Sunday 10 June 2018
Rafael Nadal wins 11th Roland-Garros title.
©Cedric Lecocq / FFTRafael Nadal, once again the uncontrollable sporting force of nature that continues to inspire awe in us all, rampaged his way to an 11th Roland-Garros title in his 11th final here on Sunday to extend perhaps the most fantastic domination of a single global championship that sport has witnessed.
It was a no less brutal, brilliant and breathtaking performance than any of the other 10 but his 6-4 6-3 6-2 triumph over a plucky but outclassed and overwhelmed final debutant Dominic Thiem may have been even more startling in its manner, the emphatic way he dismantled the Austrian pretender’s blistering game and imposed his own monstrous version.
It was a complete performance and a complete demolition. And for Thiem, seeking to be the first Austrian Grand Slam winner since Thomas Muster here 23 years ago, a completely demoralising experience as he never attained the heights of which he’s capable.
The 24-year-old was suffocated in the king’s lair, the only time it seemed possible he might come up for air being in the third set when Nadal, 2-1 and 30-love up, suddenly called for the trainer, struggling with cramp in the fingers of his racquet hand.
Nadal reckoned it was a scary moment but it proved to be only the slimmest of hopes for Thiem and was soon extinguished mercilessly as Nadal broke him once more before serving out for the title in two hours and 42 minutes of one-sided fare. It says much about the disheartened Thiem's spirit that he still saved four match points at 5-2 before Nadal finally put him out of his misery.
And as Nadal looked to the heavens and later shed a few tears with La Coupe des Mousquetaires grasped to his chest amid all the cheers, it almost seemed as if ‘La Undecima’ meant more to the great man than any of the previous wins.
“It was a very special moment to receive that minute or two minutes of the crowd supporting me, the feeling in that moment was difficult to describe. Very emotional for me.”
For that long-haired kid in the green vest and pantaloons who had first wooed us here with his 2005 triumph has grown into a worldly 32-year-old who muses philosophically about how he may not have too much time left in his career. So every title becomes that more precious.
And more wondrous to behold. Yes, the statistics continue to amaze. Like how this win ties Margaret Court's all-time record of most singles crowns won at any single Grand Slam by any player, in the Australian Open between 1960 and 1973. And how Nadal is now back to within three of Roger Federer’s record 20 Grand Slams. And how he has now won 111 best-of-five-sets clay court matches and lost just two.
Yet once again, the most surreal thing was just how Nadal, for all those injury setbacks that have tried vainly to pockmark one of sport’s landmark careers, somehow seems better than ever on his clay domain, more complete, more intimidating, more ruthless. His defence was supreme, his attack coruscating.