Nadal captured his Open-era record seventh French Open crown, defeating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the rain-suspended men's final at Roland Garros. Nadal breaks his tie with Bjorn Borg at the clay-court major.
It is Nadal's 11th Grand Slam title, moving him into a tie for fourth all time with Rod Laver and Borg, trailing only Roger Federer (16), Pete Sampras (14) and Roy Emerson (12).
He
also ends Djokovic's streak of three consecutive Grand Slam titles,
denying the world No. 1 a chance to become the first since Rod Laver to
own all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Djokovic had defeated
Nadal in the three previous Slam finals, including a nearly six-hour
match at the Australian Open in January.
Nadal of Spain runs his record at Roland Garros to 52-1.
The
match picked up Monday with Djokovic serving at 2-1 in the fourth set,
and he was immediately broken. There were no more break points, until
championship point. Djokovic double faulted to end the match.
After
serving his fourth double-fault of the match, Djokovic dropped his head
and slumped his shoulders, an emotional two-day adventure complete, and
not with the result he wanted.
Nadal lost
only three points on his serve after the resumption of play on Monday,
which once again was hampered by rain. It began falling in the middle of
the set, nearly forcing another delay.
After more than three hours on Sunday, Nadal needed about 49 minutes Monday to close it out.
"I
don't need to be disappointed. … This is the best result I ever had at
Roland Garros. There are many more majors to come," Djokovic told NBC.
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