Either way somebody was going to make history today. Roger stood to win his 17th Grand Slam and his second French Open (completing a second career Grand Slam), the first in four meetings against Rafa in the finals of the French. Rafa stood to win his sixth French Open and tie Bjorn Borg’s record.
The two familiar rivals and friends took the court on a gratefully sunny Sunday afternoon. It had rained during the night and looked threatening through the day, so this was lucky. The stadium was filled to its capacity of 15,000 and one of the best things about Chatrier is the lack of a ring of corporate boxes. It gives the place a whole different feel. Roger came out on court first, to a huge ovation, followed by Rafa who also was received loudly and warmly.
The match got underway and Roger came out firing. He took a quick 3-0 lead and then went out to 5-2. On set point, his drop shot just bounced out, and I do mean just. It was cruel, especially because Rafa took that small opening and widened it to win the next five games. He stole the first set 7-5. The first set is crucial always, more so for Roger in this match than Rafa, but not by that much. Had Roger won the set, you never know; the momentum would have shifted, he would have come out with advantage in the second set rather than a haunting feeling that he almost won it, but was now a set down.
In the second set, Roger fought back from 4-2 down and took it to a tiebreak, which he lost 7-3, always coming from behind there.
It was either win the third set or go home and Roger again fought back from 4-2 down, but this time he did win the set. A great moment. There was hope. The match would at least go a fourth set, maybe a fifth if everyone watching got lucky.
This was no easy match for either player. At the end of the second set, Rafa was serving for it and the rains come very suddenly. The players had to leave the court, but they stayed just to the side of the entryway in trainer rooms there. The rain stopped quite quickly, the whole thing was around ten minutes, not long enough to require a warm-up, but geez, at such a critical juncture, wouldn’t that have been a good idea?
Instead, Rafa came up to the line and played two points, a serve winner to earn a set point that Federer denied him, and then two more points that Roger won bringing things level to 5-5.
In addition to the bizarrely timed rain delay, the wind kicked up as the match progressed. Not to mention the long match Roger had played against Novak on Friday and how physically and mentally challenging that had been. Or how less than spectacular Rafa had played the first week and here he was now in fabulous form, but would he maintain it?
Inarguably, this was the best French Open final the two have played. The key for Roger was his first serve and his forehand and when both were firing, Rafa was on the losing end. But when his first serve let him down, or the forehand, then Rafa was all over a second serve or a less compelling shot. Over and over, as is his usual tactic, Rafa worked Roger’s one handed backhand with balls that come up to his shoulder and are very difficult to return once, much less several times in a row. For all this, for three and three quarters hours the two delivered fantastic tennis, very high quality and you had much less of the feeling that the outcome was inevitable.
It did come to that. Rafa, who has only been defeated once at the French Open, kept that statistic right where it was. He broke Roger twice in the fourth set, guaranteeing his victory. 6-1 in the final set. Rafa still the King of Clay. He fell to his knees and his body shook with tears, exhaustion, relief, happiness.
Worldwide, Roger’s fans were disappointed as was he. You’re supposed to be, as he said in his press conference afterwards. He did not stick around for any interviews on court; it was enough to sit there, as is the custom in tennis, waiting for the award ceremony to begin and end, and all the set-up needed before it can start.
You see almost none of that when you view the tournament on television, but the French are perfectionists in this regard and, of course, always stylish no matter what they do. Everyone is lined up just so and they get there in a just so manner also. During every match the changing of the ball kids or the linespeople is like a military exercise. When the crew come on court in between sets to freshen up the clay, this also is done in a precise manner. It’s great to watch.
So finally they were ready for the ceremony and Roger spoke graciously in his fluent French. Rafa even turned in a three language speech, a little French, some English and some Spanish. And thankfully, Jim Courier, who won the French twice and was there to hand the players their trophies, was not given a microphone. I understand he even speaks French but I’m sure he would manage to be smarmy and self-congratulatory in another tongue and after such a wonderful final and a great two weeks, I for one was glad to be spared.
Rafa was twenty five years old two days ago. Bjorn Borg was exactly the same age (minus two days) when he won his sixth. He only played tennis a little while longer. He retired from the sport after losing a few months later to John McEnroe at the US Open. I remember that and what a loss it was, and a shock, for the tennis world. Borg left when he was no longer number one; if he couldn’t be that, he didn’t want to be in it any more.
Luckily, Rafa is nowhere near retirement. In fact, he’s headed to the warm-up for Wimbledon, the Queens tournament, and he’ll be there practicing tomorrow and playing on Wednesday. We’ll see lots more of him and lots more of Roger, too. Good news.
For now it’s a wrap in Paris. Thank you for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot, and stay tuned for reports from Queens and then Wimbledon.
And PS, this is my 100th blog post since I started writing the blog exactly two years ago. It seems fitting that I reach a little milestone of my own just now. Tennis is a thing of beauty and that’s some of the reason why I enjoy writing about it.
