French Open Final: Djokovic vs Nadal, Match Report

     Rafael Nadal beat world number 1 Novak Djokovic to make history by becoming the first man ever to win 7 French Open titles, surpassing Bjorn Borg’s 6 titles. 

     The Spaniard started the match on Sunday afternoon in formidable form, smashing a forehand winner to win the first point of the match, which had started with the Serb serving first.  While Djokovic was able to save 3 break points from 0-40, he eventually hits the ball long and Nadal immediately broke the Serb to take an early lead.

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     Djokovic struggled to find the momentum as the first set continued and appeared helpless against Nadal in many a point.  Nadal manages to hold serve easily in the beginning of the match, while Novak struggles and second guesses himself, with a lot of mumbles in his native Serbian.  Djokovic’s error count increases as he hits the ball wide and goes down a double break- there didn’t seem much hope of a real match.  The difference between Nadal’s sheer aggression and Djokovic’s unsurity suggests a quick straight set win for the Spaniard.

     Hope sparks when the world number one breaks Nadal to be down only one break of serve, despite his negative body language.  After this he seems more into the match, hitting stronger and surer groundstrokes.  As the Serb holds serve for the first time in the match he seems sparkier. 

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     Neither player is completely on top form at this stage in the match, but Djokovic is starting to hit harder and seems more interested and determined than he did minutes earlier.  Yet again Novak Djokovic shows he is number one for a reason and breaks Nadal’s serve again to bring the match level at 3-3.  Hope shines for the first time in the match.

     It seemed the first set was very up and down for both players, who couldn’t seem to hold their own service games often.  It didn’t seem much of a surprise therefore when Djokovic double faulted, losing his serve.  However the King of Clay stepped up a gear and managed to win the set not long after with a winner and a fist pump. 

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     The second set started off near identical to the first, with the exception that both men had warmed up slightly now and had increased their level to produce some outstanding shots.  Nadal breaks Djokovic, Djokovic breaks Nadal.  Nadal’s freer play however, allows him to dominate the points and the more points he wins, the more frustrated the Serb becomes.  After one game Djokovic smashes a large hole in his bench with his racket in sheer frustration with himself. 

     The Parisian weather gets worse and a rain delay is forced upon them, but not before Nadal break Djokovic and leads 5-3.

     Nearly an hour later the players walk back on court and warm up before the world number one resumes play.  The rain delay doesn’t seem to have affected Nadal’s momentum however and he immediately breaks Djokovic on his second set point. 

     A straight sets win was seeming inevitable which the Spaniard only reinforced as he went 2-0 up in the third set… Djokovic would have to pull off one of the greatest comebacks of all time if he was to win this match.  Something must have clicked in the world number one all of a sudden as he wins 8 straight games against the King of Clay to win the third set 6-2 and lead the fourth set 2-0.  The crowd are loving this- could Novak really pull off such a win? If anyone could do it, it would be Novak Djokovic. 

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     Nadal holds serve to get onto the score board in this fourth set but the world number 2 seemed perplexed as to how he had suddenly been forced to play defensively, while the Serb had dominated the last hour or so.  The momentum of the match is entirely in Djokovic’s favour but the heavens opened up again and players were ushered off court before officials decided to suspend play until the following day.  No doubt this news was what Rafa wanted to hear, and exactly what Djokovic didn’t. 

     1pm Monday afternoon and players are warming up.  The biggest question that everyone was asking was ‘Can Novak hold?’.  If he had managed to sold and consolidated his break from the previous day, surely his confidence would come back and the momentum with it and we could have been in for a thriller.  Instead, the Serb loses his serve immediately and the set runs along almost smoothly, on serve for the next 7 games until Nadal leads 6-5.  Novak stands up to serve but he hasn’t had a chance to really get into the match.  Nadal is in full force of aggressive tennis, dominating the points.  Djokovic saves one match point, one more to go.  He has the weight of the world on his shoulders and one loud, very rude spectator in the crowd yells out at the wrong moment, completely putting Djokovic off.  He double faults on Championship point and Nadal makes history.

     It was a disappointing end to such a dramatic final and no doubt Djokovic will be kicking himself for a while.  Smashed benches, breaks of serve galore, and many rain delays.. it was definitely a tough match to really get into, and therefore favoured the Spaniard with all his experience of Roland Garros.  Fair play to Nadal, and congratulations.

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     Everyone’s wondering though, if play had resumed on Sunday evening to finish the fourth set could the outcome have been different? Novak Djokovic was on a role, and I personally thought that had the 4^th set been decided on Sunday, the world number one would have won it… and then everything was to play for Monday.  As it happens, it didn’t turn out like that. Oh well, Wimbledon next- anyone else predicting another Djokovic/Nadal encounter?  This rivalry after all, is already epic. Probably one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time.  Opinions?