in eight years and won all the finals played previously played.
Novak Djokovic reached the final defeating Potito Starace, Blaz Kavcic, Nicolas Devilder, Andreas Seppi, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roger Federer. He lost a total of four sets: two to Seppi and two to Tsonga. He’s at his first final at Roland Garros.
At the beginning of the match Rafael Nadal is very aggressive with his forehand down the line, for which Djokovic can’t seem to find countermeasures, so much that he loses his service game in the first and third game. The Serb becomes more aggressive and in the fourth and sixth game he breaks the Spaniard. In the seventh game it’s again Nadal who breaks Djokovic and it’s the decisive break for the Spaniard, who wins the first set 6-4.
In the second set, Novak Djokovic loses his service game in the first game by committing a double fault on the break point but he breaks Rafael Nadal in the fourth game. In the seventh game, the Spaniard breaks the Serb. When Nadal is on 5-3 the match is interrupted due to rain, which started earlier and became too intense to go on. After about half an hour they resume the play though it’s still raining a bit and the Spaniard breaks the Serb again to win the second set 6-3.
In the third set, Rafael Nadal breaks Novak Djokovic in the second game but loses his service game in the next game and again in the fifth and seventh game. The Serb dominates the set and in the eighth game he wins it 6-2.
In the fourth set, Novak Djokovic keeps on playing well and breaks Rafael Nadal again with the Spaniard making more unforced errors than usual. However, Nadal reacts in the third game at least he wins his service game, snapping an eight-game streak for the Serb. At that point there’s a new interruption due to rain and when it’s evening they announced that the match would resume on Monday afternoon. When they resume the play, Nadal starts well and breaks Djokovic in the fourth game. The rain restarts too and on a 5-4 lead for the Spaniard there’s another stop, though luckily this time it lasts just a few minutes. On 6-5, Nadal has a match point and Djokovic makes a double fault. The Spaniard wins the set 7-5 to conquer the match and his seventh Roland Garros title.
It’s been a strange match, broken into a number of parts played in different conditions. With wet balls and field, Novak Djokovic was better than his opponent but in other conditions Rafael Nadal seemed to have an edge over the Serb. Both of them played good shots but they also made many mistakes.
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Novak Djokovic fails to become the first player since Rod Laver to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously and this year seems a little less invincible compared to 2011, when until his injury at the U.S. Open he was really close to perfection.
For Rafael Nadal it’s an extraordinary triumph. After suffering Djokovic in 2011 but also at the beginning of 2012, at least on clay the Spaniard seems to be back to being the best in the world. His joy is irrepressible and at the end of the match he went to hug his family and basketball player Pau Gasol, who is his friend and came to see him.
Rafael Nadal breaks Bjorn Borg’s record of victories at Roland Garros, an immense undertaking accomplished defeating the greatest players of his era. It’s always very difficult to compare players from different eras but Nadal has the titles to be considered the greatest player in tennis history on clay.
