Three and Counting for the King of Clay
PARIS — He landed a few more blows this year, hit some fine volleys and backhand slice winners, and played one set of superb tennis. In the end, it wasn't nearly enough. At Roland Garros, Roger Federer, the best player in the world, looks rather ordinary when up against Rafael Nadal.
The 21-year-old Spaniard yesterday defeated Federer 6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 6-4 and became the second man in history, alongside Björn Borg, to win the French Open three consecutive years. Borg won four straight and six in his career. Nadal, the fittest man in tennis, both physically and mentally, may get there yet (he's never lost a match here). This was his finest performance in Paris — he dropped one set the entire tournament — and it promised not only more success at the French Open, but at the other majors.
Nadal didn't just win this match. He won it, for the most part, on Federer's terms. This was not classic, rally-laden, can't-catch-yourbreath clay court tennis, nor another match in which Nadal's astonishing defensive skills negated the firepower of the best shot maker the sport has ever known. Four rallies, by my count, lasted more than 20 strokes, and Nadal won three of them. Otherwise, these two engaged in an aggressive battle suited to a faster surface.
Nadal hit more forehand winners than Federer, 16 to 12, and more winners from the baseline overall, yet fewer unforced errors — 59 for Federer, including 29 on the forehand, to 27 for Nadal. The dirt didn't beat Federer on this day, Nadal did. Take this same final, pull the clay out from under it and replace it with a hard court, and Nadal still comes out the winner. The Spaniard agreed that he has never played better than he did this clay court season, when he stretched his record clay winning streak to 81 matches before Federer snapped it in Hamburg.
"I win a lot of matches, but I win a lot of matches playing well," he said. "Last year I won a lot of matches without playing very well."
In the first set, Nadal played his best on the points that mattered most. Federer didn't. Ten times the world no. 1 had a break point, and he could not convert one of them (he missed 16 of 17 break chances in the match). In three successive Nadal service games, he led 15-40, 15-40, and 0-40. Nadal wouldn't miss, and Federer couldn't summon the decisive forehand he needed to take the lead. After several attempts at winners flew wide or into the net, Nadal broke at love and closed the set with another break on a forehand winner.
Federer found a better balance between consistency and aggression in the second set. He charged the net more often, hit sharper angles, and fought off three break points that would have allowed Nadal to even the set at four games all. He hit his two best shots of the final, both backhand slice winners that redirected fast-spinning shots from Nadal up the line and landed them softly out of the Spaniard's reach. Almost two hours had passed, and Federer had drawn even. Yet while the scoreboard flashed hopeful numbers, Federer's prospects didn't look especially good. This is the problem against Nadal: It takes near perfection to beat him, for at least three hours (this match lasted three hours and 10 minutes). Nadal broke serve in the second game of the third set and seized control of the match. He served with more pace and better placement, hit seven passing shots on Federer's approaches to the net in the final two sets, and belted his left-handed forehand out of Federer's reach. Federer had one more chance to break, in the second game of the fourth set, but Nadal prevailed when Federer missed a forehand on the 23rd stroke of a rally. Nadal broke the next game and lost two points on his serve during his final four service games.
Federer said he had yet to figure out a way to play well against Nadal when the Spaniard is at his best.
"He's the type of guy that's going to make you miss," Federer said. "I can never really say I played fantastic or bad against him, because it's just awkward."
Awkward, yes. But Nadal is now also imposing, and perhaps primed for a major title outside of Paris. Jim Courier, the former world no. 1 and a two-time French Open champion, said Nadal might soon win the U.S. Open or the Australian Open, though probably not Wimbledon, where he reached the final last year. Mats Wilander, a former no. 1 who won three times in Paris, said that without doubt, Nadal has improved.
"He is definitely better," Wilander said. "I went to his practice yesterday, and he's doing so many things differently than he's done before."
Federer fans take heart. Courier and Wilander both criticized Federer's strategy last year. This year, they noticed some improvement, and said they liked his chances in the future. Wilander said Federer, who turns 26 in August, needed to shorten points earlier in the match, before he got tired.
"It's such a fine line, but at least he got to the point where he was winning points the way he needs to win points without expending any energy," he said. "He has to start earlier and he has to be a little fitter, maybe."
Courier said Federer "waffled" on his strategy, but he credited Nadal for causing that confusion. Nonetheless, his opinion of Federer at the French Open remains the same.
"I think he'll probably win it twice," Courier said.
Federer wouldn't predict that, but he hardly sounded like a man dejected over his most recent failure to win the only major that has eluded him.
"I'm confident that I can win here, and that's the most important," he said. "If I'm going to do it, time will tell." Nadal will have something to say about it too.
