An unforgettable night, Rafael Nadal called it. And so it was.
It was unforgettable that two gladiators of the sport were forced to join combat at just after 9pm on a cold Parisian night. Unforgettable that the French Tennis Federation were so desperate to line their pockets that the demands of television took precedence over the welfare of two of the greatest players in history.
It was unforgettable how magnificently Nadal and his perennial rival Novak Djokovic nevertheless rose to the occasion, mesmerising us with their extraordinary ball-striking, consistency and athleticism for four hours and 12 minutes in a contest of extraordinary unpredictability and countless momentum shifts. Unforgettable that the match finished just after 1.15am, by which time the Paris Metro had stopped, and unthinkable that the organisers could not have foreseen such a scenario after last year’s titanic semi-final between the pair.
Above all, it was unforgettable how Nadal, in conditions that favoured his opponent, with an epic last-16 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime still in his legs, and barely a fortnight after limping out of the Italian Open following the latest flare-up of his chronic foot injury, summoned the strength of mind, body and will to prevail 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in a match that straddled the gap between May and June. Three days shy of his 36th birthday, the Spaniard remains a man for all seasons and all hours.
Nadal had suggested beforehand that this could be his last tilt at Roland Garros. After this, it is difficult to imagine he will not be back. Either way, his desire to play in the relative warmth of the day, when his heavy topspin rears up off the clay most violently, fell on deaf ears. Evidently 13 titles do not speak as loudly as the millions raked in from Amazon Prime for the right to screen night sessions.
Nadal’s extraordinary success has, however, earned him a place in the affections of the French public. Gone are the days when they seemed to resent him for consistently blocking Roger Federer’s path to the title, and their raucously partisan support drove Nadal on as he fought back from 5-2 down in the fourth set, saving two set points in the process. The impassioned chants of “Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” that pierced the night air before the players even arrived on Court Philippe Chatrier became increasingly urgent as the night wore on, reaching a crescendo in the fourth-set tiebreak as the Spaniard closed in on his 110th victory in 113 outings in Paris. It was an electric atmosphere, and Nadal was visibly moved as he spoke with Marion Bartoli on court afterwards.
“Merci, merci, merci and merci, tout le monde,” he said, fighting back tears as applause rained down from the stands.
“Have been a very, very tough match. Novak is one of the best players in history without a doubt, so always to play against him is an amazing challenge, all the history that we have together. Today was another one. To win against Novak there is only one way: to play at your best [from] the first point till the last. It has been one of these magic nights for me, [an] unexpected level, but I am super happy.”
What Djokovic would give for such support. Instead, he was frequently forced to wait until the clamour died down before serving, not least during the fervid fourth-set denouement. Yet how richly the Serb, who came into the match on a nine-match winning streak following his victory in Rome, contributed to the contest. His signature stubbornness was no less inspiring than his venomous ball-striking off the forehand as he recovered from a set and a break down to put the contest on a knife edge. Crestfallen afterwards, he was nonetheless generous in his praise for his arch-rival.
“He was a better player in important moments,” said Djokovic. “I was gaining momentum as I was coming back in the second set, managed to win the second set, and I thought, ‘OK, I’m back in the game.’ But then he had another two, three fantastic games at the beginning of the third. He was just able to take his tennis to another level in those moments, particularly at the beginning of all the sets, except the fourth.
“I had my chances. You know, I had my chances in the fourth. Served for the set, couple of set points. Just one or two shots could have taken me into a fifth. Then it’s really anybody’s match. But again, he showed why he’s a great champion, staying there mentally tough and finishing the match the way he did.”
The Parisian crowd that filed into Roland Garros on a chilly springtime night came to watch a display of performance art, a masterpiece to stand alongside the titanic third set of last year’s semi-final. After a set and a half, it seemed more likely they would witness an execution.
This was the third year in a row that the pair had met at Roland Garros, and Nadal has developed a useful habit of starting their meetings strongly. The Spaniard won the opening set 6-0 on the way to an emphatic victory over Djokovic in the 2020 final, and led 5-0 in the opening set 12 months ago. The pattern continued here as Nadal, perhaps catching his opponent cold with his willingness to go down the line off both wings earlier and more often than usual, pocketed nine of the first 11 games.
For all Nadal’s scoreboard dominance, however, it was desperately close. The opening game alone took 10 minutes, both men starting at full throttle as they exchanged groundstrokes of breath-taking power and precision. Djokovic eventually blinked first, clipping the net as he attempted to tame a return loaded with topspin, but the tone was set. It took almost half an hour just to complete the first four games. At this point, it was still warm enough for the Spaniard’s strokes to climb high above shoulder level, with all the challenges of movement and timing that entails. It was an uphill struggle for Djokovic, quite literally.
With his run of 22 consecutive sets broken and down a double break, Djokovic roused himself. Nadal missed a drop shot to drop serve for the first time. Djokovic smiled quietly to himself. Did the defending champion know something we didn’t? On a night when little seemed to go as expected, it appeared so. There was another sly grin as he slotted away a high backhand volley at the start of the next game, which he went on to seal with a wonderful, acutely angled forehand.
Then came the tour de force, a gruelling 19-minute game on Nadal’s serve that felt like a match in itself. It began with changes of pace, spin and angle from Djokovic. It blossomed into a brilliant display of defiance from Nadal as he fought off the second of two break points from 15-40 with an ace. Then the fun began in earnest. Djokovic launched himself into a series of laser-like forehands. Nadal conjured a miraculous hooked pass off a ball that was almost behind him. Bucketloads of break points and game points came and went. Along the way, there was an almost comically poor exchange of drop shots. Finally, Nadal sent a final despairing backhand wide. Djokovic, it seemed, was on his way.
Having failed to secure a two-set lead that looked his for the taking, and with the crushing disappointment of last year’s defeat against the same opponent still painfully fresh, it seemed inevitable Nadal would suffer a letdown. Not a bit of it. As the Mallorcan returned from a comfort break rejuvenated, Djokovic’s level dropped. Now it was Nadal’s turn to forge ahead again.
Forty-one minutes later, what had seemed a likely victory for Djokovic looked for all the world like a nailed-on win for Nadal. Again, though, the pendulum swung. Djokovic seized an early break in the fourth, and held two sets points on serve at 5-3 to take the match into a decider. Nadal saved both and then hammered a forehand winner to reclaim the break.
A scintillating start to the tiebreak, punctuated by a series of unanswerable forehands and some absurdly sprightly footwork, laid the foundations for an unassailable lead before Nadal speared a final backhand winner and turned gleefully to his box. A 29th victory in 60 meetings with Djokovic was secured, and along with it the knowledge that his place at the top of the grand slam leaderboard, 21 majors to the Serb’s 20, remains secure for now. Not that he appears to be keeping count on either score.
“This is one more episode,” said Nadal. “That’s it. We played, as I said before, in the most important events, in the most important matches for a lot of years, and it’s always special to play against each other.
“Of course, there is always a conversation about the player who will finish with more slams, or who is the best in history, but from my perspective it doesn’t matter that much. We achieved our dreams.”
For now, the dream of a 14th title remains very much alive.