Rafael Nadal maintained his stranglehold on the French Open by beating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets to lift a 13th men’s singles title.
The Spaniard won for the fourth straight year at Roland Garros with a 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 victory under the closed roof on Court Philippe Chatrier.
After the match, Rafa said:
“Congrats to Novak for another great tournament. Sorry for today.
“It’s clear today was for me. That’s part of the game. We’ve played plenty times together – one day one wins, another the other.
We are facing one of the worst moments we remember fighting against this virus,” he says.
“Keep going. Stay positive and all the very best. We will get through this. After all the things I went through in my career in terms of injuries, without a great team and family around me everything would be impossible.
“So thank you very much. I want to send a message to everyone around the world.
“We are facing one of the worst moments that we remember facing in this world, fighting against this virus. Keep going, stay positive.
“We will get through this and we will beat the virus soon.”
“It’s been a very tough year. Winning here means everything to me.
“It’s not about equalling Roger on 20, for me today it’s just a Roland Garros victory.
“Roland Garros means everything to me. I spent most of the most important moments of my tennis career here.
“Thank you very much to everybody here. Just playing here is a true inspiration. The love story I have with this court.”
Our champ is the first player to win 13 singles titles at the same Grand Slam and has now won 20 majors overall just like Roger Federer.
Yes, I was there 😃👑😆 in R Garros, it was lovely and these Fan Club photos are super, just as we saw. Had a 1st class seat with a good view and am pleased they closed the roof as it was more concentrated. 😉 Had the guest lunch and champagne toast 🍸offered after the match. Of course, I have written to Rafa in Spanish to congratulate 😎 him. I was quite pleased it was over in 1 hour 41 mins 😂as it savés sitting through a long stressful match. 😡 However, as you Jas and others have said it seemed easy for him with a 6- 0 first set and Novak not at his best. He cheered himself when he managed to win a game but made errors and seemed a bit down 😕 Even our commentators on the Paris TV sports Channel Équipe did not have much to say last night about the match,🎾 just that Novak seemed resigned that he did not have much chance and just cheered himself when he managed to advance. ☺ They put more emphasis on the Victoire 13 R Garros 😃👑and 20 Grand Slams and their newspaper today I have bought has that on the Front page with the photo of Rafa on his knées 😅 They saïd that we are all pleased for Novak to win in Aus Open 😃👑 at least he had that. All the media are talking about the reign of the big 3 🎾 Nadal obviously on the Clay Court, so ND on hard court, there is less rivalry, just a balancé. ☺ Fiona in Paris
We Love You Rafa ! You are a phenomenal person and an amazing role model for tennis . Beating Djokevic soundly to accomplish a 13th Roland Garros title is the ultimate highlight this year for me . Vamos Rafa forever and thank you to McEnroe for your great praise of Rafa !
Got to say you sure made my day. You were so good. Your serving was great and your returns were magical. I was so nervous but you sure calmed my nerves in a hurry. Congrats to a super great player and human being.
What a champ – always knew he would pull it off – love Fed as well – Nole a good 3rd!!!
Congratulations for the victory, your hard work and grit. The dye was cast when your time on court leading into the final was 13 hours, 13 minutes! So, who knew freezing conditions, middle of the night matches, a flat ball, damp clay and a closed roof was really your cup of tea! Now, take the Australian for your 21 and twice around slams.
You’ll need to get Charly a nice Rafa Nadal Academy parka and a wolverine lined mask for the winter is the new summer clay tour. He looked positively frozen watching both semi-finals.
As you said…. “READY”. and you were ready to claim history!! So well deserved, champion!! I love that the world appreciates a good human!!
Simply PhenomeNadal! How many times? 🙂 Wonderful job, Rafa! Awesome. Enhorabuena to you and your team, especially Head Coach Carlos Moya!