Rafael Nadal won his ninth French Open title, beating Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4. The match saw both men fighting ailments- Nadal to his back and Djokivic a cold. More than anything though, they fought each other and the pressure of history in a nervy, error-ridden and emotional contest.
Nadal’s history was not only to break his own record of winning the most number of titles at any slam in men’s tennis history, but to also tie Pete Sampras’ second place record of 14 slams at all four slams. Djokovic, meanwhile, with 6 slams to his name, was trying to complete the career slam, a feat Nadal achieved back at the 2010 U.S Open.
The pressure proved to be more of a handful for Djokovic than Nadal, though. Not that it looked that way from the start of the match. Djokovic played like the unofficial favorite he was. Backed by a large part of the media to win, Djokovic played the aggressive tennis he had employed in his Rome final versus Madrid, returning with his typical bite, and took the first set 6-3.
The second set is where the pressure told. The two stayed close to each other all the way until deep in the set with Djokovic just a couple of games away from taking a two sets to love lead. But, serving to stay in the set, Djokovic’s level dropped, he hit too many balls short allowing Nadal to dictate and win rallies, and he dropped his serve.
The second set slipping from him in such disappointing fashion dwelled in Djokovic’s mind, and Nadal, now into the match and improving as it went on, took control of the final, taking the third set 6-2.
The eight time champion was now all over his opponent, breaking him early in the fourth. Djokovic did dig deep and fought back to level the set and stay with Nadal until serving to stay in the fourth set at 4-5, but an unfortunate incident ocurred and history repeated itself. Playing a tight game to go championship point down, Djokovic missed his first serve. Then, just as he tossed the ball for the second, a call came from the crowd. Djokovic caught the toss and looked in the direction of the call as whistles blew around the stadium. The Serbian then went for his second serve, and went for it too much as it sailed long, a double fault ending his title challenge just as it did in 2012, and Nadal emerged as the history maker, the 2014 French Open Champion.
The magnitude of the loss for Djokovic was not lost on the crowd. As the Serb stood on the podium to receive applause for his runner-up showing, he received the kind of recognition reserved for the Parisian favorites such as Federer and Graf. The crowd took to their feet and clapped long after what would usually be considered polite as Djokovic’s tears fell.
Nadal paid credit, too, to his opponent’s attempts to win his first title through vomiting spells, pressure and the unrelenting force that is Nadal on clay. Biting into his trophy with that glint in his eye for the cameras, Nadal held his ninth trophy and one can only imagine more await him no matter whoever or whatever he comes up against in the remainder of his career.
Whether or not Djokovic will get his hands on the trophy is still up in the air, but if the spirit displayed the last fortnight by the world no.2 is anything to go by, it should not be too long before he takes his chance at the title out the air and sends it down the line for a winner in the record books.
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