Nadal and Ivanovic make history in Paris
 Rafael
Nadal confirmed he is king of clay at Roland Garros on Sunday
by lifting the trophy for a fourth time, emulating Bjorn Borg’s
record of winning four in a row at the French Grand Slam.
The previous day, 20-year-old Ana Ivanovic established her
position at the top of the women’s rankings by defeating
Grand Slam final debutante Dinara Safina 64 63 in the women’s
final to win her first major. The 2007 runner-up had become
the first Serbian woman to clinch the world No. 1 spot after
winning her semifinal contest over Jelena Jankovic, on a day
where both Serbs and Svetlana Kuznetsova were all bidding
to become world No. 1 for the first time in their careers.
For Nadal, it was another extraordinary victory which topped
two weeks of flawless tennis, during which he lost just 41
games in total. He swept past Roger Federer 61 63 60 in just
one hour 48 minutes to take the title, marking Federer’s
worst-ever loss at a Grand Slam and the fewest games conceded
in a Roland Garros final since 1977, and ending the Swiss’s
dream of completing the career Grand Slam for another year.
“I think I played an almost perfect match. Roger played
more mistakes than usual and I played more inside the court.
I improved a little bit since last year. I have more control
of the points, I am more aggressive than usual,” said
Nadal. Nadal joins Bjorn Borg as the only two players to win
four in a row at Roland Garros, and the Spaniard also became
the third player after Ilie Nastase and Borg to win the tournament
without conceding a set.
Ivanovic, playing in her third Grand Slam final, relied on
her experience to power through a gritty performance against
an equally unsettled Safina. “Winning a Grand Slam is
something I dreamt of since I was a little kid, so achieving
that goal is very thrilling,” she said, after being
presented with the Suzanne Lenglen Cup by four-time Roland
Garros champion Justine Henin.
“Obviously I was nervous. I wanted to make one step
more and win a title,” she added. The last two Slams
were a great learning experience for me so that kept some
pressure off me. There was a lot of emotions inside but till
the last point I tried not to think about the occasion and
just focus on my tennis. I was really happy I managed to do
that today.”
The doubles event also offered fairytale stories for its
champions, with Anabel Medina Garrigues tasting Grand Slam
success for the first time as she and 34-year-old Virginia
Ruano Pascual came from a set down to defeat Casey Dellacqua
and Francesca Schiavone 26 75 64 in the womens doubles final.
It was Ruano Pascual’s 40th career title and ninth Grand
Slam trophy in doubles.
Luis Horna, a member of the ITF Grand Slam Team in the 1990s,
and Pablo Cuevas became the first South American team to win
a Grand Slam doubles title. The unseeded pair, who were responsible
for ousting the Bryan brothers in the quarterfinals, defeated
doubles stalwarts and No. 2 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad
Zimonjic 62 63 in the final. Zimonjic was also on the losing
side in the mixed doubles, as he and Katarina Srebotnik lost
out to third seeds Bob Bryan and Victoria Azarenka 62 76.
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