Pengpai News reporter Pu Yaolei Comprehensive report
In the entire history of tennis, only one person can take on the title of "King of Clay", that is, Espanyol Nadal.
On the evening of June 11, Beijing time, in the 2017 French Open men's singles final, he defeated the Swiss star Wawrinka with a score of 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, and was crowned the French Open for the 10th time before.
With this championship, the 31-year-old Nadal increased his number of Grand Slam titles to 15, which is still 3 different from Federer . At the same time, he also set a new record for the number of individual Grand Slams since the Open era.
In fact, since the beginning of this year's clay season, the biggest favorite of the French Open championship has not changed - everyone is optimistic that Nadal will win the cup.
Before the French Open, the Spanish king won three championships, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid and with a domineering 17 consecutive wins. During the French Open, before entering the finals, he did not even lose a set in six games.
At the same time, Nadal maintained a record enough to make all opponents frightened: from his first appearance in 2005 to before this year, he challenged the French Open 11 times and entered the finals 9 times. As long as he stood on the stage of the finals, he never let the championship fall.
This time, Wawrinka, who is different from him, performed averagely in the first few stops of this year's clay season, but he also has his own "record": Previously, the Swiss reached the Grand Slam final three times and won the championship.
But unfortunately, at the French Open, I encountered Nadal on the clay field and ground. No matter how many "records" protectors are, they will be difficult to shake the king of clay.
Pre-match match record, Nadal led the way with 15 wins and 3 losses, and Wawrinka had only 1 win in 7 matches in the clay match.
In this French Open final, Nadal also took every step forward. Even though Varinka has been trying to break his opponent with strong attacks, Nadal, who returned to the finals of Roland Garros, did not give him much chance.
first set game, Nadal took the lead in breaking the serve in the 6th game. He did not relax afterwards, and then broke the serve again and easily won a set 6-2. After resting in
, Nadal continued to pursue the victory, and Wawrinka's first serve was broken by love game. Under adversity, Wawrinka regained some sense of offense, but it was still difficult to cause fatal damage. After a less successful resistance, the Swiss lost another set 3-6.
is approaching the third set of victory, Nadal still didn't give his opponent a chance to breathe, and broke the opponent in the first serve game.
Nadal, who is famous for his bottom line stalemate, not only controls the situation in multiple shooting confrontations, but also succeeds in pressure through the Internet, which makes Wawrinka frequently make mistakes and makes it difficult to launch an effective counterattack. In the end, Nadal easily won the third set 6-1 and won the final championship of the French Open men's singles this year.
After the last point, Nadal threw away the racket, collapsed to the ground as usual, enjoying the joy of victory. He said, "This feeling is hard to describe in words. For me, the feeling on this field is unparalleled."
In the past two seasons, Nadal's condition has declined with his age and injuries. The last time he entered the French Open final was in 2014.
But even in his poor condition and in the most difficult time, Nadal did not stop winning the championship in the clay court.
In 2015, he won the clay event championships in Argentina and Hamburg. Last year, he started his pace to return to the top with the championships of two important clay events in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. After
won the Musketeer Cup again, Nadal's number of Grand Slam champions reached 15, surpassing the 14-win American legend Sampras , ranking second in history, and is still three championships away from Federer in front of him.
At the same time, Nadal's 10th French Open championship also created a new history of the number of individual Grand Slams since the Open era. In the French Open's historical championship rankings, Nadal's 10 titles are already more than the second place Borg (6 titles) and third place Lundell (3 titles).
Last week, Nadal just celebrated his 31st birthday. In the past two years, especially during his sluggish period, many people said that he was old.
But he proved with his actions that even though he grew older, he was still the standing Red Clay King.
This issue edited by Peng Weixuan
