2011 FRENCH OPEN: Rafa Wins 6th FO, 10th Major

AFP

AFP

AFP 

AFP

Rafael Nadal won his 6th French Open title on Sunday, defeating Roger Federer 7-5 7-6(3) 5-7 6-1 in the championship match. Nadal, 25, now owns 10 major singles titles (6 French, 2 Wimbledon, 1 Australian, 1 U.S. Open) which is 6 less than Federer, 29, but he has reached the double-digit landmark at an age 6-months younger than Federer was. Nadal improved to a 17-8 lifetime career head-to-head against his rival, including a 6-2 edge in major finals and 12-2 in clay court matches.

The match was a high quality affair, as I predicted yesterday, and for the first 40 minutes Federer played nearly flawless tennis, similar to the high level of play he exhibited in dismissing then-unbeaten Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. He eventually earned a set point at 5-2, 40-30 but during a medium-long rally, Federer attempted a backhand drop shot which fell (presumably) a bit wide. I say presumably because for some inexplicable reason Roland Garros continues to be the only tournament without electronic line calling review. That was the last chance Federer had to win that set as Nadal stopped making errors for a string of seven games and Federer's service percentage plummeted from the stratospheric heights of 80% to a mere mortal's 50% and by the time the run ended Nadal was up 7-5 2-0. Amazingly, Federer was able to start crawling back from 2-4 down and after a brief rain delay at 7-5 5-4 deuce with Nadal serving he was able to break back and force a 2nd set tiebreaker.

In the second set tie-breaker Federer's serve abandoned him and he quickly fell behind 0-4 and was lucky to only lose it 7-3. In the third set Nadal got an early break and led 4-2 when surprisingly Federer was able to make another run and win the set 7-5. He started the 4th set with 0-40 on Nadal's serve who made an adjustment and started going for much more on his serve and was able to hold his serve. Federer held as well at 0-1 and that was the last game he won as his forehand started to misfire (his backhand was surprisingly solid throughout the entire match).

Federer played well, but he had 42 winners (plus 11 aces) to 56 errors (only 1 double fault) compared to Nadal's 35 winners (plus 4 aces) and 27 errors. There were long stretches of play where Nadal did not commit a single unforced error. His defense was jaw-dropping, repeatedly throwing up desperate lobs that seemed to go into orbit which Federer had to let drop and allowed the King of Clay to restart the point. That defense and Nadal's decision to increase his service percentage but decrease the service speed was one of the key differences to Nadal winning the match.