This time there was not epic or a suffered comeback. Rafael Nadal Parera won his fourteenth Roland Garros to achieve 22 big tittles, opening an advantage with Novak Djokovic (20) on the race to be the best tennis player of all times.
He won Casper Ruud the Sunday on the final by 6-3, 6-3 and 6-0. The Spanish tennis player gave us another unexpected afternoon. With 36 years old and fighting with the Muller-Weiss illness, an injury that he is suffering from 2005, and that has became intolerable after the Covid-19 pandemic. Nadal has a perfect 2022 year: champion on the Australia Open and also in Roland Garros, the two big tournaments that he played so far.
“It is really difficult to describe the feeling that I have” said the Majorcan. “I never though I´d be here with 36 years old being competitive. It gives me a lot of energy to continue forward. For me, it is incredible play here, it is really beautiful. I do not know what will happen on the future, but I will continue fighting“.
With rain threat, but with the open roof, an awful day on Paris, the game started with big contrasts: the huge favouritism of Rafa Nadal, without a lose on his 13 previous finals on Roland Garros. He has to play against Ruud, qualified for his first tittle match at a Grand Slam. The Norwegian found himself making his debut in a meeting of the highest demand, against Nadal and in the Philippe Chatrier (111 victories on 114 matches). And he prepared to play against one of the biggest challenges of his career: win Nadal in the temple of the earth.
As was logical, Ruud tried to wear Nadal from the beginning with long and worked swaps. Ruud is the player with more victories on clay since 2018 (89) and he is probably one of the best in this type of court. All these theories, they were nothing with the first minutes of the game played.
Point by point, Nadal made Ruud lost the hope on the victory and approached the tittle wasting energy and passion. The Norwegian ended up exhausted trying to understand something that has no explanation: tennis player like Rafa Nadal only see once in a lifetime.
Jorge Barbero
