Nadal, Djokovic must return to finish rain-interrupted Paris duel
NOVAK Djokovic and Rafa Nadal were faced with returning today to finish their French Open final after rain prevented a conclusion yesterday, with the match on a knife-edge.
The encounter was halted with Nadal leading 6-4 6-3 2-6 1-2 but the momentum was with the Serb, who had launched an early evening fightback.
It had been a intriguing encounter.
Nadal came into the match the overwhelming favourite and quickly took it by the scruff, claiming the first two sets.
His rasping forehand winners pierced holes in Djokovic’s defensive armour as he looked to be running away with the match, while the Serb was doing all he could just to keep hold of his temper. He twice showed his petulance by tossing his racquet and smashing his chair as he lost control of the second set.
But as the drizzle began to fall and the evening gloom set in, Djokovic launched a resilient revolt and roared in delight as he secured a second break in the third before comfortably closing it out.
It was then the Spaniard’s turn to get rattled. Nadal began to lose his cool at the beginning of the fourth as persistent light rain made visibility tough and conditions treacherous underfoot.
It was not just a trophy and 1.25 million (R13.1m) prize money on the line: Djokovic was bidding to become only the third man to win all four grand slams consecutively while Nadal was hoping to become the outright holder of the record for Roland Garros titles.
The six-times champion was already a break down when the match referee called players off for the second time at 7pm, and despite hopes that play would resume, it was decided to postpone the on-court duel until 1pm today.
That was scant consolation to fans, many of whom had travelled from abroad to see tennis’s best two players fight it out for high stakes.
A resounding theme among their complaints was the start time. When bad weather had been forecast long in advance of yesterday’s final, why was the match not brought forward from its scheduled start of 3pm?
“This is very bad organisation, they should have started the match earlier because they knew the forecast,” Vladimir Bojovic said after travelling to Paris from Belgrade to support Djokovic.
“This is just dreadful for tourists as we came for this day and now we have pay even more money to change our flight tick- ets and spend an extra night in the hotel.”
It was left to tournament director Gilbert Ysern to provide the answers.
“Why did we not start earlier? You have to imagine that even though TV does not dictate, there are arrangements that are made weeks and months before the event regarding starting times and all that. You cannot change overnight. It doesn’t work like that.”
The match had looked like it was on the verge of turning into another classic. Nadal was the hungrier of the two as he raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening set with two breaks of serve.
Djokovic immediately struck back to level but he allowed Nadal to edge ahead again with a double fault at break point in the seventh game.
The Spaniard did not turn down the gift and he finished the set three games later with a forehand across court.
The second set began in a sim- ilar vein to the first with Djokovic losing his opening service game with a double fault on break point then fighting back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 as the drizzle began to fall on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Nadal then broke in the seventh game with a rasping forehand winner, and moved to within one game of the set when rain suspended play for 35 minutes.
However, he was quick out of the blocks on the restart, breaking to take the second set with a scorching backhand winner on the run.
With the momentum firmly in his favour, Nadal broke early in the third set, but typically of a match in which service games were hard to hold and breaks easy to come by, Djokovic levelled with some rugged defence that brought out errors in the Spaniard.
The Serb then broke twice more before closing out the set, the first Nadal has dropped in the tournament. – Reuters