Reborn Rafa romps into history
that run, and then came year’s injury.
“Last year was not an easy one,” he said.
On Sunday, the conditions were exactly to the liking of a guy who grew up on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. The sun was shining, there was barely a trace of cloud in the sky and the temperature was around 30 C.
Wawrinka insisted a fiveset, four-and-a-half hour semifinal win on Friday over No. 1ranked Andy Murray had not drained him physically. The last problem Wawrinka mental.
“He puts this doubt in your head when you play against him,” said Wawrinka, who was 3-0 in Grand Slam finals, including a victory over Nadal at the 2014 Australian Open.
After netting a forehand in the second set, Wawrinka pounded his racket on his head several times. Later, he spiked it ... then finally broke it over his knee.
Nadal has that way of wearing down opponents. against Nadal, said, was more
On this day, he was terrific. He won all 12 service games, made just 12 unforced errors and won 94 points to Wawrinka’s 57.
One area of significant improvement for Nadal is his serve. Once passable, it is now potent.
Confronted with the match’s first break point, 10 minutes in, he solved the predicament by pounding a service winner at 173 kp/h, an ace at 189 and the service winner at 194.
That proved to be Wawrinka’s lone break chance.
When the ball was in play, Nadal barely missed at all. His groundstrokes were delivered with loud, long grunts on Court Philippe Chatrier, where the 15,000 boisterous spectators tried in vain to cheer Wawrinka back into the match.
“Nothing to say about today,” Wawrinka told Nadal during the trophy ceremony. “You were too good.”
Indeed. Good as ever.