Rafael Nadal: The Return Of The King

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 7, 2010

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Rafael Nadal had probably spent one long year thinking about this.

Since the age of 19, when he first lifted the French Open title, he had been unbeaten on Paris clay and last year in the fourth round he suffered his first loss to the big serving Swede, Robin Soderling.

As he tucked his face inside a towel and sobbed for a while, one could get a feeling of what this victory meant for him. This win was a year in coming and on the overcast first Sunday of June 2010 Nadal had his revenge.

Playing some breathtaking clay-court tennis, he broke the spirit of Soderling and never allowed the Swede to get into the game. Whenever Soderling had an opportunity, and he had plenty, Nadal lived up to the reputation of being the best defender in the game by moving brilliantly on the clay court to retrieve balls that stunned Soderling.

The BBC reported an oft-repeated adage from recent times: No one beats a fully fit Nadal, especially on clay. Rafael Nadal showed why the adage holds true in his straight sets win at Roland Garros.

Nadal came to Paris after a perfect clay-court season where he won all three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court events at Monte-Carlo, Rome, and Madrid leading up to Roland Garros. He is the only one to have ever achieved the feat. He won in straight sets in Monte-Carlo, Rome and Madrid defeating Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Roger Federer respectively.  

Nadal concluded the clay season with 22 consecutive victories, winning 51 of 53 sets—including all 21 sets at Roland Garros. Nadal also had a clean run in 2008—a feat that only two other men achieved here, Borg (twice) and Ilie Nastase.

Former tennis player Greg Rusdeski wrote for the Mirror in UK: “Rafa Nadal played like Superman to win his fifth French Open title yesterday.

And the Spaniard will now arrive in London flying high at the top of the world rankings to set up a great...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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