By the final changeover, it was party time. Spanish flags flying. Large swathes of Court Philippe Chatrier singing Eviva España. Never mind that the match was not quite done, or that their choice of musical homage to Rafael Nadal was a song originally written by two Belgians. The crowd was having a ball, much as Nadal himself has been doing in Paris these past 17 years.
Inevitably, the Spaniard did not disappoint his public. A game away from victory when the revelry broke out in earnest, he was soon rifling one last backhand winner past Casper Ruud, the Norwegian eighth seed, to complete a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 victory that sealed his 14th French Open title. Fourteen. The previous record of eight titles, set by the Frenchman Max Decugis in the early years of the 20th century, had stood for 100 years before Nadal broke it in 2014. The benchmark he has established since could endure for eternity.
To put the achievement in context, Nadal has now won as many majors at Roland Garros alone as Pete Sampras won in his entire career. How unlikely that seemed when Sampras won the US Open in 2002, pulling two clear of Roy Emerson at the top of the grand slam leaderboard before quietly drifting into retirement.
Many thought Nadal might go the same way after Sunday’s final. He now stands in a near-identical position to the great American, his 22nd slam leaving him two ahead of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. The allure of whiling away time in his yacht off the Mallorcan coast with family and friends must be increasing by the day.
The deformed navicular bone in his foot that has troubled him since his teens, and which threatened to end his career last season when the pain finally became too much, forcing him off the tour for months, has hung over him like a cloud at Roland Garros, constantly threatening to rain on his Parisian parade. The most recent flareup saw him limp to defeat against Denis Shapovalov in Rome on the eve of the tournament, and at one point there were genuine doubts over whether he would turn up. But even at 36, and after all he has achieved in the game, his love of the sport and addiction to the adrenaline rush of competition are undiminished. He assured the crowd afterwards that he would “keep fighting to try to keep going”.
By the time Nadal reached the final, having battled past Felix Auger-Aliassime in five gruelling sets, ridden countless momentum shifts to avenge last year’s semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic, and weathered a seemingly irresistible surge from Alexander Zverev before the German suffered a horrific ankle injury, concerns about the state of his health were beginning to feel misplaced. Not for the Spaniard, however. Having refused to talk about the issue during the tournament, he revealed afterwards that an “amazing and very emotional two weeks” had only been made possible by multiple anaesthetic injections to numb the pain in his foot.
“I was able to play during these two weeks with extreme conditions,” said Nadal. “I have been playing with injections on the nerves to sleep the foot, and that’s why I was able to play during these two weeks, because I have no feelings in my foot, because my doctor was able to put anaesthetic injections on the nerves. That takes out the feeling on my foot. But at the same time, it’s a big risk in terms of less feelings, a little bit bigger risk of turning your ankle or producing other [problems] there.
“Of course, Roland Garros is Roland Garros. Everybody know how much this tournament means to me, so I wanted to keep trying and to give myself a chance here. That was the only way to give myself a chance, no? So I did it. And I can’t be happier, and I can’t thank my doctor enough for all the things he did during all my tennis career, helping me in every tough moment. But it’s obvious that I can’t keep competing with the foot asleep.”
Nadal said he would undergo radiofrequency ablation, a pain-management method that uses heat to deaden nerve tissue, in an effort to carry on. Failing that, he said, surgery may be required, although there would be no guarantee of success. He is only a month into his return from the fractured rib he suffered in Indian Wells, and sometimes you wonder why he continues to put himself through all the pain and the comebacks.
“What drives me to keep going is not about the competition to try to be the best or to win more grand slams than the others,” sad Nadal. “What drives me to keep going is the passion for the game, to live moments that stay inside me forever, and play in front of the best crowds in the world and the best stadiums. That’s what drives me, no? The passion for what I do.”
Ruud, who has trained at Nadal’s academy for the past four years, gave everything in his first grand slam final. The problem for the Norwegian was that, for all his undoubted class, he remains something of a Rafa lite. A fine clay-courter with a big forehand and solid defensive skills, Ruud underscored his quality last summer with a run of three consecutive titles on the red dirt, winning in Bastad, Gstaad and Kitzbühel. Yet the 23-year-old is not equipped with the weaponry to trouble Nadal on his favourite surface. His service lacks weight and his levels of spin, power and athleticism pale in comparison to those of the Spaniard. As a result, he was increasingly forced out of his comfort zone, over-pressing and lapsing into error with ever greater frequency as the contest evolved.
The difference between the two men was underscored in the second game, when Ruud, attempting to fend off the second of two break points, gambolled into the net behind a whipped forehand. It looked to all intents and purposes a decent shot, until Nadal swept a forehand past him of infinitely greater pace, precision and spin. It was a chalk and cheese moment, one that did much to support the pre-match narrative of master against apprentice. It was also a reminder that practising with the Spaniard is a far cry from facing him in his own backyard.
“It’s really challenging and really tough,” said Ruud. “His numbers speak for themselves. He has never lost a final here, and there is a reason why.
“It is tough to describe. I mean, he plays the same style in practice and matches. He takes the practices very seriously, and so do I. If we practice and play sets, I think we both want to try to win.
“But the circumstances were a bit different today. It was the first time I have experienced this situation and played a grand slam final. I don’t think it really got to me until I stepped on court and saw the full stadium and felt the atmosphere in the crowd. It was a bit tough to find myself comfortable in the situation in the beginning.
“As the match went on, I tended to feel a little bit better and I could calm down and breathe out a little bit more. But it was challenging because you are playing him, the most winning-slam player ever, and on this court in the final it’s not too easy.”
Having fallen behind, Ruud was unexpectedly handed an immediate route back into the set by an error-strewn Nadal service game. Then, at the start of game four, after hammering away one of his best forehands of the afternoon, Ruud cast a little look down the court towards Nadal. Whatever he was looking for, he did not find it. Perhaps unnerved by his opponent’s imperturbable demeanour, he began to seek a level of power beyond his natural threshold. A forehand fizzed wide. Nadal went into lockdown mode. Inevitably, a second break followed.
Now Nadal was warming to his task. The famed whiplash forehand started to land with unerring venom and bite, flying up off the clay as though launched from high up in the stands. Ruud showed some delightful touches – a delicious drop shot, loaded with backspin, that the sliding Spaniard got nowhere near, a beautifully timed volley as he served to stay in the set at 2-5 – but the opener was only going one way.
Relaxed smiles were exchanged in the Nadal box. Chants of “Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” reverberated around Chatrier, just as they have so often over the past fortnight. In the autumn of his career, the indifference towards his excellence once shown by the pro-Federer locals has given way to a deep affection.
Ruud was far from done. Having dropped the first set against Marin Cilic in the semi-finals, he had fought his way back by switching to a more aggressive key, and now he made a similar change of tack. He moved inside the baseline, seeking to dictate with his forehand. He began to live with Nadal in the rallies. He also leavened the mix with some fine touch play.
Ruud needed all his resourcefulness to escape the opening game of set two, in which Nadal spurned three break points. Having seen off the danger, however, he began to play his best tennis of the afternoon. One forehand pick-up, flicked nonchalantly across the face of the net at an angle so extreme the ball almost ended up in Nadal’s racket bag, drew applause from the Spaniard. Nadal was unsettled, errors creeping into his game. A double fault handed Ruud a love break, and suddenly the man from Oslo was 3-1 ahead.
The reaction was instant. Nadal pressed, stepping in to drill a crosscourt backhand, only for Ruud to pull off a blistering forehand recovery shot before crushing a winner. Nadal pressed harder, spinning the ball high above the Norwegian’s shoulders. Ruud hit back with a blazing forehand. But the pressure was building, and the next big forehand went long. A patient point from Nadal prised another error from the Norwegian, and the contest was as good as over. Nadal would not lose another game. The party had begun. It remains to be seen whether there will be many happy returns.