Nadal lives the ‘impossible dream’ as he wins French title for the 11th time
● Spaniard crushes Thiem in straight sets
Alexander Zverev and Hyeon Chung but he is the first of the new boys to establish himself as a threat at the grand slam events. Twice a Roland Garros semi-finalist, his run to this final shows progress and potential – he has pedigree on French clay. He is also the only man to have beaten Nadal on the red dirt in two years.
The young man came with a plan. He thought he knew how to nullify Nadal’s seemingly superhuman powers. But the plan was worthless. He could talk all he wanted about tactics, about keeping the ball away from Nadal’s forehand – it mattered not one jot. No book of strategy can counter Nadal’s desire and focus. As Novak Djokovic said a decade ago: Nadal does not play to win, he does not play to lose; he just plays. And that is the most dangerous weapon in his armoury.
There was never a moment of peace for Thiem. He began nervously, taking five minutes to win his first point. Not that it helped him much – he was a break down just seconds later. A start like that was like David going out to tackle Goliath and shooting himself in the foot before he left the house. It was not a great idea.
But then Nadal threw in a couple of errors, Thiem took a deep breath and leathered a couple of winners and suddenly the Spaniard’s serve had been broken. But if Thiem hoped that was the start of a turnaround, he was sadly mistaken. He threw everything he could think of at Nadal but it made no difference – the primera was marching to his decimoprimera.
Nadaldroppedonly24points on his serve in three sets and two hours and 42 minutes. He faced only three break points – two of them in that third game of the first set. He broke Thiem five times and had a total of 17 break points.
Thiem tried with all his might but no one has ever beaten Nadal in a Roland Garros final. Thiem must wonder if anyone ever will. Simona Halep will head to Wimbledon having finally put to bed doubts about her big-game temperament.
The 26-year-old Romanian ended her grand slam drought on Saturday by beating Sloane Stephens in the French Open final.
Halep had a bit of a reputation for caving in under pressure at key moments, never more so than in last year’s Paris final when, from a set and a break up, she lost to unseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
This year the roles were reversed; Halep found herself a set and a break down against American Stephens, but came back to win an enthralling match 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
She had finally got the monkey off her back, no longertheworld’sno1player without a grand slam to her name. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said. “I’m really happy that I won this grand slam because being No 1 without a grand slam, I always said, is not like everything, not 100 per cent.
“Last year I was a little bit defensive when I was leading the match, and now I just change it in my mind.
“I said I have to hit the balls. I have to move and not think about the last game. Just every ball, every point. I said ‘it’s not going to happen again’, and then when I started to win games I knew there was a chance to come back and win it. So I believed in that, and my game was more relaxed. I could make more things on court, and that’s why I could win.”
Halep’s victory was met with a flood of congratulations from her peers on social media, a measure of her popularity. The likes of Karolina Pliskova, Petra Kvitova and Johanna Konta all toasted her success.
“It’s nice to see the players are happy about my victory,” added Halep.