King of Clay plans to reign for a little while longer
Sweep of Thiem in French Open final marks 11th Roland Garros title for Nadal
PARIS In full control of the French Open final, a rather familiar position for him, Rafael Nadal suddenly was worried.
He led by two sets plus a break early in the third when the middle finger on his racket-wielding left hand was cramping so badly he couldn’t straighten it. After serving for a fault, Nadal took the unusual step of heading to the sideline in the middle of a game.
“Tough moment,” Nadal would say later. “I was very scared.”
Up in the stands, Nadal’s uncle Toni, his former coach, was nervous, too, “because I thought maybe we can have a problem,” he said. “But in the end, it was not too difficult.”
It rarely is for Nadal at a place he has lorded over the way no other man has at any Grand Slam tournament. Nadal dealt with that ultimately minor inconvenience and claimed his record-extending 11th French Open championship Sunday by displaying his foe-rattling excellence in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem.
“There is a reason why he won 11 times here,” said Thiem, a 24-year-old Austrian appearing in his first major final. “It’s definitely one of the best things somebody ever achieved in sport.”
Thiem was on the couch and watching the TV in 2005 when Nadal earned his first Grand Slam trophy in Paris at age 19.
That began a run of four consecutive French Open triumphs through 2008. He added five straight from 2010-14 and now has another two in a row.
Throw in three titles at the U.S. Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open and Nadal is up to 17 majors, second among men to Roger Federer’s 20.
The two stars have combined to win the past six Slams. The victory also allowed the 32-year-old Nadal to hold on to the No. 1 ranking ahead of Federer.
If there was any reason for a bit of intrigue entering Sunday, it was this: Thiem beat Nadal on red clay inRomeinMay2017andagainin Madrid last month.
But those events are not quite the same as the French Open, where Nadal is 86-2 for his career.
“I am sure you will win here in the next couple of years,” Nadal told Thiem afterward.
It was a cloudy and steamy afternoon with the temperature at 24 C and the humidity approaching 70 per cent. Midway through the opening set, Nadal’s aqua T-shirt was so soaked with sweat it stuck to him. Those conditions might have contributed to the cramping that affected Nadal about two hours into the final at 2-1 in the third set.
“I was not able to move the hand, the finger,” Nadal said. “I was not (in) control of my finger.”
His uncle thought the wrapping around Nadal’s left forearm was too tight. When he first halted play, Nadal removed that tape, which he said let his circulation improve.
At the following changeover, he was given a salt pill by a doctor and had his left forearm massaged by a trainer. After guzzling water during that break, Nadal felt better and was back to playing his unmistakable brand of nearly unbeatable clay-court tennis.
Shortly, he’d be holding the silver trophy, the one he knows so well, and crying.
“If you tell me seven, eight years ago that I will be here ... having this trophy with me again, I will tell you that is something almost impossible,” Nadal said. “But here we are.”
There is a reason why he won 11 times here. It’s definitely one of the best things somebody ever achieved in sport.