Atmaram Bhati
This year’s journey to the French Open, the second Tennis Grand Slam of the year, came to an end with Spain’s Rafael Nadal becoming the King of Red Gravel for the 14th time and Poland’s No. 1 Inga Svatek for the second time in the women’s section.
Nadal, who won his first French Open title in 2005, played his 305th Grand Slam match, beating Norway’s Casper Rudd 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in the title match, second only to this year’s Australian Open, French Opened 14th and record 22nd Grand Slam in his name.
The highlight of Nadal’s French Open career was that he was defeated only three times in his 115 matches played on red gravel, twice against Djokovic. This final of the French Open was Nadal’s total 30th Grand Slam career final, with his 22nd win. After this victory, Nadal also became the oldest player to win this tournament.
The three matches he played before the title match were long and exhausting for Nadal, but he did not allow himself to be weakened in front of an opponent much younger than him. After defeating Canada’s Eliasime in the pre-quarters in a five-set long match that lasted four hours and 20 minutes, the semi-finals again saw the defending champion number one Novak Djokovic 6- in a four-set match in a four-and-a-half hour match. 2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 to avenge their semi-final loss last year to ensure that the trophy would be in their hands once again.
In the final, Nadal did not sweat as much in the final in front of his own academy practicing Casper as he had in the previous three matches.
Looking at the matches between Nadal and Novak Djokovic, in 59 matches between the two, Djokovic has the upper hand with one win. Joko has won 30 matches and Nadal has won 29 matches. But Djokovic proved to be weak in front of Nadal in the French Open. Nadal has won 8 out of 10 against Djoko, while Djokovic has been able to defeat Nadal only twice in 2016 and 2021. Even on clay courts, Nadal has defeated Jocko 20 times in 28 matches.
In the semi-finals, number three stood as a major obstacle for Germany’s Alexander Zverev Nadal. Zverev fought hard to get Nadal to win the first set which lasted 95 minutes. After all, going to the Triber, Nadal could get the victory.
Even after losing the first set, Zverev was not ready to give up easily. Once, Zverev was on course to win the set, taking a 5-3 lead in the second set. But Nadal, with the help of experience, won 2 consecutive games and brought himself in the match.
Zverev won the sixth game but where was Nadal going to stop. Won the next game and made the score 6-6. Just then, Zverev’s right ankle was hurt in the process of returning Nadal’s forehand. Zverev was so badly hurt that he was forced to cry loudly. After this, after the initial treatment, he came to the field with the help of crutches and asked the referee to end the match.
In this way, not even two sets were completed for three hours, this excellent match ended with Nadal being declared the winner in the middle. In this way, even after being injured for Nadal, the 22nd Grand Slam was very tiring.
As far as the women’s section is concerned, the way experienced players like Djokovic and Nadal were in the men’s section, there was no big contender in the women’s section in the absence of Serena. The players who were eyeing the claim were number one Inga Svatek, number two Paula Badosa, number three Barbora along with 18-year-old rising American player Coco Gough.
In the title match, Coco Gauff had a chance to become the second youngest player to win a Grand Slam title in 2006 at the age of 17, just like Maria Sharapova. But in front of number one Inga Svatek, number 23 Gaf’s game was like a novice player. She missed out on making history by winning her maiden Grand Slam, losing 6-1, 6-3 in just 68 minutes.
In the 21st spring of her life, Poland’s Inga Swatek has won her second Grand Slam after 2020. This was his 35th consecutive win, which equaled the 35 consecutive wins made by Venus Williams in 2000. Inga’s achievement was also that he won all the nine finals he has played in his singles career so far. It was also the sixth consecutive title in the form of French Open.